It was on this day, March 11, 1945, that the last Emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty, His Majesty Bao Dai, announced the cancellation of all past treaties and agreements with the French Republican and proclaimed the independence of the Empire of Vietnam. This was made possible by the occupying forces of the Imperial Japanese Army and was the last, best hope for all of Indochina to have avoided the years of horror, war and atrocities that followed in the wake of World War II. This was not a mission that the Empire of Japan had planned for or sought. In September of 1940 the French government had granted Japan the right to occupy certain parts of French Indochina (what is today Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) which Japan wanted in order to cut off the supplies and war materials being sent through the area to support the armed forces of the Republic of China. After war broke out with the United States, Great Britain and the Netherlands, Japan occupied all of Vietnam as part of the wider Japanese military operations in Southeast Asia. However, it was all done in cooperation with the colonial authorities of France. The State of France and the Empire of Japan were not at war after all and the French population in Indochina was not interned or molested in any way. Life went on as before, though the Vietnamese were certainly impressed by the sight of the Japanese being in a position stronger than the French. Many hoped that independence would come from this but that was not an immediate goal. Japan was focused on fighting a war against almost insurmountable odds and did not want to be distracted by political issues.
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| Prince Cuong De |
However, there was opposition as well as support for Japan in Vietnam. The Nguyen dynasty prince, Marquis Cuong De, had been in exile in Japan for a long time promoting the cause of Vietnamese independence and he had the support of many groups, particularly in the Nguyen heartland of southern Vietnam. Foolishly, the United States was also sending support to the VietMinh to fight against the Japanese and rescue American pilots shot down over the area. This was foolish because the VietMinh was really a communist organization, led by a man later known as Ho Chi Minh. With the war situation deteriorating, on March 9, the Japanese forces took control of Vietnam from the French in a surprise move. Many expected the Japanese to install Prince Cuong De, their ally, as the new leader of Vietnam but Japan did not do this. Instead, they contacted the reigning monarch Emperor Bao Dai and gave him their support in declaring independence. Prince Cuong De himself said that he had no desire for power but only for the liberation of his country and was happy to see Emperor Bao Dai restored fully to power. He had wanted it all to have happened sooner, but Japan was anxious to avoid widening the war and did not want to add France to the list of enemies if it could be avoided. By 1945, the Empire of Japan had little more to lose and so finally ousted the French and backed independence for Vietnam. Emperor Bao Dai was not aware the coup had happened, only finding out when his car was stopped by Japanese troops as he returned home from a hunting trip. He had not been involved in the French overthrow.
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| Emperor Bao Dai |
At the formal declaration of independence, Emperor Bao Dai thanked Japan and pledged support for the Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. A new flag was raised and for the first time since the start of the Nguyen Dynasty reign, the name of "Viet-Nam" was restored to the country which was also reunified at last as it had previously been broken up into three regions (north, central and south). A new government was established as the Vietnamese began to reassert themselves in their own country. Vietnamese was made the official language in all schools, streets with French names were replaced with Vietnamese names and, after first favoring the nationalist mandarin Ngo Dinh Diem, the choice for Prime Minister fell to the scholarly historian Tran Trong Kim. The framework was planned out for a country that would be both modern and traditional, a constitutional monarchy that retained the classic elements of Vietnamese culture and values. The Japanese maintained military rule in the far south, in Cochinchine, which had been the French colony, but this was considered only a measure taken because of the on-going war. In the same way, many have been critical of Japan for exporting rice from Vietnam when a famine struck and many people were suffering. However, while it is of course unfortunate, many fail to appreciate that Japan was fighting a life-or-death struggle and people in Japan were starving as well because of the devastatingly effective Allied blockade.
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| Japanese surrender in Saigon |
However, the communist insurgents of the VietMinh were quick to use the famine to their advantage. They stole food from those who had it and redistributed it to the hungry masses, increasing their own popularity. As the war situation grew worse and worse for Japan, the VietMinh became more bold in their actions. Soon the Empire of Vietnam was unable to function and in the "August Revolution" of 1945 the VietMinh seized power and issued their own declaration of independence, proclaiming Vietnam a communist republic. The commander of the Japanese forces in the Imperial City of Hue offered his soldiers to Emperor Bao Dai, promising to defend the Forbidden City from the revolutionaries if he wished. However, Emperor Bao Dai refused the offer, saying that he could not use foreign troops to shed the blood of his own people. Despite the efforts of the Emperor, the Allied leaders would not recognize the Empire of Vietnam because of its association with Japan.
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| Golden Throne of Vietnam |
It is painfully unfortunate for everyone involved because the Empire of Vietnam was the last best hope for the Vietnamese to have avoided the decades of bloodshed and the communist dictatorships that remain to this day. If everyone had only rallied to support the Empire of Vietnam and remained faithfully loyal, there would have been no communist takeover, no French war and no civil war between north and south (the country was first divided by the Allies to accept the Japanese surrender -China in the north and Britain in the south). In fact, it was only because the British re-armed the Japanese troops who had surrendered that they were able to prevent the communists from taking over in the south as well (though sadly some Japanese did join the VietMinh simply out of racism to fight White people but these were a very small number). Vietnam could have avoided the division and bloodshed and the country today could be a free, prosperous constitutional monarchy in harmony with Vietnamese values and traditions if only everyone, the Allied nations included, has set aside their prejudices and embraced the Empire of Vietnam -the first Vietnamese to declare independence and the only one, by the authority of the legitimate emperor, to be completely valid and in accordance with ancient practice. It is a shame this was not done but Japan can be proud of having at least helped to provide the opportunity for legitimate traditional authority to flourish again in the "Land of the Soaring Dragon"
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