Cold Open

It’s 6:30 AM, on January 17th, 1941, in the Gulf of Thailand.

As the first rays of dawn illuminate the sea around the Royal Thai Navy warship Thonburi, a lieutenant lifts a pair of binoculars to identify another vessel in the distance. The lieutenant, second-in-command on the Thonburi, calls out a warning to the captain. The ship in the distance is an enemy French cruiser.

The two countries are battling over territory in the French colonies of Laos and Cambodia, the latest conflict in a global war that is spreading to Asia. Seven months ago, on the other side of the world, France surrendered to Germany as World War Two ravaged Europe. Aware that France was left weakened by this defeat, the Prime Minister of Thailand took advantage and launched an invasion of Laos and Cambodia, sparking a bitter fight.

Today, the French navy is leading a counterattack against the Thais, and they’ve just spotted the Thonburi trying to evade them.

The lieutenant spots a flash from the French cruiser’s gun. But before he can alert the captain… an explosion rocks the hull.

As the lieutenant struggles to keep his balance… an alarm begins to sound across the ship. Sailors rush to battle stations, but the lieutenant keeps his eyes on the cruiser and sees yet another flash.

He braces himself… but one more direct hit knocks him off his feet. Stunned by the impact, the lieutenant slowly pushes himself to his feet, and as his head clears, he catches sight of two crewmen tending to a wounded comrade. The lieutenant staggers toward them and sees the injured man is the captain, unconscious and bleeding. As the panicked faces of the bridge crew turn to him, the lieutenant realizes that now he has command of the stricken vessel—and he is responsible for saving the lives of the more than one hundred sailors on board.

The Thai Navy warship Thonburi will escape the Battle of Ko Chang, as the skirmish will come to be known when its second-in-command deliberately grounds the ship in shallow water before it sinks—but more than twenty of its crew will not survive the encounter, including the ship’s captain.

But the sea Battle of Ko Chang will signal the end of fighting in the Franco–Thai War because less than two weeks later, another Asian country will enter the conflict. Japan will mediate an armistice between the two warring parties—but the Japanese only want peace between Thailand and France because they also have eyes on the region, and their aggression will ultimately force Thailand to resume its conflict with the Western world and declare war on Britain and the US on January 25th, 1942.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is January 25th, 1942: Thailand Joins World War Two.

Act One

It’s 3 AM, on December 8th, 1941, at Prachuap Khiri Khan airbase in Thailand; eleven months after the Franco–Thai War came to an end.

Wing Commander Prawat Chumsai startles awake as an orderly roughly shakes his shoulder. Wing Commander Prawat glares at the orderly, but his anger is forgotten when the orderly explains the reason for the rude awakening: the airbase is under attack by Japanese troops.

Since the end of the Franco-Thai War, Thailand has been encircled by two nations embroiled in World War Two. To the east, Japan has taken control of Laos and Cambodia. To the west and south, the British colonies of Malaya and Burma have quickly militarized in anticipation of a Japanese invasion. Thailand sits between them. And though the Thai government has tried to take a neutral stance between Japan and Britain, the tension has been escalating in Southeast Asia for the last several weeks. And today—less than four hours after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor—World War Two has been brought to Thai shores, too.

Wing Commander Prawat declares that all personnel must defend the base. Soldiers scurry to eight machine guns around the airbase perimeter. Bursts of gunfire keep the Japanese at bay, but the invaders still manage to surround the airbase and cut it off from the nearby town. Later in the morning at first light, five Thai pilots try to take off to bomb and strafe the Japanese positions, but four of the planes are shot down before they can engage the enemy. The fifth pilot reports that Japanese troopships are unloading even more soldiers and equipment in the harbor.

The Japanese appear to have strength in numbers. Several attacks breach the Thai airbase fence and force the defenders back. By mid-morning, Wing Commander Prawat orders his men to abandon their planes in the hangars and retreat to a better defensive position. His soldiers set fire to the airfield’s control tower and sabotage the runway to stop the Japanese landing their own planes. Running low on ammunition, Thai soldiers fire blanks to try to fool the Japanese. The ploy seems to work and the Japanese attacks abate over the course of the day, but Wing Commander Prawat knows he can’t hold out for much longer.

The next morning, he is handed a telegram. And it’s not good news. Wing Commander Prawat had hoped that reinforcements were on the way to break the Japanese siege, but instead, he finds new orders telling him to stand down because the Thai government has agreed to a ceasefire.

Wing Commander Prawat suspects the telegram is a trick. He ignores his new orders and demands that the airbase is defended until the last man. The two sides exchange gunfire until midday when a car flying a white flag drives through the lines. A regional official hands Wing Commander Prawat another telegram. This one comes from the prime minister himself, and it repeats the order to stop fighting. Since Wing Commander Prawat knows and trusts the official bearing the message, he agrees to the ceasefire.

The end of the fighting at Prachuap Khiri Khan also marks the end of the brief Japanese invasion of Thailand. Although the Thai Army put up a strong resistance, Plaek Phibunsongkhram—known as Phibun— believes that working with the Japanese is the best way to ensure Thailand’s survival. So, Prime Minister Phibun offers to lay down arms if the Japanese stopped attacking Thai targets.

But the Japanese attach their own conditions to the ceasefire. During the peace negotiations with Prime Minister Phibun, the Japanese insist that their armed forces will have free use of Thai airfields, railways, ports, and roads. And within hours of the ceasefire being declared, Japanese squadrons relocate to these military resources and begin the next stage in their conquest of Southeast Asia: bombing British positions in nearby Malaya.

Over the next few days, Prime Minister Phibun will sign a formal alliance with Japan. Thai forces will fight against British soldiers in Southern Thailand who try to push back the Japanese. But Prime Minister Phibun will remain cautious about committing his armed forces in the wider war outside Thailand, knowing that public opinion favors staying neutral in World War Two. Only when the war reaches Thailand’s capital city will its government finally and officially join the world war that’s been closing in on Thailand for months.

Act Two

It’s January 7th, 1942, at Government House in Bangkok, Thailand; one month after the Japanese invasion.

Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram sits at a desk scribbling notes on official documents. For the last several weeks, he’s received a constant flow of instructions and demands from the Japanese generals based in Thailand. But today, Prime Minister Phibun’s work is interrupted by the wail of an air raid siren.

Since Prime Minister Phibun signed an alliance with the Japanese, Thai soil has been used as a base from which Japanese forces have attacked the British colonies of Burma and Malaya. Japanese generals quickly made it clear that they were in charge demanding that Prime Minister Phibun use Thai troops to secure the border and prevent British incursions that threatened Japanese supply lines. Now, the British are reaching further into Thailand and attacking the capital city.

Prime Minister Phibun stands as an aide rushes through the door and begins clearing the desk of government papers. Phibun is escorted to an air raid shelter and, as soon as he’s safely in place, he takes a briefcase from his aide and resumes work.

When the air raid is over and the dust settles, Prime Minister Phibun emerges from the shelter and asks for a summary of the damage. He learns that British bombs have destroyed several buildings and there are casualties. But despite the destruction, Prime Minister Phibun senses that there may be a silver lining to the bombing raid.

Since World War Two broke out, Thai civilians have resisted becoming involved in fighting between Britain and Japan. But the bombing of the capital city, Bangkok, signals a shift in attitudes. Being attacked from the air turns public opinion against the British and in favor of Prime Minister Phibun’s alliance with Japan.

And only seventeen days later, a second wave of British bombers target Bangkok. Again, the terrified residents of the city rush to bomb shelters, and the British suffer another blow to their popularity in Thailand. The following day, on January 25th, 1942, Prime Minister Phibun makes a public announcement. To support their Japanese ally, Thailand is declaring war on Japan’s two opponents in the Pacific: Britain and the United States.

This declaration of war though, is only officially received in one of those countries. Britain responds the same day with its own declaration of war, formalizing their conflict. But America does not.

Seni Pramoj, the Thai ambassador to the United States, is fiercely opposed to Prime Minister Phibun’s alliance with Japan, and Ambassador Seni refuses to deliver the message to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC.

This action drives Prime Minister Phibun to strip Seni of his diplomatic credentials, but the United States continues to recognize him as the country’s official representative. President Roosevelt simply ignores Prime Minister Phibun’s communications, claiming that Thailand is under military occupation and has no authority to declare war.

But despite the misgivings of Ambassador Seni, most Thai people support the declarations of war, and Prime Minister Phibun’s popularity soars as the Japanese and Thai armies advance together.

Using Thailand as a launching point, the Japanese finish their conquest of Malaya within three weeks of Thailand declaring war. And although the subjugation of Burma takes longer, it is also completed after a Thai army joins the Japanese invasion force. Japanese puppet regimes are installed in both Malaya and Burma, and their Thai allies are rewarded with new territory taken away from the border regions of those colonies, Laos and Cambodia.

But then things start to go wrong for Prime Minister Phibun. The Japanese advance grinds to a halt at the Indian and Chinese borders. Since Thailand is at war with most of its neighbors, trade dramatically decreases and there’s soon a shortage of European-produced consumer goods in the country too. The suffering worsens after floods strike much of Thailand in the summer of 1942, wiping out the entire harvest of many rice farms and causing mass starvation.

Then Prime Minister Phibun’s popularity will sink to an even new low when the Thai people discover his upcoming intentions. Rather than deal with the severe economic problems his nation is facing, Phibun will announce grandiose and unrealistic spending plans, causing an uproar that will challenge Phibun’s power and dramatically alter the course of Thailand’s war.

Act Three

It’s August 1st, 1944, at the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall in Bangkok, two and a half years after Thailand joined World War Two by declaring war on Britain and the United States.

Khuang Abhaiwongse rises from his seat and begins to address the Thai National Assembly, thanking them for appointing him to his new job.

For the past few years, Khuang has been Minister of Commerce and Communications, but today, he’s been unexpectedly promoted to Prime Minister after the sudden resignation of Plaek Phibunsongkhram.

Over the past two years, Phibun’s pro-Japanese ties eroded his popularity, and an anti-Japanese opposition known as the Free Thai Movement gained strength. A few weeks ago, Phibun tried to counter his political opponents by unveiling a grand plan to relocate the Thai capital from Bangkok to an as-yet unbuilt, modern city. The proposal would have been expensive at the best of times, but it was completely unrealistic in the middle of an economic crisis and world war. So, instead of waving through the prime minister’s policies as they normally did, politicians in the National Assembly stood up to Phibun and demanded his resignation. Earlier today, they appointed the moderate Minister Khuang as his replacement.

Khuang’s first speech as prime minister sets the tone for the new government. He attempts to hold the middle ground, refusing to criticize both the pro-Japanese Phibun loyalists and the anti-Japanese Free Thai Movement. In public, Prime Minister Khuang assures Japan that their alliance will continue. But in practice, Thailand provides little military support as the Japanese are pushed back in the Pacific by American armed forces. Khuang also turns a blind eye to the Free Thai guerilla campaign that fights against Japanese forces stationed in Thailand.

And thanks to the Free Thai Movement’s resistance to the Japanese occupation, the new Thai government will be treated leniently by the victorious Allies when World War Two finally comes to an end. Although there will be coups and political setbacks on the way, Thailand will modernize—and the first steps of the process will be led by a familiar figure.

Former Prime Minister Phibun will be accused of collaboration and go on trial, but he will be acquitted, and subsequently reappointed as prime minister in 1948. Phibun will even then side with the United States in the Cold War, a remarkable turnaround for the same leader who pushed Thailand into declaring war against Britain and the United States in support of its Japanese allies on January 25th, 1942.

Outro

Next on History Daily. January 26th, 1808. British Officer William Bligh is deposed as Governor of New South Wales, Australia in the so-called Rum Rebellion.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Edited by Dorian Merina.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are Will Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.