It gets even more complicated. When Philbul Songkram signed a treaty with Japan one of the agreements was that Thailand would declare war on The United States. The declaration was sent, but was never delivered. Instead Pridi Bhanomyong was recognised as government in exile and headed The Seri-Thai freedom fighters with American support. The two men were key to the revolution and The People's Party which drafted the original constitution, but their ideologies diverged more and more forming a huge schism within the new government.
@@WaterShowsProd Pridi was a great idealist and thus made a massive "realpolitic" error in 1945. At the end of the war, the Allies wanted to try Pleak Phibulsongkram alongside other notable axis leaders. Pridi fought tooth and nail to prevent him from being carted off to a foreign court as he felt that this would be an impingement on Thai Sovereignty and insisted that the trial be conducted in a Thai court with Thai prosecutors, judges etc. Pridi succeeded and the court under political pressure acquitted Pleak. In "gratitude" Pleak spent a couple of years hanging out at a Thai military base....where he busied himself plotting a military coup which was launched in November 1947 (Pridi ended up in permanent exile until his death). This set a pattern for Thailand to this day, long periods of military dictatorship with a few brief periods of democratic rule that get promptly ousted by another military coup. If Pridi had just allowed Pleak to be carted off to some foreign prison, the history of modern Thailand may have been very different.
@@sbam4881 Funny you mentioned the pattern of politics because I'd written originally that a schism arose between them that set the pattern for Thai politics to this day, but then I edited that sentence out. I never knew about Pridi's involvement in saving Plaek from international court. I knew that his involvement with Seri-Thai was key to Thailand avoiding being treated as a full-on Axis Nation after the war. I knew of course about him being chased off by Plaek and spending the rest of his life in exile.
@@WaterShowsProd the people's party had never actually been united ever since they successfully overthrown absolute monarchy, and these two were not even friendly with each other long before that Phibun was actually the one who incited Phraya Mano (the first Prime minister) to suspend the parliament and force Pridi into exile in 1933, then helped Phraya Phahon conduct the first constitutional-era coup. He also purged two of the original "Four Musketeers" (Phraya Song and Phraya Ritthi) of the revolution after he became the premier
I’m glad someone finally touched on this. My grandmothers (from Cambodia) father was a battalion commander in the Thai Army during this conflict. Because of this, and other reasons - her family found themselves subject to Pol Pot’s massive genocide in Cambodia. Anyways love your videos!
Very interesting. I really enjoy hearing about the lesser known conflicts of WW2 which show that there was war almost everywhere across the globe in this period.
Aye but still France because they specify Metropolitan as European France and Algeria. They didn't have an emperor at the time so calling it an empire wouldn't be right either.
That's using two different levels. They invaded France, but not France. "France" is a general term that applied *both* to Metropolitan France, and also to the larger entity of the French Empire which encompassed both colonial and metropolitan assets. Thailand didn't invade Metropolitan France, but it did invade France, because the term "France" is used at multiple levels, both politically and geographically. I guess a more recent example would be when Argentina invaded Britain. It invaded British lands, and this was war against Britain, but it wasn't war in Britain. That is, Argentina invaded the British "Empire". It invaded a British overseas territory, this was war against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but it wasn't war in Great Britain. In the same way, Thailand invaded France (the political entity and the wider geographical grouping) without actually going to France (its Metropolitan areas). Edit: my phone autocorrected "Britn" to "Brain", so had to fix it.
@@wulfherecyning1282 France has always referred to France, the european territory. Never to extra european land. The land subjected to French rule were called colonies. As a Frenchman, who loves history, and has visited many of our former colonies, i have never heard French Indochina or Madagascar or Québec being called France. They were either called by their own names or labelled "Colonies of France" or "parts of the French Empire"
16th January battle was known as the Battle of Phumi Preav where the 5th REI (foreign legion) was ambushed by entrenched Thai 3rd Infantry Battalion at Phumi Preav, Cambodia. That was a great success for the Thai on land and they eager to push further deep into Cambodia but the failure at the naval battle of Kho Chang disrupted their plan and led to the ceasefire negotiation on 28th of January 1941 ps. very nice video
Ko Chang ended by a status failure by the thai but s strategy victory for us when the french got pushed back which by mean Their goal was to disrupt all thai army also two of their battle ships got critical damaged
As of the funeral bookmark(1988) of Major Nim Jayodom, the 2nd Battalion Commander. On 16th of January 1941, at Ban Praow district. Major Nim and his troops from 2nd Battalion of the 1st Regiment attacked French Indochina Army from 3rd Battalion of 5th Regiment and beated French army killing 400 soldiers included their 3rd Battalion Commander. Thai troop also seized French Army Victorious Flag with Croix de Geurre emblem and seized some French troops as a prisoner of war.
My father's older brother (from Cambodia) was born 1 year after this conflict. He was thought to have been French in his previous life because a deceased French soldier had appeared in my grandmother's dream. My grandmother's village was not so far from Phum Preav. I guess the French army suffered so many casualties.
A bit of background: Laos, once known as "Lan Chang" (roughly land of "Plentiful Elephants") and its successor states (like Champasak) had previously been a part of/under Siamese Suzerainty for centuries and shares a kindred culture (dialect, food etc.) to the Isan region of modern Thailand. Cambodia was distinct but a large chunk of it had also fallen under Siamese rule/vassalage after the fall of the Khmers and the Siamese sacking of Angkor Wat. These areas fell to French rule during the height of the colonial period in a series of unequal treaties. (Similar to what China was feeling at the same time, except that for Siam the ire was reserved solely for the French as their dealings with other powers such as the English and the Portuguese had largely been amicable and based around mutually beneficial trade.) From the Thai perspective, this war was a legitimate "Reconquista" against a foreign colonialist.
@São João do mundo You're kinda saying what I am saying, so i guess your contention is mainly about vassal vs direct rule. Suzerainty does NOT mean direct rule or annexed. However, it does mean more than vassal - which in the western context generally means paying some homage and tribute - and the relationship was not just that. More like a tributary state/protectorate, hence Suzerainty.
The Lao Kingdoms prior to 1893 were not part of Siam. These kingdoms paid tribute to the the Siamese court at the same time is was paying tribute the the Vietnamese court in Hue. These were feudal kingdoms and not nation state. BTW, Lan Chang(Thai) or Lan Xang(Lao) means "Kingdom of a Million Elephants".
@@sbam4881 Ayutthaya, Thaksin and the Chankri Dynasty paid tribute to imperial Chinese Court, so what your saying is Siam was a Chinese vassal state They we’re Burmese vassals also
@@tingtingnoy3133 Yes, starting with the Ming dynasty, the Thai states were considered tributaries (so technically vassals but still largely independent) of China, as were many of the countries close to China like Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc.
The outcome of this war Thailand has taken the land back from France, namely Battambang, Siem Reap, Champasak and Lan Xang. It accounts for half of the area of Laos and Cambodia today.After the war with France The Thai soldiers raise their troops to the north. They attacked Burma, Shan State and captured Kengtung. To the southern border of China.
Very good video! Even though I am a lifelong student of history, I had never heard of this subject. Very well done! Please keep the outstanding videos coming and God bless you, my friend!
Thank you so much Even Thai people don't know about this conflict this much cuz there is a little or none of this knowledge in Thai History book for school.
You wrong, It's Quite often show in Thai media also history book in school. Japan and Thailand good cooperated before WW2, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry sold 200 airplane to Thailand before the war begin, and some from England and USA supply engine for Airplane to Thailand for local production too.
@@doordek2458 According to my experience in public school from 2003-2014, there was little detail about this conflict in the history books in school. I still have those books nowadays. In addition, there was only a couple of paragraph while the context mainly focused on Kings, border conflicts, and anti-colonialism. However, "Japan and Thailand good cooperated before WW2", was on the book but further than that in your comment were barely visible for students. PS. I didn't talk about shows in Thai media so it is out of the topic.
@@doordek2458 I've been in public school for pretty much the entirety of my student years, aside from a slight mention of the topic, they weren't anywhere in school textbooks nor did any teacher bring any of it up - let alone TV medias. Unless you are talking about history books, then while that might be true please keep in mind that to access them you have to go out of your way to look them up yourself, they weren't being taught. If you're speaking from experience, then things might have changed already and unless you can back up your statement I'll consider it invalid. Also I fail to see how the airplanes are any relevant to this part of history being taught in classes or not.
Mention of Thailand history during the late 1800s and early 1900s century is quite controversial because it is an era of transition from total monarchy to a democratic goverment. Sensitive subject involve monarchy is a huge no-no here so that part of history is often glossed
"They felt very threatened by the Japanese, but the Japanese themselves would put an end to this as they would actually invade Japan." You really should look over these recordings before you upload them.
That's a very good point though sometimes hearing things over again when editing makes you hear what you think you said rather than what you actually said. Thanks for watching!
@@historywithhilbert146 I suppose you have things proofread by at least 1, and ideally a small group of loyal fans/subscribers/friends? You shouldn't just post stuff to the internets without triple checking honestly!. I'm a new listener/viewer but did expect a bit higher level of self-verification :D
@@samrevlej9331 as a Thai, yes... we didn’t really wanted to “liberate” those countries, because our government gave them to the French in the first place...we didn’t even try to protect them... all we wanted is revenge, annex, and put a “free-French area sign” on. I mean, just a normal Asian country... nobody in south East Asia like white people at the time P.s. Laos, Khmer people didn’t like us as much as you think, they love French even more... in our military propaganda song at the time called Indo-Chinese people as “Thai by blood”
@@fanwtn5124 as a Khmer, i confirm your last paragraph lol, some still speak French and all, some of Cambodian’s Royal family still go to french schools
Fun fact, for most likely propaganda reasons, the Thai government at the time, under Field Marshal Phibun, regarded the forced peace settlement as a "victory" since the Thai nation was able to "regain lost territories" from the French. And as such, the government built a monument to commemorate the "victory" which is the currently standing "Victory Monument" or the "Victory [over] Battlefield Monument" in Thai: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Monument_(Bangkok). The irony is that after WW2, the Allies "asked" the Thai government to return some of the territories gained during the war, which the Thai government complied because we did not want to be considered part of the losing Axis powers by the US and UK. So, the only notable thing from the "war" is the Victory Monument. Source: I'm Thai.
And that concession of territory after WWII came close causing a military conflict with Cambodia just recently, under Prime Minister Abhisit, over the disputed territory of Preah Vihear (Phra Wihar). The International Court decided in favour of Cambodia, but this issue is still unsettled in many people's minds. The land itself did belong to Siam and the French merely claimed it for their own when taking over administration in Cambodia. The irony is that The French arrival was prompted by the vassal ruler of Cambodia who was under joint control of Siam and Vietnam, following Rama III's defeat of Cambodia and unsuccessful invasion of Vietnam. This battle, as well as the conquering of Vientiane and quelling of The Lao Revolt was aided by the recent purchase of British weapons that were surplus from The Napoleonic War. Had French Indochina never come to into being Siam would probably have been Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia united as one nation today (perhaps with The Shan State and parts of modern-day Malaysia as well, as The British parcelled off areas of Siam in order to balance what The French took). A bigger issue is that The French demanded a ransom for which The Thung Daeng (Red Bag) Money was used. This was a personal fortune King Rama III amassed before he was King (in fact he was not in line to be king, but that's another story) through trade with China. He left this money to Siam to use in case of emergency, which came during the reign of his grandchild, King Chulalongkorn The Great.
@@WaterShowsProd Thanks for the info. I learned some of the history described here, but never to this detail. On the side note, I actually shuddered at the thought of "unified Siam" (with Laos and Cambodia). We already have a lot of sectarian issues, I can't imagine what would happen if we incorporate Laos and Cambodia into the state. I can see Laos being part of "Siam" since our culture and languages are so similar (Issan region for instance), but adding Cambodia into the mix seems like a recipe for disaster imo.
@@PeterP_ I've often wondered how it would have worked out. Of course if you change history the outcome can be entirely unpredictable. I think Cambodians would have been regarded the same as Khmer Isaan are, though perhaps less overlooked as there would have been more. I was working on a festival for The Ministry of Culture at The National Theatre a few years ago and we had a troupe of perfomers from Maha Sarakham. When they started playing the khaen onstage someone backstage began dancing with tremendous joy saying he couldn't believe he was hearing Isaan music in The National Theatre. I realised at that point how far things have progressed; it wasn't that long ago that Todd Tongdee was given flak for presenting hill-tribe musicians on TV, whereas this year around Sanam Luang on Father's Day there were displays of royal support projects in Hmong and Karen villages, and there has been more and more representation of ethnic minority groups. Of course, there is still further to go. It is likely that the joint control over Cambodia between Siam and Vietnam would have led to renewed conflict, but it's impossible to guess how that might have turned out. Perhaps Cambodia would have ended up being divided between the two. Speculative history can go in so many directions.
Fact: Thailand had the 2nd largest navy in Asia in WW2. They even had 4 submarines. The number one is of course, the Mongolian navy. But seriously, the size of RTN in WW2 outweighs even the whole WW2 Chinese navy and sometimes colonial forces.
5:30 a photo of the young King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII) and his younger brother the future King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great (Rama IX) visiting The Sealandia on 13 January, 1938
Nice video, since your so much into correct pronunciation when it comes to the old English and Dutch...3:19 'Ph' in Thai is pronounced 'P' in English not 'F', also 'P' in Thai is not pronounced 'P' in English but rather an unexasperated 'P/B' sound, 'KH' in Thai is pronounced 'K' in English, while 'K' in Thai is not pronounced'K' in English but an unexasperated K/G' sound and finally 'A' in Thai is pronounced 'AR' in English and 'O' in English is pronounced 'OR' and 'U' is pronounced 'OO'. Which makes Plaek Phibunsonkhram a bugger to say.
For every conflict Ended up with a negotiation Like the civilized people . Which Thailand used it before, during and after the conflict, By trying to avoid every conflict that is expected Like the civilized people . But; If this cannot be avoided, Thai people are never afraid to sacrifice their lives for national independence. However, the country name "Thai" means independent as well.
Love him or hate him, we can have an agreement that Field Marshal Phibunsongkhram was much more competent than many useless generals that came after him.
11:23 "So the French ended up ceding several provinces to Thailand which some of which still remain with them till this day" Didn't France threaten to veto Thailand from entering UN unless they give all the land back? Did i remember it wrong? Anyone?
Brilliant video! I lived in Cambodia and studied the history of South East Asia there and I never heard of this conflict.....the part about Thailand's transition to constitutional monarchy, and the rise of Plaek Phibunsongkhram as Thai dictator was of interest as I always found Thailand very nationalist though enjoyable once due respect was given to the culture there. There's no love lost between the Thais and the Khmers to this day; an area of southern Thailand was previously Khmer territory(the area where Angkor Wat is located in Cambodia is called Siem Reap, which literally translates to 'Fuck Thailand'), and much of Thai culture is heavily borrowed from the ancient Khmer Kingdom's customs of dance and dress. In Cambodia and Laos I often found a confusing reverence among natives for the French and the culture they left there, despite the cruel tactics used by the French during occupation. There's great potential for episodes on South East Asia's fascinating history........
@@schoolssection The temples were definitely built under Hinduism, and the Buddhists were certainly glad to claim it as their own. Hard to know exactly when the changeover occurred, probably the same time Hinduism gave way to Islam in Indonesia. It seemed to me that underneath the thin veneer of Buddhism there was really animism, it was the same in Bali where it was really spirit worship even though the people claimed to be Hindu......
At the beginning of wwii Thailand declared its neutrality, but then Japan invaded Thailand. To avoid destruction and casualties, the Thai government of that time decided to ally with Japan, allowing the Japanese military to travel through Thailand to fight in British Malaya and Burma while at the same time Thailand was hoping to take back Laos and Cambodia which were Thailand's colonies for over a hundred years prior to the arrival of the British and the French.
You forgot to mention that Thailand won the wars by france agreed to gives some of the lands back that they had taken in franco-siamese wars which are laos and cambodia and if you check the map thats already alots as far from what we pushed into french-indochina territory and its a fact that the japanese dumped manchukuo and turn to Thailand as they see that Thailand is actually useful as they see it in capable of defeating the french on our own and they also knows well about the lost lands we lost to colonial powers like britain and france they gave us northern malaya back and then Royal Thai Army continue to fight alongside the japanese in burma against british and chinese forces after victory Thailand were given shan state of burma but in late war IJA begin to start losing british force launched an offensive with light infantry on shan state to retake it but failed in the first attempt to the police force that were armed with rifles then after the wars is ended its big trouble for thailand because japan already lost the war but luckily that US saw that we were never enemies(because of free-thai movement) to the ally so they tried to negotiate for us and suggested that we should give the land we took control back to the hand of the colonial powers
@SobaYatai You maybe think more confident by claiming you won the war but factually…. Thailand was saved by Japan and attacked France while she was invaded by Germany… It’s really pathetic to brag about ..
My father's older brother (from Cambodia) was born 1 year after this conflict. He was thought to have been French in his previous life because a deceased French soldier had appeared in my grandmother's dream. My grandmother's village was in the area where many French soldiers fell.
Before invasion from England and France in South East Asia, Siam territory was double the current size but later axed by both countries. Thailand was not colonized but lost half of its territory. I am not sure if it should be proud or not.
Thank you for this story. WWII has so many complicated angles: Finland vs. The Soviet Union, the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies, Iceland being occupied by the British, St. Pierre et Miquelon just off Newfoundland, and Thailand and all of South east Asia! I knew of the hostilities, but not much of what actually happened. How the British occupied French Indochina just after the war ended, and the fact that Ho Chi Minh was closely associated with the OSS and the American Army!
The Royal Thai Air force of that time consist of - Thai built Vought V93 Corsair biplane ~ 100+ - US built Hawk II biplane ~ 10 - Hawk III fighter ~ 60 the more modern aircraft are - Ki-30 light bomber ~ 25 - Hawk 75N ~ 12 - Martin B10 Light bomber ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QmX6hY9q_ws.html they were around 8 air battle in the conflict mostly the Thai win but the more modern French fighter MS 406 put the RTAF into trouble many times
Well, in the dutch east indies, the japanese dismantled the european administration, and gave some level of autonomy to the local indonesian nationalists, and even authorised them to force militias. This would have a great impact on the indonesian independence war that came shortly after
@@oihanlarranegi472 I was talking more about the Germans occupation of the Netherlands and in theory at least the Japanese were attacking German territory.
@@oihanlarranegi472 while living in Bali I learned that the Balinese hated the Dutch (I know, I looked like one) and hailed the Japanese as liberators.
@@koantao8321 indeed, the dutch were pretty hated, and the japanese were well received. At least until they began to show their true colours, and then resistance movements began to form, and the japanese disbanded the local governments, if I'm not incorrect.
Fun facts: Marshall Phibun actually graduated from French military college and lots of his modernization and nationalist policies came form what he learnt from France.
Thailand played kinda big role in sea during ww2. It’s sad how strategic game like hoi4 completely ignores the existence of Thailand even when they released dlc about Asia like Waking the Tiger
I had read that Thailand declared war on the United States, and I assumed it was because Thailand was a ally of Japan. But have not been able to find out much about it. There was at least one B-29 raid into Thailand, I believe, nearer the end of the war.
My grandmother was in Bangkok during that raids. She used to say that she and her sister were running like maniacs when the bomb started dropping. And I think you can find some b 29 that got shot down by RTA in the forest in the northern Thailand.
The Thai decleration of war with USA was sent to Washington Thai ambassador in USA, he never delivered the letter, so the USA never knew that Thailand was at war with USA.
The Thai's leader graduated from France. He made Siamese Revolution and changed the contry name to Thailand. Thai national flag look like France national flag.
Thailand was one of the few Asian countries to escape European imperialism; however, its close relations with the West resulted in its becoming one of the Allies in World War I. To honour the relationship, King Rama VI (King Vajiravudh) altered the national flag to a more “modern” design. On 21 November 1916, the white elephant was replaced by two horizontal white stripes against a red background, and on 28 September 1917, the central red stripe was changed to blue. This gave Thailand a flag with the “colours of liberty” used by its allies Britain, France, Russia, and the United States. The Royal Thai Navy adopted the same flag but added a red central disk with a white elephant, a design still in use today. "Red " is seen as a symbol of the blood Thai people have shed for their country, "White" is for religious laws and the purity of Buddhism. "์Navy Blue" stands for the institution of royalty that guides the nation. //// However, Thailand use the present flag since 1917 during WW1 and King Vajiravudh graduated from the Royal Military College (Sandhurst) and the Oxford , London in 1899.
The 3 southern region is affected by muslim insurgence who just want land for themself who try to use old history in infliited hate.. Thai Muslim in southern region ( similar culture to Malaysian ) are actually very loyal to Kingdom.. aside from the border area where local politician and some nearby Malaysian influence is high as for original question, Thailand is bring forced to return land we get back during ww2 I'm not sure if we return all tho
thailand attacked the European french country? or a french colony? if so than thailand never attacked french they attacked few thugs who came to asia to loot resources
@@samrevlej9331 True :d It is just always fascinating to me how a former European hegemon (ie. Napoleonic era) just got hit hard by so many thing one after the another (2 revolution, won the first war but rekt the economy, ect). And finally in the end people kinda just forget about old french and all the memes are born. PS. im not an American
@@TheJommy34 to be fair, it's French Indochina not the mainland France so the French didn't had many military presence in the Indochina and most of the French troops in Indochina were use to suppressed the native not fighting a real war.
@@samrevlej9331 damn that is cool! I always know about the prussia and ww1 french situation but never so much about what happen after/Pétain stuff. I always find european history fascinating lol. Im thai (was kinda half making fun of my own country/ french lol)
@@bodyzalone True, this reminded me of when spain/other European country colonisation of america. Im sure they arent planning on going to war either but they did won a fight with one of the world biggest empire at the time, well albeit that empire is a little low on innovation and the plague stuff too.
Technically, while Vichy France chose to collaborate with Germany, they were officially neutral. The few thousand French that joined the German military to fight the Soviets did so through the SS or volunteered for the LVF. Vichy French troops never fought side by side with German troops in WW2..
When you didnt gave a piece of you land and little Bread Boi decided to bomb your home. Yes, Thai did win France by damaging French Light Cruiser with 3 Gunboats and one of them carry the same gun in most common Heavy Cruisers.... Now I wouldn’t be surprised that France lose to Germany so easily
i'm Thai, around Thailand is Great Britain and France 🏴 = Burma Malaysia 🇫🇷 = Vietnam Lao Cambodia 🇹🇭 have a great friend=Russian in over100 years ago Thai have airforce and maker in home over 200 before WW2 thai have 4 submarine (made In Japan) Thailand seriously is the best way Thai wants to have freedom is the Name Thai Thai = freedom man, not slave This is the real story
Its kind of unfortunate that thailand didn't try to hold on to those gains after ww2. I beleive they could have gotten away with it, as France and America would have focused on the vietnam war.
Hate to be that guy but it's pronounced "Lao". The 's' is silent because the translation came to English from French. Also, Thailand has Malays as an ethnic minority, not Malaysians. Malaysian is an national identity that only came into being in the 60s which includes Chinese and Indians living in Malaysia in addition to the ethnic Malays. Malays themselves are also usually represented by the Malays tricolour instead of the Malaysian flag. Good video though still enjoyed it.
Nope. Go to Google translate and type it into detect, the English audio is "louse". Go to Wikipedia, it is "louse". Merriam-Webster? Louse. Cambridge? For UK it says "Lay-oss" and for US "louse". Every English speaker I have ever heard say the word (which I'll admit is not many) no matter where they're from in the Commonwealth or the US has said it "Louse" or "Lay-oss", and both have the "s".
I don't think that the Japanese were fighting on any Pacific islands in January 1941. I would be interested to know what parts of French Indochina Thailand kept. But, and good subject, thanks!
Franco Siamese War, it's before WW2, Japanese given the parts of European colony to Thailand All, such as Laos, Cambodia, Northern Malaysia, and Northern Myanmar, also target to Northern Vietnam too. After the war ,Thailand have to give all back to UN.
Brilliant Video and After WW2 the Thais aligned themselves to America and Sent Thai troops to Korea and later Vietnam,but fair play to the Japanese their investment in Modern Thailand has massively increased their economy and created thousands of jobs here since the 1960s Aand during the American War in Vietnam America reequipped the Thai Forces and trained them in communist counter-insurgency, Keep up the Good Worl Hilbert fascinating stuff.
Funny when the french came across the ocean and claim our land to be theirs. The so called french indochina used to be part of our land. i didnt mean that we didnt took other land to be ours. But all land taken were like england and scotland based on the language people speak. The french on the other hand took it by forces.
Japan asked Thailand if they could walk through their country to invade Burma. The Thais said no, so Japan declared war on Thailand. There was a 6 hour Artillery battle and the Thais gave up because they were afraid Japan would ravage the country as they did with others. So Thailand allowed Japan to walk through their country so they can invade Burma. The Thais hated the Burmese anyway so it was no skin off their nose.
It's just drama to the world. Japanese troops approved Mitsubishi to sold 200 airplane to Thailand without payment until now, you know. How do they eat in Asia Pacific war, even they will invade Myanmar and India. Can Tokyo supply good food every day.
Thai construction workers in Bangkok digging foundations found a big American bomb, they where so happy , to sell for scrap metal , so they got acetaline torch to cut it up , BOOM it blew up a massive crater and killed the workers. This was about 2003.
