Free Fall: How Imperial Collapse in both 1942 and 1945 set Southeast Asia Adrift

In view of the latest social distancing measures announced by the Government, the talk will now be conducted online. The talk's link will be sent to registered participants via email.

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Free Fall: How Imperial Collapse in both 1942 and 1945 set Southeast Asia Adrift

Speaker: Prof. Brian Farrell (Professor of Military History, The National University of Singapore)

Language: English

Abstract:

From 8 December 1941 to early May 1942, the armed forces of Imperial Japan humiliated the Western Powers, evicting them at great speed from the area between Darwin and Dacca. This collapse disrupted the entire political fabric of the region. But from February to August 1945, this was reversed, as Allied armed forces attacking from west and east crushed the Japanese occupying forces. This second collapse further disrupted the entire political fabric of the region. Much attention is paid to the speed, scale and therefore impact of the first collapse; not enough is paid to the second, or to the combination. This talk will address that gap. This talk is part of the "The Fall and Rebirth of the City: Hong Kong during the Japanese Occupation" Talk Series.

​Speaker’s Bio:

Professor Brian Farrell is a professor of Military History at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He has been teaching military history, European history, and the history of empires and imperialism at NUS since 1993. During that time Prof. Farrell has published extensively in the main area of research interest, the military history of the British Empire. That interest has led him to a broader engagement with the study of imperialism and its influence on Asian and global history, as well as with wider problems of military history in Asia in the 20th century. He has pursued questions in these areas in libraries, archives, research institutes, and especially in the field, in Canada, the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan. Prof. Farrell is also Principal Investigator on the major research project Empire in Asia: A New Global History, and serving as Asia-Pacific Regional Coordinator for the Society for Military History, the largest such professional organization in the world.