commonwealth troops and the ocupation of Japan

where ther any commonwealth troops taking part in the ocupation of Japan or were there only Americans ?

There was a British Commonwealth Occupation Force for Japan although it didn't deploy to Japan until early 1946.

It consisted of an Australian infantry brigade, a New Zealand infantry brigade and a joint British/Indian division as well as associated headquarters and support and service units.

There were also several RAF, RIAF, RNZAF and RAAF squadrons and a small naval contingent.

Cheers and all,

There were Commonwealth troops there too. I believe they were mainly centred around Kyushu.

Commonwealth troops were to have taken part in Operation Olympic in November 1945, though equipped at MacArthur's insistence in American kit. When the war ended, Tiger Force of Canadian Lancasters was moving on to Okinawa to join in the bombing campaign. Otherwise, British forces in the Pacific were mostly oriented toward the forthcoming liberation of Malaya.

There was not much sharing of responsibility in the Pacific, largely I suspect because the Americans (or MacArthur, in any event) were determined not to allow Russia any part in the occupation of Japan. Thus Vietnam was divided between a British south and a Chinese north, Malaya was British, Korea was divided between a Russian north and an American south, and Japan was American, with the exception of Russian-occupied Sakhalin. There were no zones as such, unless you regard Vietnam and Korea as divided into two zones each.

all the best

-snips-

All of Indochina, including Vietnam, was re-occupied by the French after World War II - first under the pre-war quasi-colonial arrangement and later as a nominally independent nation under the French puppet emperor Bao Dai.

The French re-occupation led to the Vietminh insurgency under Ho Chi Minh and the First Indochina War. Vietnam wasn't divided north and south until after the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu and the 1954 Geneva peace accords which implimented what was supposed to be a temporary division between the Vietminh north under Ho Chi Minh and the non-communist south under Diem pending national elections.

Neither the British nor the Chinese were ever in occupation in post-war Vietnam.

Cheers and all,

The military commander in Saigon in September 1945 was Maj Gen Douglas Gracey of the British army, which under the Potsdam agreements had been designated as the force to disarm the Japanese in southern Vietnam. It was Gracey who brought the French back, the better to get British troops out (there were, of course, the recently liberated Vichy French whom the Japanese had incarcerated). General De Gaulle sent out Gen Jaques Leclerc to take over from Gracey, Leclerc arriving in October.

Under Potsdam, the Chinese were delegated to disarm the Japanese in northern Vietnam, to do which they sent 200,000 (!) troops under Gen Lu Han. In consequence, Ho Chi Minh was able to gain control more or less uncontested by the Chinese, who were primarily interested in a) loot and b) keeping the French out. It was not until Feb 1946 that the Chinese backed down and let the French return (again, of course, there were local, Vichy French in the north). For his compliance, Chiang Kai-shek got the French to relinquish their concessions in Shanghai and other Chinese cities. Leclerc thereupon sent troopships north and began to reclaim the northern half of the country as he had done to the south. That was in March 1946.

all the best

IIRC, British and Commonwealth troops were responsbile for administrating the Kyushu occupation district. In addition, Filipino troops were used as an occupation force on Okinawa.

There might be a fine point where I have this wrong, but I think the statement that the British were never in occupation of Vietnam is simply incorrect.

Vietnam was under the direct control of the Indian (i.e. British Army between 1945 and the hand-over to France in 1946. The General Officer Commending-in-Chief was General Sir Douglas David Gracey (1894-1964)(Indian Army). His title was Commander in Chief Allied Land Forces French Indo-China. In 1947, after the British hand-over of Vietnam to France, he went on to become the first Chief General Staff of the Army of independent Pakistan, and between 1948-51 he was Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army.

Thus I suspect the original statement that Vietnam was divided between the Chinese and British is perfectly correct in fact. It took the defeated and demoralised French some considerable to to become re-established in in Cochin China and Annam (i.e South and Central Vietnam). The process being assisted by the occupying power - Great Britain.

Yes they were.

An entire British Indian division deployed to Indo-China between September and October 1945 to dissarm the Japanese and assist in the restoration of French rule. They were based mainly around Sigon, and had withdrawn by the end of Febuary 1946.

The BCOF (British Commonwealth Occupation Force) officially came into existence on January 31st, 1946 and was still active in the Japanese occupation as late as 1951. Many of the first Commonwealth forces deployed to Korea were sourced from the BCOF.

My grandfather was a member of the BCOF and was stationed at Hiroshima. According to <http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/bcof.htm> the official list of BCOF land forces occupation zones were Shimani, Yamaguchi, Tottori, Okayama, Hiroshima and Shikoku Island.

BCOF headquarters were located at Kure, the Australian army was encamped at Hiro, the RAAF at Iwakuni, and the Australian naval shore establishment at the former Japanese naval base at Kure.

There are accounts of the British Re Arming Jappanese soldiers in thier sector to fight the Viet Minh. The Britsh largly pacified the Area's they controled.