Thai military leaders, particularly General Phibul, were
impressed by Japan’s success in modernising its economy and building
its military power. Japan, they believed, provided the best model for
Thailand to follow. Perceptions of the Chinese in Thailand as a dis-
loyal fifth column only tended to reinforce Thai preference for Japan
over China. In the League of Nations, Thailand refused to condemn
Japan’s aggression in Manchuria. The Thai could recognise a rising
regional hegemon when they saw one. They were disappointed, there-
fore, when the 1941 Treaty of Tokyo, concluded under Japanese
auspices, awarded Thailand relatively little additional territory after its
brief war against French forces in Indochina.
This did not prevent Thailand from concluding an agreement
with Japan, after twenty-four hours of symbolic resistance, that per-
mitted the movement of Japanese troops through Thai territory,
followed in December 1941 by a formal Thai–Japanese Alliance. Both
moves made good sense to a Thai government seeking to protect Thai
independence and security. That the best way to do this was through
alliance with the dominant power in the region was central to Thai
international relations culture. For the Thai, ‘the bamboo bends with
the wind’. Declarations of war on Britain and the US followed, but not
on Nationalist China. Instead Siam recognised, at Japanese urging,
the Japanese-sponsored puppet government in Nanjing. Meanwhile
the anti-fascist Free Thai movement made contact with the Allies
through Chongqing, Chiang Kaishek’s wartime capital.
The defeat of Japan left Thailand to face the victorious Allies.
Bangkok feared that northern Thailand would be subjected to Chinese
occupation, as in Indochina. That this was avoided was a relief to the
Thai government and a disappointment to many Thai Chinese. Chinese
riots in Bangkok were quelled by the Thai military, to the protestations
of Chongqing, which again demanded opening of diplomatic relations.
This led finally to a Treaty of Amity in 1946, establishing a Chinese
embassy for the first time in Bangkok. It had been almost a century since
the last Siamese tributary mission was dispatched to Beijing.
The changing world order