柬埔寨王国 (1945年)

历史

1945年3月9日，日本发动政变推翻了法国在印度支那的统治。日本希望通过独立来促进当地民众支持太平洋战争。3月13日，应日本的正式请求，诺罗敦·西哈努克宣布柬埔寨王国独立。不久，日本政府名义上批准了柬埔寨的独立，并在金边设立了领事馆。西哈努克颁布法令，废除以前与法国的条约，并承诺这个新独立的国家会与日本合作。新政府废除了法国殖民政府开始强制执行的高棉语罗马化，并正式恢复了高棉文。这一措施在民众中受欢迎，此后柬埔寨没有任何政府试图再次将高棉语罗马化。新政府也恢复了佛教阴历。

西哈努克最初从 3月18日起担任首相。日本投降后，山玉成接任首相，直至10月16日法国重新接管柬埔寨。

日本对柬埔寨的占领在1945年8月日本正式投降后结束。盟军部队进入柬埔寨后，驻扎在柬埔寨的日本军队被解除武装和遣返。10月，法国在柬埔寨重新建立殖民统治。10月12日，法国政府逮捕了与日本人合作的山玉成，将他转移至法国并被软禁。山玉成的支持者转入地下并逃到泰国控制的柬埔寨西北部，最终加入了高棉自由民族统一战线。

The Kingdom of Kampuchea (Khmer: ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រកម្ពុជា; Japanese: カンボジア王国) was a short-lived puppet state of Imperial Japan, which existed from 13 March 1945 to 16 October 1945.

History

Background

On 9 March 1945, during the closing stages of World War II, Japan overthrew the French rule in Indochina. The French colonial administrators were relieved of their positions, and French military forces were ordered to disarm. The Japanese hoped to revive the flagging support of local populations for Tokyo's war effort by encouraging indigenous rulers to proclaim independence.

Puppet state

On 13 March, the young King Norodom Sihanouk proclaimed an independent Kingdom of Kampuchea (while changing the official name of the country in French from Cambodge to Kampuchea) following a formal request by the Japanese. Shortly thereafter the Japanese government nominally ratified the independence of Cambodia and established a consulate in Phnom Penh. Sihanouk's decree did away with previous French-Cambodian treaties and he pledged his newly independent country's cooperation and alliance with Japan. The new government did away with the romanization of the Khmer language that the French colonial administration was beginning to enforce and officially reinstated the Khmer script. This measure taken by the short-lived governmental authority would be popular and long-lasting, for since then no government in Cambodia has tried to romanise the Khmer language again. Other changes included the reinstating of the Buddhist lunar calendar.

Norodom Sihanouk initially also served as a prime minister from 18 March 1945. However, Son Ngoc Thanh, another of the men behind the Khmer-language newspaper Nagara Vatta who had fled to Japan following the 1942 anti-French demonstrations, had returned in April 1945 to serve as foreign minister. Son Ngoc Thanh would take over the position of prime minister following the surrender of Japan, serving until French restoration in October 1945.

The Japanese occupation of Cambodia ended with the official surrender of Japan in August 1945. After Allied military units entered Cambodia, the Japanese military forces present in the country were disarmed and repatriated. The French were able to reimpose the colonial administration in Phnom Penh in October the same year. After arresting Son Ngoc Thanh for collaboration with the Japanese on 12 October, the French colonial authorities exiled him to France, where he lived under house arrest. Some of his supporters went underground and escaped to Thai-controlled northwestern Cambodia, where they were eventually to join forces in a pro-independence group, the Khmer Issarak. This anti-French, politically heterogeneous nationalist movement was organised with Thai backing, but would later split into factions.