Japanese military administration in Malaya

Abstract

One of the important problems for the Japanese military in the administration of occupied Malaya was the treatment of sultans and of the Islamic religion. Questions confronting the military were: (1) what should be the status of sultans as the heads of the Islamic religion and their political position in relation to the Malays; (2) how much power should they be allowed to retain as spiritual leaders of the sultanates; (3) how should they be persuaded to give up their authority and how induced to cooperate with the Japanese in order to win the confidence of the people for Japan through their prestige and power; and (4) how should the Islamic religion and its related tradition be treated. These questions were vital to the Japanese military if Japan wanted to remain the overlord of Malaya. They were more so as the war protracted, since Japan relied increasingly on Malays for the acquisition of resources vital to her national defense; and sultans offered, at least in the transitional period of the occupation years, a convenient utility value to the military for pacifying and winning the indigenous Malay Muslims. The importance of sultans in Malay society is seen in the following quotation.