The Japanese Invasion of Borneo (British and Dutch Borneo)
On 8 Dec 1941, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) landed in Kota Bahru, in the northern Malayan state of Kelantan. On 10 Dec, the British Royal Navy's battleships HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse was bombed and sunk off the coast of Kelantan. By 11 Jan 1942, the IJA had taken Kuala Lumpur. By 31 Jan peninsula Malaya had fallen into Japanese hands. The Battle of Singapore was fought from 1 Feb to 15 Feb when Singapore surrendered. The war plans of the IJA included near simultaneous attacks on the other territories of British and Dutch Borneo. On 13 Dec, a Japanese naval convoy left Cam Ranh Bay in French Indochina and landed in Miri, Sarawak on 15 Dec. They proceeded to take Kuching by Christmas eve and the rest of Sarawak by New Year's eve. On New Year's Day 1942 the IJA landed on Labuan island and from then on captured British North Borneo (now Sabah) by 19 Jan. By 10 Feb 1942, IJA had captured the whole island of Borneo, consisting of the territories of British Borneo (Sarawak, the Sultanate of Brunei, British North Borneo) and Dutch Borneo (Westerafdeeling van Borneo (West Borneo), Zuider-en Oosterafdeeling van Borneo (South and East Borneo)).
See also: Japanese occupation of Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak, Battle of Borneo (1941-42), and Malayan CampaignRead more about this topic: Petagas War Memorial
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“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not the invasion of ideas.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
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—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)