Japanese occupation of Cambodia

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The Japanese occupation of Cambodia (Khmer: ការត្រួតត្រារបស់ជប៉ុននៅកម្ពុជា) was the period of Cambodian history during World War II when the Kingdom of Cambodia was occupied by the Japanese. Vichy France, which was a client state of Nazi Germany, nominally maintained the French protectorate over Cambodia and other parts of Indochina during most of the Japanese occupation. This territory of Cambodia was reduced, by concessions to Thailand after the Franco-Thai War, so that it did not include Stung Treng Province, Battambang Province, and Siem Reap Province.^[1]

The liberation of Paris occurred in the late summer of 1944, and in early 1945 a Japanese coup d'état in French Indochina caused Cambodia to officially separate from newly liberated France. Cambodia declared itself an independent nation, and the Japanese military presence continued for the brief remainder of the war.

The Japanese occupation in Cambodia lasted from 1941 to 1945 and, in general, the Cambodian population escaped the brutalities inflicted on civilians by the Japanese occupiers in other countries of Southeast Asia. After the nominal French Indochina colonial government was overthrown in 1945, Cambodia became a pro-Tokyo puppet state until the surrender of Japan.^[2]