F Kikan
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The Fujiwara kikan (藤原機関), or the F-Kikan, was an Japanese Army intelligence unit set up in Bangkok in late 1941. Headed by the Major Fujiwara Iwaichi, chief of intelligence of the 15th army, the F-Kikan was tasked to contact the Indian independence movement, the overseas Chinese and the Malayan Sultan with the aim of encouraging friendship and cooperation with Japan.[1]
Fujiwara's staff included five commissioned officers and two Hindi-speaking interpreters. The Fujiwara Kikan was instrumental in establishing contact with Giani Pritam Singh, and after the outbreak of the war and the Malayan invasion, with Capt. Mohan Singh that ultimately led to the establishment of the Indian National Army.[2] The F-Kikan was also instrumental in establishing relations with Indonesians resistance, especially in, Aceh that formed the backdrop of Japanese occupation of Indonesia.[3] The F-Kikan was replaced by the Iwakuro Kikan in 1942.
[edit] Beginnings
The F Kikan was established in 1941 at a time that war in South-east Asia seemed increasingly likely.[4] Based on the Japanese experiences in China, the army was to establish a unit (Kikan) that was to carry out Liaison duties with the local independence movements and transmit back to the army command the intelligence gathered from these movements. Two such units were established before the outbreak of World War II in South-East Asia- The Minami Kikan and the F Kikan itself.[5] Among the primary objectives of the F Kikan was to work with the Indian Independence movement in Bangkok and infiltrate the Indian Army units in the Thai-Malay border.[4]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Lebra 1977, p. 23
- ^ Lebra 1977, p. 24
- ^ Indonesian Volunteers in the Japanese Army.
- ^ a b Newell 1981, p. Allen L, in Newell 1981, 84
- ^ Newell 1981, p. Allen L, in Newell 1981, 83
[edit] References
- Lebra, Joyce C. (1971), Japanese trained armies in South-East Asia, New York,Columbia University Press, ISBN 0231039956.
- Fay, Peter W. (1993), The Forgotten Army: India's Armed Struggle for Independence, 1942-1945., Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press., ISBN 0472083422.
- Newell, W.H. (1981), Japan in Asia, 1942-1945, National University of Singapore Press, ISBN ISBN 9971690144.
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