A Japanese soldier posts first proclamation issued by British Major General D. D. Gracey, Commander...

British troops arrived in Saigon on 9 September 1945 ostensibly to disarm the Japanese troops and arrange their repatriation. In fact the Japanese were not disarmed but were used by the British to fight the Vietnamese Liberation Forces, and this under the Labour Government of Clement Atlee, in order to hand Vietnam back to the French. Thus the official history of the Indian armed forces noted that, 'all the dirty work, to fight and disarm the Annamites, (Vietnamese) was assigned to the Japanese troops.' General MacArthur, Supreme Commander Allied Powers in South East Asia, said in Tokyo, 'If there is anything that makes my blood boil it is to see our allies in Indo-China…deploying Japanese troops to conquer the little people we promised to liberate. It is the most ignoble kind of betrayal'.