page_title: Japanese occupation of British Borneo
section_title: Force Z
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese occupation of British Borneo / Resistance / Force Z
caption_attribution_description: English: AGAS 1 party at Lokopas (in sarongs made from parachute silk). From left: Ma'aruff bin Said, Sgt Jack Wong Sue, Maj Gort Chester, Skeet Hywood, Mahammed Sariff. (http://www.awm.gov.au/journal/j37/borneo.asp)
context_page_description: Before the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific, the island of Borneo was divided into five territories. Four of the territories were in the north and under British control – Sarawak, Brunei, Labuan, an island, and British North Borneo; while the remainder, and bulk, of the island, was under the jurisdiction of the Dutch East Indies.
  On 16 December 1941, Japanese forces landed at Miri, Sarawak having sailed from Cam Ranh Bay in French Indochina. On 1 January 1942, the Japanese navy landed unopposed in Labuan. The next day, 2 January 1942, the Japanese landed at Mempakul on North Borneo territory. After negotiations as to the surrender of Jesselton with the Officers-in-charge of Jesselton and waiting for troop reinforcements, Jesselton was occupied by the Japanese on 8 January. However, it took the Japanese until the end of the month to conquer the entire territory of British Borneo. The Japanese subsequently renamed the northern part as North Borneo, Labuan as Maida Island and the neighbouring Dutch territories as South Borneo. For the first time in modern history all of Borneo was under a single rule.
  British Borneo was occupied by the Japanese for over three years.
context_section_description: As part of the Borneo Campaign Australian commandos were landed using US submarines. The Allied Z Special Unit began to train Dayak people from the Kapit Division in guerrilla warfare. This army of tribesmen killed or captured some 1,500 Japanese soldiers. They also provided intelligence vital to securing Japanese-held oil fields and to facilitating the landings of Australian forces in June 1945. Most of the Allied activities were conducted under two intelligence and guerrilla warfare operations: Operation Agas in North Borneo; and Operation Semut in Sarawak.Tom Harrisson, a British anthropologist, journalist and co-founder of Mass-Observation was among those parachuted in to work with the resistance.
caption: Members of Operation Agas in sarongs made from parachute silk. The group was formed to carry out guerrilla warfare against the Japanese forces with the full support of the natives.
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