Editing Plaek Phibunsongkhram (section)

==== Alliance with Japan ====
{{Main|Thailand in World War II}}
Phibun and the Thai public viewed the outcome of the Franco-Thai War as a victory, but it resulted in the rapidly expanding Japanese gaining the right to occupy French Indochina. Although Phibun was ardently pro-Japanese, he now shared a border with them and felt threatened by a potential Japanese invasion. Phibun's administration also realised that Thailand would have to fend for itself if a Japanese invasion came, considering its deteriorating relationships with Western powers in the area.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}}

When the Japanese invaded Thailand on 8 December 1941, (because of the [[International Date Line]] this occurred an hour and a half before the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]]), Phibun was reluctantly forced to order a general ceasefire after just one day of resistance and allow the Japanese armies to use the country as a base for their invasions of the [[British Empire|British]] colonies of [[British rule in Burma|Burma]] and [[British Malaya|Malaya]].<ref>Churchill, Winston S.'' The Second World War'', Vol 3, "The Grand Alliance", p. 548, Cassell & Co. Ltd, 1950</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pattayamail.com/504/columns.shtml#hd6|title=Pattaya Mail – Pattaya's First English Language Newspaper|website=pattayamail.com}}</ref> Hesitancy, however, gave way to enthusiasm after the Japanese rolled through the [[Malayan Campaign]] in a "[[Bicycle infantry#World Wars|Bicycle]] Blitzkrieg" with surprisingly little resistance.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.warbirdforum.com/tsuji2.htm|title=Colonel Tsuji of Malaya (part 2)| access-date = 30 June 2011|last=Ford|first= Daniel|date=June 2008|website=Warbirds Forum|quote=Though outnumbered two-to-one, the Japanese never stopped to consolidate their gains, to rest or regroup or resupply; they came down the main roads on bicycles.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.s1942.org.sg/s1942/bukit_chandu/directory_bicycles.htm|title=The Swift Japanese Assault|access-date=30 June 2011|year=2002|website=National Archives of Singapore|quote=Even the long-legged Englishmen could not escape our troops on bicycles.|archive-date=10 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120210210208/http://www.s1942.org.sg/s1942/bukit_chandu/directory_bicycles.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> On 21 December Phibun signed a [[military alliance]] with Japan. The following month, on 25 January 1942, Phibun declared war on Britain and the United States. [[Union of South Africa|South Africa]] and [[New Zealand#Foreign relations and military|New Zealand]] declared war on Thailand on the same day. Australia followed soon after.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pattayamail.com/506/columns.shtml#hd6|title=Columns|website=pattayamail.com}}</ref> Phibun purged all who opposed the Japanese alliance from his government. [[Pridi Banomyong]] was appointed acting regent for the absent King [[Ananda Mahidol]], while [[Direk Jayanama]], the prominent foreign minister who had advocated continued resistance against the Japanese, was later sent to Tokyo as an ambassador. The United States considered Thailand to be a [[puppet state]] of Japan and refused to declare war on it. When the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] were victorious, the United States blocked British efforts to impose a punitive peace.<ref>I.C.B Dear, ed, ''The Oxford companion to World War II'' (1995) p. 1107{{ISBN?}}</ref>