In September 1940, the French Vichy government granted Japan's demands for military access to Tonkin for their war against China. The Japanese occupied French Indochina with superior forces and left the French military, bureaucracy and leadership in place to run Indochina. After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese coerced the Vichy government to sign an agreement to pass on the administration of Indochina to the Japanese, in all but in name. Once the allied landed in Normandy and France was liberated, the Japanese realised that they could no longer rely on the Vichy French collaboration in Indochina and decided on the 9th of March 1945 to eliminate French Indochina colonial structure and military forces and executed or interned all French troops as well as many civilians. The Japanese declared Vietnam independent and gave power to the emperor Bao Dai.
15th August 1945, Japanese forces surrendered and where disarmed to the North of the 16th parallel by the Chinese and to the south by the British.
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