The Japanese Occupation was a traumatic time and is often described as a watershed in the history of Malaya, but much remains to be learned about what took place during the war. This collection of articles by a leading group of Japanese scholars grew out of a project lasting several years that gathered a large quantity of materials and undertook a re-evaluation of Japanese activities during this period. Funded by the Toyota Foundation, the project included nearly all of the major researchers who have studied the occupation from the Japanese side. It was an important initiative because the Japanese destroyed most of the documents relating to their administration of Malaya shortly after the end of the war, and information from Japanese sources is scarce. The participants interviewed many former soldiers and gathered documentary materials. The outcome, partly summarised in this volume, is a body of information that shows from the inside something of how the Japanese viewed the war and occupation in Malaya. Several of the articles were published in a Japanese-language book in 2001, while others were specially prepared for this volume.