Was the colonised people of Malaya against the Japanese occupation?

As the British lose Malaya and then Singapore, was the people in Malaya apposed to the new occupation force or were they supportive of the Japanese like Thailand ?

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I don’t know what attitude dominated among the Malay ethnicity. There were Malayan of Indian origin living in Malaya that joined the INA in the fight for an independent India under the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bhose. Most resistance against the Japanese occupation came from the manny Chinese living in Malaya. There Washington a strong guerillawar against Japan by MAPAJA (Malayan People’s Anti Japanese Army), a movement dominated by Communist Chinese, that coöperated with Britain during the war.
The Mapaja decided not to resist the return of British rule in 1945 and to participate in elections. Perhaps that was because the leader of The Malayan Communist party at that time, Lai Tek, was a double spy, working for Britain (as well as for Japan), but his collaboration to the Japanese became a scandal only two years later, when rumors became strong and Lai Tek disappeared.

After the war, in 1948 those Communists started a guerillawar against British rule, but they failed to take over Malaya and were defeated and gave up in 1963, although Britain was pressed to give independence to Malaysia in 1957.

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