On the eve of the outbreak of WWII, anticolonial sentiment was bubbling across Southeast Asia. During the war, the Japanese Imperial Army swept briskly through the region. While some locals may have been initially optimistic about the ousting of the European imperialists, the Japanese proved to be brutal rulers; millions were conscripted into harsh labour. In an attempt to win local cooperation, the Japanese fanned the flames of resentment to the west; as an unintended consequence, at the war's end, when the Japanese withdrew and the Europeans returned, nationalist sentiment was not only high but also organised.