Thread: Memory Lane (In my own language)

The Free Thai Movement (Seri (Sae-ree) Thai) was a Thai underground resistance movement against the Imperial Japan during World War II.

In the aftermath of the Japanese invasion of Thailand on 7–8 December 1941, the regime of Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram (Phibun – page 12/297) declared war against the United Kingdom and the United States on 25 January 1942. Seni Pramoj, the Thai ambassador in Washington, refused to deliver the declaration to the United States government.

Accordingly, the United States refrained from declaring war on Thailand. Seni, a conservative aristocrat whose anti-Japanese credentials were well established, organized the Free Thai Movement with American assistance, recruiting Thai students in the United States to work with the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

(Seri Thai – American branch)


The OSS trained Thai personnel for underground activities, and units were readied to infiltrate Thailand. Apart from the American OSS, the Free Thai Movement was also supported by British Force 136. Both provided valuable intelligence from within Thailand.

(Telegram sent from USA to England consulting about establishing the Seri Thai, British branch)

(Seri Thai – British branch)

(Queen Rampaipunnee, King Rama VII’s wife, was also a member of the Seri Thai, British branch; seen here with her brother)


In the meantime, Japan had stationed 150,000 troops on Thai soil, and as the war dragged on, the Japanese increasingly treated Thailand as a conquered country rather than an ally.

Although the United States had not officially declared war, on 26 December 1942, US Tenth Army Air Force bombers based in India launched the first major bombing raid which damaged targets in Bangkok and elsewhere and caused several thousand casualties. Public opinion and even more importantly the sympathies of the civilian political elite finally moved perceptibly against Phibun’s alliance with Japan.

In June 1944, Phibun was forced out of office and replaced by the first predominantly civilian government since the 1932 coup. Allied bombing raids continued, and a B-29 raid on Bangkok destroyed the two key power plants on 14 April 1945, leaving the city without power and water.

Throughout the bombing campaign, the Free Thai network was effective in broadcasting weather reports to the Allied air forces and in rescuing downed Allied airmen.

The new government was headed by Khuang Aphaiwong, a civilian linked politically with conservatives such as Seni. The most influential figure in the regime, however, was Pridi Banomyong (who was serving as Regent of Thailand), whose anti-Japanese views were increasingly attractive to the Thais.

In the last year of the war, Allied agents were tacitly given free access by Bangkok. As the war came to an end, Thailand repudiated its wartime agreements with Japan.

Throughout the war, Seri Thai were an important source of military intelligence for the Allies in the region. More than 50,000 Thai had been trained and armed to resist the Japanese by Free Thai members.