 In Asia, too, the Allies were encroaching upon the increasingly desperate Japanese.On March 9, 1945, Japanese authorities, promising autonomy to the local population, overthrew the French colonial regime, and four days later King Sihanouk declared Cambodia's independence from France and its alliance with the crumbling Japanese Empire.The Japanese proceeded to round up all foreign nationals in the country, including Groslier and his daughter, and place them in concentration camps.