3 JANUARY 1942—a detachment from Japanese-controlled Labuan landed and captured the village of Mempakul, North Borneo, just outside the town of Menumbuk. Two weeks before that, Sibu and Brunei were captured by Japanese naval forces at the very start of the Japanese Borneo Campaign. As Japanese troops marched north towards Jesselton (modern-day Kota Kinabalu), the army garrison there quickly negotiated the surrender of the city to the Japanese. By 8 January, large portions of Sabah’s West Coast had been captured.
The British North Borneo Company (BNBC), founded as the North Borneo Provisional Authority Limited in 1881 by Albert Dent, was the authority administering the North Borneo territories (modern-day Sabah) between 1881 and 1942. A British private charter company ruled over Sabah after taking over the territorial concessions from Gustav Overbeck and the American Trading Company of Borneo. Sabah was then considered a colony and protectorate of the UK, relying on the Royal Navy for defense, and only maintained a paramilitary police force, the North Borneo Armed Constabulary, consisting of only 650 men. BNBC based its seat of government in the northern city of Kudat, before moving it to Sandakan. Jesselton was only made the capital of North Borneo in 1946 after the latter became a crown colony.
On 17 January 1942, the Japanese navy invaded and captured the city of Sandakan. With the loss of the capital, North Borneo was surrendered, and was occupied by the Japanese for 3 years and 8 months.
