 The city was occupied by the Imperial Japanese in 1940 and liberated in 1945, when it briefly became the seat of the Việt Minh government after Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independence of Vietnam.However, the French returned and reoccupied the city in 1946.After nine years of fighting between the French and Viet Minh forces, Hanoi became the capital of an independent North Vietnam in 1954.