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Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies

The Empire of Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) during World War II from March 1942 until after the end of the war in September 1945.

Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies
Japanese East Indies
日本占領下のオランダ領東インド (Japanese)
Nihon senryō-ka no orandaryōhigashiindo (Romaji)
Pendudukan Jepang di Hindia-Belanda (Indonesian)

Military occupation by the Empire of Japan

Djakarta

Japanese, Indonesian, Dutch

 

Hirohito

World War II

8 March 1942

1941–1945

27 February 1942

1 March 1942

1943–1944

14 February 1945

15 August 1945

17 August 1945

Netherlands Indian roepiah

Indonesia
East Timor

In May 1940, Germany occupied the Netherlands, and martial law was declared in the Dutch East Indies. Following the failure of negotiations between the Dutch authorities and the Japanese, Japanese assets in the archipelago were frozen. The Dutch declared war on Japan following the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies began on 10 January 1942, and the Imperial Japanese Army overran the entire colony in less than three months. The Dutch surrendered on 8 March. [1] Initially, most Indonesians welcomed the Japanese as liberators from their Dutch colonial masters. The sentiment changed, however, as between 4 and 10 million Indonesians were recruited as forced labourers (romusha) on economic development and defense projects in Java. Between 200,000 and 500,000 were sent away from Java to the outer islands, and as far as Burma and Siam. Of those taken off Java, not more than 70,000 survived the war.[2] Four million people died in the Dutch East Indies as a result of famine and forced labour during the Japanese occupation, including 30,000 European civilian internee deaths.[3]


In 1944–1945, Allied troops largely bypassed the Dutch East Indies and did not fight their way into the most populous parts such as Java and Sumatra. As such, most of the Dutch East Indies was still under occupation at the time of Japan's surrender in August 1945.


The invasion and occupation was the first serious challenge to Dutch colonial rule and brought about changes so extensive the subsequent Indonesian National Revolution became possible.[4] Unlike the Dutch, the Japanese facilitated the politicisation of Indonesians down to the village level. The Japanese educated, trained and armed many young Indonesians and gave their nationalist leaders a political voice. Thus, through both the destruction of the Dutch colonial regime and the facilitation of Indonesian nationalism, the Japanese occupation created the conditions for the proclamation of Indonesian independence within days of the Japanese surrender in the Pacific. However, the Netherlands sought to reclaim the Indies, and a bitter five-year diplomatic, military and social struggle ensued, resulting in the Netherlands recognising Indonesian sovereignty in December 1949.

Army Commander (gunshireikan (軍司令官, commonly Romanized as gunshirekan in Indonesia) who was also called Supreme Commander (saikou shikikan (最高指揮官) sometimes Romanized as Seiko Shikikan in Indonesia) , was the supreme commander and highest leader. The first army commander was General , continued with Harada Kumakichi (原田熊吉), Yamamoto Moichiro (山本茂一郎) (acting), and Yuichiro Nagano (長野祐一郎)

Imamura Hitoshi

The head of the military government (gunseikan (軍政官) was also the chief of staff. The first chief of staff to serve was Major General Seizaburo Okasaki, then Kokubun Shinshichiro, and lastly who also became acting Gunshirekan. His deputy headed the most important section of the administration, the Department of General Affairs (Japanese: 総務部, romanized: sōmubu), which acted as a secretariat and issued policies. Other than this department there were 9 other departments.

Yamamoto Moichiro

Gunseibu (軍政部) was a government coordinator tasked with restoring order and security, or a kind of governor. There were five Gunseibu, representing West Java, Central Java, East Java, Kochi Surakarta, and Kochi Yogyakarta. Hence while the Japanese formally abolished the three provinces and the two governorates, it never disappeared.

Bulu prison massacre

Japanese colonial empire

Japanese-run internment camps

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Media related to Japanese occupation of Indonesia at Wikimedia Commons