Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies


The Empire of Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies during World War II from March 1942 until after the end of the war in September 1945.
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. 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 on economic development and defence 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. 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.
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 subsequent occupation formed a fundamental challenge to Dutch colonial rule and brought about changes so extensive that the subsequent Indonesian National Revolution became possible. However, the Indonesian independence movement initially lacked international recognition, and following the surrender the Netherlands regained control of most of the Indies. A bitter five-year diplomatic, military and social struggle ensued, resulting in the Netherlands recognising Indonesian sovereignty in December 1949.

Background

After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the Nanshin-ron policy focused on southeast Asia and Pacific islands as Japan's sphere of influence and as objects for trade and emigration. During the early Meiji period, Japan derived economic benefits from Japanese emigrants to Southeast Asia, among whom there were prostitutes who worked in brothels in the Dutch East Indies and other western colonies in Southeast Asia.
Until 1942, what is now Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands and was known as the Dutch East Indies. In 1929, during the Indonesian National Awakening, Indonesian nationalist leaders Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, foresaw the Pacific War and that a Japanese advance on the Dutch East Indies might be advantageous for the independence cause.
File:1943 World War II Japanese Aeronautical Map of Java - Geographicus - Java11-wwii-1943.jpg|thumb|left|Map prepared by the Japanese during World War II, depicting Java, the most populous island in the Dutch East Indies
The Japanese spread the word that they were the "Light of Asia". Japan was the only Asian nation that had successfully transformed itself into a modern technological society by the end of the 19th century. It had remained independent when most Asian countries had been under European or American control, and had beaten a European power, Russia, in war. Following its military campaign in China, Japan turned its attention to Southeast Asia, advocating to other Asians a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which they described as a type of trade zone under Japanese leadership. The Japanese had gradually spread their influence throughout Asia in the first half of the 20th century, and during the 1920s and 1930s had established business links to the Indies. These ranged from small town barbers, photographic studios and salesmen, to large department stores and firms such as Suzuki and Mitsubishi becoming involved in the sugar trade.
The Japanese population in Indonesia peaked in 1931 at 6,949 residents before starting a gradual decrease, largely as a result of economic tensions between Japan and the Dutch East Indies government. Many Japanese had been sent by their government to establish links with Indonesian nationalists, particularly with Muslim parties, while Indonesian nationalists were sponsored to visit Japan. Such encouragement of Indonesian nationalism was part of a broader Japanese plan for an "Asia for the Asians". While most Indonesians were hopeful for the Japanese promise of an end to the racially based Dutch system, Chinese Indonesians, who enjoyed a privileged position under Dutch rule, were less optimistic. In the late 1930s, Japanese aggression in Manchuria and China caused anxiety amongst the Chinese in Indonesia, who set up funds to support the anti-Japanese effort. Dutch intelligence services also monitored Japanese living in Indonesia.
In November 1941, the Madjlis Rakjat Indonesia, an Indonesian organisation of religious, political, and trade union groups, submitted a memorandum to the Dutch East Indies government requesting the mobilisation of the Indonesian people in the face of the war threat. The memorandum was rejected because the government did not consider Madjlis Rakyat Indonesia to be representative of the people. Less than four months later, the Japanese had occupied the archipelago.

Invasion

On 8 December 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile declared war on Japan. In January 1942 the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command was formed to co-ordinate Allied forces in Southeast Asia, under the command of General Archibald Wavell. In the weeks leading up to the invasion, senior Dutch government officials went into exile, taking political prisoners, family, and personal staff to Australia. Before the arrival of Japanese troops, there were conflicts between rival Indonesian groups where people were killed, vanished or went into hiding. Chinese- and Dutch-owned properties were ransacked and destroyed.
The invasion in early 1942 was swift and complete. By January 1942, parts of Sulawesi and Kalimantan were under Japanese control. By February, the Japanese had landed on Sumatra where they had encouraged the Acehnese to rebel against the Dutch. On 19 February, having already taken Ambon, the Japanese Eastern Task Force landed in Timor, dropping a special parachute unit into West Timor near Kupang, and landing in the Dili area of Portuguese Timor to drive out the Allied forces which had invaded in December.
On 27 February, the Allied navy's last effort to contain Japan was swept aside by their defeat in the Battle of the Java Sea. From 28 February to 1 March 1942, Japanese troops landed on four places along the northern coast of Java almost undisturbed. The fiercest fighting had been in invasion points in Ambon, Timor, Kalimantan, and on the Java Sea. In places where there were no Dutch troops, such as Bali, there was no fighting. On 8 March, Japanese soldiers seized the NIROM radio station in Batavia and ordered broadcasts to continue. The radio employees defiantly played Wilhelmus which resulted in the Japanese executing 3 of them. On 9 March, the Dutch commander surrendered along with Governor General Jonkheer A.W.L. Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer.
The Japanese occupation was initially greeted with optimistic enthusiasm by Indonesians who came to meet the Japanese army waving flags and shouting support such as "Japan is our older brother" and "banzai Dai Nippon". As the Japanese advanced, rebellious Indonesians in virtually every part of the archipelago killed groups of Europeans and informed the Japanese reliably on the whereabouts of larger groups. As famed Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer noted: "With the arrival of the Japanese just about everyone was full of hope, except for those who had worked in the service of the Dutch."

Japanese administration

Expecting that Dutch administrators would be kept by the Japanese to run the colony, most Dutch had refused to leave. Instead, they were sent to detention camps and Japanese or Indonesian replacements were installed in senior and technical positions. Japanese troops took control of government infrastructure and services such as ports and postal services. In addition to the 100,000 European civilians interned, 80,000 Dutch, British, Australian, and US Allied troops went to prisoner-of-war camps where the death rates were between 13 and 30 percent. The Indonesian ruling class co-operated with the Japanese military authorities, who in turn helped to keep the local political elites in power and employ them to supply newly arrived Japanese industrial concerns and businesses and the armed forces. Indonesian co-operation allowed the Japanese military government to focus on securing the large archipelago's waterways and skies and using its islands as defense posts against any Allied attacks.
The Japanese military administration in the Dutch East Indies implemented a series of policies and guidelines for governance, as outlined in Southern Occupied Territories Administrative Guidelines.
File:Malang. De Japan, Bestanddeelnr 344-5-4.jpg|thumb|Ching Nan Shrine in Malang, East Java. One out of 11 Shinto shrines built in Indonesia.
The Japanese divided Indonesia into three separate regions; Sumatra was placed under the 25th Army, Java and Madura were under the 16th Army, while Borneo and eastern Indonesia were controlled by the 2nd South Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy based in Makassar. The 16th Army was headquartered in Jakarta and the 25th Army was based in Singapore until April 1943, when its command was narrowed to just Sumatra and the headquarters moved to Bukittinggi.

Japanese administration in Java under the 16th Army

In Java, the 16th Army had planned to manage Java as a single entity. However the army had not brought enough administration experts to set up a separate body. A large number of Japanese residents in Java, who could have advised the occupiers, were taken to Australia at the outbreak of war, while a group of civilian administrators were killed in the Battle of the Java Sea. Problems were compounded by the fact that very few Indonesians spoke Japanese. In August 1942, the administration was formally separated from the army command. The military government structure consisted of three positions, namely Gunshirekan, Gunseikan, and Gunseibu. The personnel was similar to the structure of 16th Army.
  • Army Commander who was also called Supreme Commander , was the supreme commander and highest leader. The first army commander was General Hitoshi Imamura, continued with, , and.
  • The head of the military government, which acted as a secretariat and issued policies. Other than this department there were 9 other departments.
  • 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.
The local government structure in Java was as follows:
  • Shū or romanized in Indonesian as Syuu, or the former residencies. The Kanji used mean the provinces, similar to the Provinces of Japan even though it is translated as prefectures. This would formally become the highest government level following the formal abolishment of the provinces and governorates. There were 17 Syuu formalized by Law 28/1942 since August 7, 1942. It has no modern Indonesian equivalent, as it was abolished in 1963 by Regulation of the President of the Republic of Indonesia No. 22 Tahun 1963.
  • Shi or Syi and Ken, represented the former Dutch Stadsgemeente or municipality, and the regencies respectively. The literal meaning of the kanjis used mean cities and prefecture respectively. Its modern equivalents are City and Regency.
  • Gun, represented the former Dutch district kewedanaan, similar to the Districts of Japan. Its modern equivalent was also abolished in 1963 by the same regulation as the residency.
  • Son, represented the former Dutch onderdistrict, similar to Japanese villages even though it would be the modern equivalent of districts of Indonesia.
  • Ku, represented the former pseudo-level of villages, which during the Dutch era was functioning despite its not a formal administrative division. It was the first time the villages were part of official administrative hierarchy, and would be inherited by the Republic of Indonesia as villages
Informal:
  • Azajōkai or Azazyookai represented the modern rukun warga. It was not an official administrative division but a grouping of territorial neighborhood associations.
  • Tonarigumi represented the modern rukun tetangga. It was not an official administrative division but a territorial neighborhood association.