What If Japan Never Invaded Indonesia

In 1942, the Imperial Japanese army attacked and conquered Indonesia to take the natural and human resources. Indonesia was strategic because its large area could easily allow Japan to attack the Pacific theater more. Japan is a country with a lack of resources and a lack of people because most of its people go to war. So, they invaded China to expand and use its natural and human resources to benefit Japan. However, the Japanese, a large and strong Chinese fighter, failed to achieve their goal. To make matters worse, the USA embargoed Japan’s oil trade, putting Japan in a worse position. So, they plan to quickly destroy the American navy and take control of Southeast Asia to reach its resources. But what if it never happens?

From the paragraph before, we can see that Japan needs to take Indonesia, but we must somehow make Japan not attack Indonesia, and keep it realistic. Indonesia at that time was under Dutch control, and you all know what happened in 1941 in Europe, yep, Germany invaded the Dutch. When the French surrendered to the Germans, they also surrendered Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) to the Japanese since Germany and Japan had made an alliance pact. But if we can delay the fall of France, maybe we can prevent Japan from taking Indochina. We can do this by making the French and British deploy their troops faster and move faster when the German invades the Benelux. Maybe the Allies could delay the fall of France by a few months, but eventually, it would fall. The second thing I will change is the French government; it will surrender France to the Germans because it can’t fight anymore, but if France keeps fighting while eventually getting kicked out of Europe, its colonial land will still be in the Allies’ hands. Japan now can’t invade Indochina because it is protected, and Americans have already threatened to embargo more if Japan attacks Indochina. Over time, the Japanese will lose their capability to keep fighting with the Chinese and force it to return China’s original land, maybe even Manchuria.

Now, for Indonesia, it will stay in the hands of the Dutch. Without Japan controlling Indonesia, our nationalism will be slow because no military training and no promise of independence like what we got from the Japanese. Indonesia will get more Western influence since more allied troops will use Indonesia as a land and sea connection to Europe. Indonesia may gain independence, but it will be later, and worst of all, Indonesia will become a Dutch commonwealth. Any independence or anti-Dutch movement will get crushed by the Dutch. But with the more intelligent Indonesia, they can try to negotiate with the Dutch for an agreement to get their independence, even though it’s hard. So we can say that without the Japanese attacking us, we would have gained independence later.

Thank you guys for reading it. If you find it interesting, you can ask me to make more What-If stories and give me ideas. I am sorry if I missed anything; you can tell me what I missed.
By Kenzo Chandra Sumana 9C.