Japanese Occupation of Dutch East Indies

In 1940 the middle of World War 2, France had fallen to the German Reich and made most of its colonies under Vichy France, a puppet of Germany. Taking this opportunity, Japan invaded and took over the northern part of Indochina, a French colony consisting of modern Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. When the Americans heard this, they were angry and gave them a warning to get out of Indochina or prepare to get economic and oil sanctions. This is bad for the Japanese because they are still at war with the Chinese. So, to make the situation better, on 19 December 1941, Japan attacked and bombed Pearl Harbor, an American navy base in the Hawaiian archipelago. It aimed to destroy American ships so they could conquer and protect the Pacific. After this attack, the Japanese navy quickly went to Southeast Asia and conquered most of the land.

Many resources were essential for the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies, which the Dutch controlled. So, on January 11-12, 1942, the Japanese army landed on the islands of Tarakan and Manado, making a footstep in Borneo and Sulawesi. Since the Germans had defeated the Dutch in Europe, the Dutch East Indies were protected by the ABDA command, the American-British-Dutch-Australian command. After the first attack, the Japanese captured Balikpapan and Kendiri on January 24, 1942. Next, they captured the cities of Palembang and Ambon on February 3 and 15, 1942. Finally, on March 5, 1942, the Japanese landed in Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies, making the Dutch government move to Bandung, and the Japanese changed the name of Batavia to Djakarta. On 8 March 1942, the Dutch surrendered unconditionally to the Japanese and signed the Treaty of Kalijati, which then put Indonesia under Japanese control and joined the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, an organisation that the Japanese made. From this, the Allied forces moved back to Papua.

Now that the Dutch East Indies had fallen to the Japanese, it changed its name to Indonesia, and the military government controlled it. When the Japanese came to Indonesia, they were happy, thinking they were free from colonial rule. Well, not for long. The Japanese showed their evil side and started forced labour, which is crueller than the Dutch, called Romusha. In an attempt to maintain control and secure local cooperation, Japan introduced various policies such as recognising, which included recognising nationalist leaders like Sukarno and Hatta, forming PETA (Pembela Tanah Air) to train Indonesian soldiers, promoting the use of Bahasa Indonesia over Dutch, and allowing limited political engagement through organisations like Putera (Pusat Tenaga Rakyat). The Japanese also made BPUPKI on 19 April 1945 to formulate the basis of the state and constitution for an independent Indonesia. It then turned into PPKI on 7 August 1945, where the task was to prepare the things necessary for Indonesian independence. And on 9 August 1945, Soekarno, Moh. Hatta and Dr Radjiman Wedyodiningrat were asked to meet Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi in Dalat, Vietnam. Its purpose was to tell the three people that Japan was on the verge of defeat and to approve Indonesia's independence.

On 6 and 9 August, America dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and forced the Japanese to surrender unconditionally on August 15, 1945. Knowing this event, Sutan Syahrir quickly meets Soekarno and Moh Hatta to proclaim Indonesia Independent, but they don’t. So Sutan Syahrir went to meet other young nationalists, and they kidnapped Soekarno and Moh Hatta to Rengasdengklok on 16 August 1945, and the next day, Soekarno declared Indonesia's independence on 17 August 1945. But this is not the final challenge because some Japanese haven’t surrendered, and the Dutch are trying to take Indonesia back into their hands. Despite the challenges of remaining Japanese forces and Dutch attempts to reclaim the colony, Indonesia still won and gained complete independence.

By Kenzo 8C