The Netherlands East Indies and the Pacific War

The War in the Pacific

On 7 December 1941 Japan launched its entry into the Second World War on the side of Germany with a series of surprise attacks that extended the conflict from Europe to the Pacific. In coordinated attacks that spanned the ocean from the Asian mainland to Hawaii, Japanese forces struck at American and British possessions in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, Borneo and elsewhere. Although the Japanese did not include the Dutch colony of the Netherlands East Indies (modern day Indonesia) in this opening phase of attacks, it was clear to Allied planners that these islands would not escape for long.

Japan moved against the colonial territories of the United States, Britain and later Holland, to secure for itself the wealth of this resource-rich region. The most important prize of all was the Dutch controlled oil fields on Borneo, Java and Sumatra. The Netherlands had joined an economic embargo organised by the United States to deprive Japan of the resources it needed to sustain its military forces in their war against China. Japan lacked a native source of oil and was dependent on Dutch supplies. Without regular shipments from the Netherlands East Indies the Japanese military would quickly exhaust the nation’s limited stocks of petroleum products, and the war effort, as well as the domestic economy, would grind to a halt. From the Japanese perspective access to these fields was essential if Japan was to continue its policy of nationalistic expansion. Without Dutch oil, Japan would have little option but to halt its aggressive plans, accept defeat in China and accede to Western demands.

Japan timed its offensive well, attacking when the attention of its enemies was elsewhere. The war in Europe was now in its third year. Holland – the homeland of the Netherlands East Indies – was under German occupation and the Dutch government in exile in London. Britain had had to neglect its defences in the Far East as it stood alone against Germany. The United States had begun to mobilise its forces, but had started too late to deter or effectively oppose the Japanese. Consequently, the Japanese attack on the distant out posts of distracted empires found the defenders ill-prepared and unable to repel the assault.

The Defence of the Netherlands East Indies

The Japanese advance was rapid, so much so that the Malayan offensive was actually ahead of schedule. On 15 February the British fortress of Singapore capitulated and, while technically still holding out, the Japanese had cornered the American defenders of the Philippines on the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor. After only the briefest of pause the Japanese began phase two of their conquest of Southeast Asia, the attack on the Netherlands East Indies. On 11 January they landed troops on Dutch Borneo and the Celebes. Within a month these vast but poorly defended islands had fallen. The next targets were Ambon followed by Sumatra and then Bali and Timor, including the Portuguese section of the island. In nearly every case, within days of landing the Japanese crushed their outmatched opponents. Timor was the only exception. There a combined Australian-Dutch force waged a guerrilla style campaign in the island’s rugged interior for nearly a year until withdrawn in early 1943.

By the end of February 1942 the Japanese had isolated Java, the most important island in the Netherlands East Indies. Java was the location of the local Dutch government and it served as the colony’s administrative centre. It also contained the majority of the European population. If it fell, the Japanese conquest of the Netherlands East Indies would effectively be over.

Java was defended by a mixed Dutch, native Indonesian, Australian, American and British force. While there were approximately 30,000 Allied soldiers on the island, most were of low quality and indifferently armed and trained. Some were refugees from Singapore or elsewhere, and had arrived on the island with little equipment and only a short respite before being thrust into combat again. The Australian contingent was composed of men who had been en route home from the Middle East when their convoy was diverted to Java. The island also had a 40,000 strong Home Guard, but it was of doubtful value and suitable only for garrison duty. The Allied air force had already been severely tested by the Japanese. The remaining force consisted of about a dozen squadrons containing a mix of plane types, a large proportion of which were unserviceable. All squadrons were under-strength. The naval contingent included eight cruisers and sixteen destroyers, but many had already incurred damage in action with the Japanese or required a refit.

On the evening of 27 February a British-Dutch-American-Australian task force attempted to find the enemy’s eastern invasion convoy. Instead it was intercepted by the transport’s powerful covering force. In the ensuing Battle of Java Sea the Allies lost several ships, including two Dutch cruisers. The survivors scattered, HMAS Perth and USS Houston making for Batavia. The next day both of these cruisers ran into the enemy’s Western Convoy and, while sinking several Japanese transports, were themselves lost. This ended the Allied maritime defence of Java.

On 1 March the Japanese landed on Java. The invasion force contained the equivalent of nearly three infantry divisions and was divided into eastern and western halves. On a purely numeric comparison Java’s defenders outnumbered their attackers, but the Japanese force possessed a qualitative advantage that the poorly armed and multi-national led defenders could not match. The outcome was never in doubt, and on 8 March Java surrendered. The island’s defenders became prisoners-of-war; many of whom would die in captivity.

With the loss of Java, small groups of Dutch forces remained at large on other islands. On Sumatra there was a brigade group protecting the island’s northern provinces. In the interiors of Borneo and the Celebes other parties of soldiers continued to resist. The Japanese mopped-up these groups, and others, over the next weeks. The only part of the Netherlands East Indies to escape Japanese occupation was the district around the small town of Merauke in the southeast corner of Dutch New Guinea, near the border with Australian New Guinea. Throughout the Pacific War it was garrisoned by a combined Australian-Dutch force.

The Dutch in Australia

Of the three services only the Royal Netherlands Navy and the Dutch merchant marine survived the loss of the Netherlands East Indies on a significant scale. After its refit in Australia the cruiser Tromp became the flagship of the Royal Netherlands Navy in the South-West Pacific. It was joined by a sister ship, Jacob van Heemskerk, two destroyers, and a number minesweepers, submarines and smaller vessels. The Dutch merchant vessels that escaped joined the Allied shipping pool where they helped meet the transport requirements of the Allies in the South-West Pacific Area.

A few pilots managed to fly their planes to Australia before resistance in the Netherlands East Indies collapsed, but the Dutch air force’s ground personnel were left behind and captured. Most of the escaping planes were also worn out or obsolete. As a result the Dutch air force had to be reequipped and rebuilt nearly in its entirety. The Dutch would raise three squadrons – two bomber (Nos. 18 & 119), and one fighter (No. 120), but it was a long and difficult undertaking, and one that was greatly dependent on the munificence of Australian and the United States to make scarce airframes available.

The raising of each squadron followed a similar pattern. The Dutch provided the aircrew and airframes and Australia provided the ground staff. In effect these were dual-national squadrons and the Royal Australian Air Force counted them on its establishment. The first formed was No. 18 and then only after considerable delay due to difficulty in obtaining aircraft. No. 119 Squadron was the second formed but it never became operational because of the shortage of Dutch personnel. It was broken up and its men joined No 18 Squadron as reinforcements.

Nearly the entire Dutch garrison was lost in the defence of the Netherlands East Indies. Consequently, in the South-West Pacific the Dutch Army was destined to be the least effective of the three services. Its primary problem was intractable, only a handful of soldiers were evacuated before the loss of Java or subsequently made their way on their own to Australia. In fact, it was not until early 1944 that the Dutch were able to field a single battalion size unit, and then only after the arrival of personnel from the Netherlands’ colonies in South American and the Caribbean. Consequently, except for a few small raids and intelligence collection missions to its former territories, Dutch ground forces played an inconsequential role in the defeat of Japan.

The Return to Java

After the surrender of Germany in May 1945 the Australian based Dutch administrators of the Netherlands East Indies looked forward to the arrival of the military reinforcements they needed to begin the reconquest of the colony from the Japanese. These would be provided by Dutch forces released from operations in the European Theatre. The administrators anticipated a lengthy struggle against the Japanese in order to liberate the colony and reestablish their control. So far, the Allies had done little to recover the colony, and nearly all of it remained under Japanese occupation. The American commander of the South-West Pacific Theatre, General Douglas MacArthur, was interested only in the Dutch territories that could support his forces in his drive back to the Philippines. These meant that just Dutch New Guinea, Morotai, and the Tarakan area of Borneo had been liberated. In the heartland of the Netherlands East Indies – Java, Sumatra, Bali and most of Borneo, Japanese authority remained unchallenged.

The surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945, after the destruction of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs, upset the Dutch administrator’s time-table to reclaim the Netherlands East Indies. While the end of the war was welcome its suddenness caught them by surprise; they had not known of the weapon’s existence. Japan’s capitulation greatly complicated Dutch plans to re-establish their authority over the Netherlands East Indies, and it happened before they had even organised troops and shipping for dispatch to Java. Allied forces did not arrive on Java until late September, and then these were British whose primary mission was the liberation of prisoners of war and the repatriation of Japanese personnel.

The failure of the Dutch to be seen as the liberators of the Java in the eyes of the local population, their inability to defeat the enemy in battle, and the slowness with which they returned to Java created a power vacuum that was exploited by Indonesian nationalists. Even before the onset of the Second World War the Dutch had struggled against a growing indigenous movement whose objective was nothing short of independence and the establishment of an Indonesian sovereign state. Amongst its leaders was Ahmed Sukarno.

Throughout the occupation Sukarno, and others, had cooperated with the Japanese. They were rewarded by Japan’s announcement of its intention to grant the territory its independence. While this did not take place before the war’s end the nationalists had started work on a constitution. On 17 August 1945, two days after the war’s end, Sukarno declared Indonesia’s independence from the Netherlands. Numerous Japanese garrisons surrendered to this new nationalist government, including handing over their weapons to the Indonesians.

The Dutch were determined to re-establish their control over the colony, but returned to find a difficult political situation. The nationalists had exploited the power vacuum to set up a working government, and were moving towards the establishment of the political organs of a sovereign state. It was an explosive situation, and severe fighting had already broken out between the British and nationalist forces around Surabaya.

Between their return and the end of 1949 the Dutch waged a military and diplomatic campaign against the nationalists for mastery of Indonesia. In general, the Dutch out-fought the nationalists but would lose the colony because of international political and diplomatic pressure. The United States had no interest in the resumption of colonialism in South-East Asia. Its own colony, the Philippines, had been moving towards independence when the war intervened. International pressure, brought to bear through the United Nations Security Council, forced the Netherlands to grant Indonesia its independence effective on 27 December 1949. Sukarno would be the new nation’s first president.

Dr Albert Palazzo
Military History Section
30 August 2005