Netherlands East Indies

Netherlands East Indies (NEI), colony in South-East Asia covering a huge area some 3,660 km. (2,275 mi.) wide by 1,825 km. (1,135 mi.) long, including Java, Sumatra, Dutch Borneo, Dutch New Guinea, Celebes, western Timor, and Moluccas. It was vital to the economy of the Netherlands, a seventh of its income coming from it. Oil, its most vital product, came mostly from Sumatra (see Table 1); the colony ranked only behind Malaya in tin production, its total output in 1940 being 44,563 tons; and bauxite and coal were also mined. The colony's inhabitants in 1940 totalled an estimated 70.5 million, including one million Chinese. There were also 250,000 Dutch nationals, many of whom suffered harsh years of internment when the Japanese occupied the area.

Netherlands East Indies, Table 1: Oilproduction in 1940

	Quantity	Total production
Area	(000 barrels)	in barrels for:
Source: ‘Netherlands East Indies’, Vol. 2 (Naval IntelligenceDivision, London, 1944).
North Sumatra	7,484	Sumatra
		39,755,000
Djambi	9,617
Palembang	22,654
Central Java	5,608	Java 6,168,000
Eastern Java	560
Tarakan	5,433	Borneo
		12,522,000
Balikpapan	7,089
Ceram	664	Ceram 664,000
		Netherlands
		East Indies
		59,109,000

After the German occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, the People's Council in Batavia, the local representative legislative body in Java, remained loyal to the Dutch government-in-exile but became virtually autonomous. In January 1941 the People's Council protested when the Japanese foreign minister referred to the NEI as part of the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere and it refused Japan's more extreme demands for its local produce, for unimpeded rights of fishing and prospecting, and for unrestricted access to its ports. Though it did adjust upwards the amount of raw materials it exported to Japan (see Table 2), the trading relationship quickly deteriorated, and in August 1941, on orders from the Dutch government-in-exile, it stopped supplying oil to Japan.

Netherlands East Indies, Table 2: Supplies to Japan in 1940 (000 tons)

	Previous	Japanese	Supply
Commodity	quota	demand	approved
Source: ‘Netherlands East Indies’, Vol. 2 (Naval IntelligenceDivision, London, 1944).
Petroleum	600	3,750	1,936
Tin	3	12.5	3
Manganese	-	27	10
Nickel	-	180	150
Bauxite	360	400	250
Rubber	20	30	15
Copra	12	70	20
Palm oil	1	30	12

For the Japanese the NEI was a prize of great significance. Besides the raw materials already mentioned, the area produced rubber, copra, nickel, timber, quinine, and important foodstuffs such as sugar, rice, tea, and coffee. To gain these resources quickly, and before any of them could be destroyed, they deployed the maximum possible forces which attacked the most vital areas almost simultaneously. On 20 December 1941 units of Lt-General Imamura Hitoshi's Sixteenth Army, from Mindanao in the Philippines, attacked Dutch Borneo, Celebes, and the Moluccas, and Japanese paratroops saw action for the first time when they were dropped on a north Celebes airfield on 11 January. The oil-rich centres of Dutch Borneo were also quickly seized, as were important airfields at Kendari (southern Celebes) and Amboina (Moluccas). Paratroops were used again when, on 16 February, another Sixteenth Army invasion force landed at Palembang in southern Sumatra to capture the great oil refinery there, and they were used, too, when Dutch Timor was occupied on 19 February.

Though poorly equipped, the forces in the NEI, aided by American, Australian, and British forces under General Wavell'sABDA Command, resisted as best they could. But what air power Wavell possessed was practically destroyed during two raids of 19 and 27 February. In the first of these the Japanese showed their superiority when 23 Navy Zero fighters shot down 40 Allied fighters. At sea, Allied warships caused some damage—US destroyers sank four Japanese transports and a patrol boat off Balikpapan—and delayed the advance momentarily, but Allied naval strength was no match for the Imperial Japanese Navy and was subsequently destroyed (see Java Sea).

Overwhelmed everywhere, ABDA Command was dissolved on 25 February and the Dutch governor-general on Java assumed command of the still considerable forces that remained. By then the Japanese had captured their other objectives, and on 1 March they landed on Java in two places and began advancing on Bandung. On 8 March the Dutch capitulated—93,000 men of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army surrendered—and other Allied units did likewise. The same day Japanese troops from Singapore landed in northern Sumatra and by the end of the month they held the whole island and had begun to land in Dutch New Guinea. Resistance continued in Dutch Borneo and Celebes until October 1942 and the Japanese never conquered all the NEI for the Dutch flag continued to fly over Merauke, the capital of Dutch New Guinea.

Under Japanese rule the territory was reorganized. Sumatra came under the same military administration as Malaya with Singapore as its centre; Java and a number of other islands were also administered by the Japanese Army, but the other two administrative areas, which centred on Borneo (British and Dutch) and on the Celebes, the Moluccas, and Dutch New Guinea, were controlled by the Japanese Navy.

Guerrilla bands operated in some places—Australian units on Timor were particularly effective—and attempts were made to aid them by landing clandestine parties. These were organized by SOE's Force 136 for Sumatra and by Special Operations Australia (SOA) and the Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service (see Allied Intelligence Bureau) elsewhere, but the hostility of the local population and difficult climatic conditions resulted in the eventual capture of practically all of them. However, units landed by SOA prior to Australian landings on British Borneo, at Tarakan Island, and at Balikpapan, between May and July 1945, were more successful. See also anti-imperialism and nationalism.