Japan and Southeast Asia: World War II and Beyond
World War II in Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia)
Summary of World War II in the Netherlands East Indies
Dutch East Indies (today called Indonesia) was a colony of Netherlands (Dutch Empire) since 1819. However, Japanese troops successfully invaded the Dutch East Indies in March 1942 and they were welcomed by the people and viewed as a liberator from the Dutch colonialism because the Japanese spread their attention to promoting for transforming Asia into a modern technological society at the end of the 19th century and gave independence from European colonialism. Therefore, the famous slogan that the Japanese were used to rise nationalist sentiments such as Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere and Asia for the Asians.
Indeed, during the Japanese occupation, the people in Dutch East Indies were trained, educated, and recruited to grew their nationalist feelings such as providing military training and weapons, hence, there was a formation of a volunteer army called PETA (Pembela Tanah Air- Defenders of the Homeland), then later become an important part for the Republic of Indonesia and led to the creation of Indonesian National Armed Forces in 1945.
Despite that, the Japanese occupation also caused people to suffer such as four million people died because of famine and some were recruited as force laborers (romusha) to fulfill economic developments and defense projects for the Japanese in Java, Burma, and Siam. The Dutch East Indies obtained their independence when the Japanese officially surrendered in the Pacific, thus, Sukarno declared Indonesia’s independence.
However, this statement did not please the former colonial masters which were the Netherland (Dutch Empire), hence the Netherland did not acknowledge this statement because they want to reclaim for Dutch East Indies, consequently, a five-year tension of armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between Indonesia and the Netherland, and then resulted in December 1949 regarded that the Netherland accepting Indonesia’s independence.
Propaganda from Japanese-Occupied Indonesia
In brief, one of the facts that led to the outbreak of World War II was when Japanese troops have successfully dominated Southeast Asia and the central pacific. Henceforth, one of the countries that the Japanese invaded was the Dutch East Indies (today called Indonesia). Before the Japanese occupied the Dutch East Indies, its former colonial master was Netherlands (Dutch Empire) since 1819, later after the invasion by the Japanese, the people viewed the Japanese as their liberator from their colonial master because the Japanese have spread their promotion to transform Asia to be a modern technological society and promised for independence from Western colonialism.
Indeed, the Japanese famous slogan was known as Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere and Asia for the Asians. Certainly, during the Japanese occupation, the people in Dutch East Indies were trained, educated, and recruited to grow their nationalist feelings such as providing military training and weapons. Therefore, the Japanese used propaganda to raise this sentiment such as providing a short video to boost the spirit of the people in the Dutch East Indies to be a defender for their homeland.
In this video, it was clearly shown how serious and willing old and young men participate and are recruited to be defenders and protectors of their homeland. The intention for the Japanese to use this video was to promote and raise nationalist awareness for the Asian people to be tough, strong, invincible and prepared to go against the Western powers. Apart from that, this video would be seen as a way for the Japanese wanted to put an end to discrimination of the Asian countries as weak and inferior over the Western powers.
As an example, this video has shown how the people were very serious and focused when doing their training, for instance, they were very disciplined for doing formation in a line, then capturing some scene of they were running as fast as they could to go hid under the bushes to do a surprise attack and then doing one on one match by using a knife that resembles if any case they involved in fighting as individuals to defend themselves over their opponents. Moreover, at the end of the video, it was showing how passionate and enthusiastic the people in the Dutch East Indies were aiming to have their independence as the promise that the Japanese wanted them to be.