Japan occupies the Dutch East Indies

On March 8, 1942, the commander of the Dutch armed forces in the Dutch East Indies signs the surrender to Japan. The next day, the capitulation is announced on the radio.
Two weeks earlier, Japan had destroyed the Dutch fleet in the Battle of the Java Sea. Not only was the Netherlands occupied by Germany, it had now also lost its largest colony. This was a big blow to the Allies. The Dutch East Indies produced a lot of oil and yielded other important commodities such as bauxite (for aluminium) and rubber. These now came into the hands of Japan.

The Dutch residents and many Indonesians were imprisoned in camps. Thousands of Dutch and allied prisoners of war, and tens of thousands of Indonesians were put to work as forced labourers in countries occupied by Japan.

Nationalists who wanted the country to become independent from the Netherlands were allowed to play a role in the war, but Japan did not allow them to call the country "Indonesia".