Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia

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The Japanese conquests of Southeast Asia in 1941

The Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia took place from December 7, 1941 to mid-1942. The Japanese occupied during this period as part of the Second World War, the Philippines , the Malay Peninsula , including Singapore , the Dutch East Indies , parts of New Britain and New Ireland . The troops of the USA , Great Britain , Australia and the Netherlands stationed there were hardly able to oppose the advancing Japanese landing units , so that Southeast Asia was firmly in Japanese hands until 1945. Only after the USA had decimated the Japanese fleet further and further in the course of the Pacific War and the Allies were able to push back the occupiers with advances did it succeed in gradually retaking Southeast Asia.

prehistory

At the beginning of the 20th century, most of East Asia and the South Pacific were under the rule of European and American colonial powers . Indochina belonged to France , the Philippines to the USA , the Dutch East Indies to the Netherlands and what is now Malaysia to Great Britain . Korea and Taiwan were Japanese colonies.

The distribution of power in September 1939

From 1912 to 1926 ruled the Taishō - Tennō Yoshihito, a mentally ill man, which shifted power from the Tennō and his confidants, the Genrō , to parliament and the newly founded parties. In 1926 the Shōwa period began with Hirohitos enthronement . He ruled a country in which nationalist forces gained increasing influence since the end of the First World War .

After it was not possible to contain the economic crisis from 1929 onwards in the context of the global economic situation, voices increased in Japan that saw territorial expansion as the solution to the problems. Due to the restructuring of the economy with a strengthened heavy industry, influential financial groups ( zaibatsu ) emerged with the same goal.

From the 1930s onwards, several coup attempts and massive persecution of socialists led to the rise of an ultra-national group made up of the military, who gained increased control over the government, including the office of Prime Minister of Japan .

The aggressive efforts to reorganize the Pacific region had the ostensible aim of ending the hegemony of the Asian countries and colonies by Western European states and replacing them with a Japanese one (→ Pan-Asianism ). The main interest of the Japanese expansion was the area of ​​the then Republic of China . After the Mukden incident on September 18, 1931, which was presumably caused by the Japanese themselves, the Manchurian crisis broke out and the Kwantung army occupied Manchuria. On March 1, 1932, the puppet state of Manchuko was proclaimed there. In mid-1937 the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out and Japan's advance south through China began.

In 1940 the Japanese multi-party state was dead, a central organization called Taisei Yokusankai took over all functions. In a press interview on August 1, 1940, the Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke announced the development of the Greater East Asian sphere of prosperity . This economic and defense community of Asian countries under Japanese rule should be free from Western influence.

On September 22nd of the same year the Japanese forced a military agreement from the French after a previous ultimatum. This included the use of three airports and the transit of own troops through Indochina to China. In a note to the Japanese, the United States disapproved of this approach and rejected it.

The planned Japanese defense area in the Pacific (late 1941)

On September 27, 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy , which expanded the existing Anti-Comintern Pact to include mutual military support. The Japanese emperor thus rejected his neutrality , which he had announced on September 5, 1939, and underlined his aggressive foreign policy, especially towards China.

The USA, which had entered into a political engagement with the leader of the Chinese national party Kuomintang Chiang Kai-shek , tried again and again to intervene, but several diplomatic negotiations in 1941 did not lead to any useful results. The Japanese also spoke of peaceful territorial expansion into the Southwest Pacific and called on the Americans to support them in the extraction and production of raw materials such as oil , rubber , tin and nickel . Literally it said:

"Japanese expansion in the direction of the southwestern Pacific area is declared to be of peaceful nature, American cooperation shall be given in the production and procurement of natural resources (such as oil, rubber, tin, nickel) which Japan needs."

“The Japanese expansion towards the southwestern Pacific is declared to be peaceful in nature. An American cooperation is to take place through the production and procurement of raw materials (such as oil, rubber, tin and nickel) that Japan needs. "

On July 2nd, the decision was made in Japan to extend the territorial claim to Southeast Asia. US decryption specialists succeeded in deciphering a corresponding radio message, so that Washington, London and Melbourne were quickly informed about the planned approach of the Japanese. The Japanese immediately drafted more than a million men for military service and received the approval of the Vichy regime to occupy Indochina , today's Vietnam , which was carried out on July 29th. Two days later, the US and Britain imposed an export - embargo on Japan and froze its financial resources.

Ambassador Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura (left), Foreign Minister Cordell Hull (center) and Ambassador Saburō Kurusu (far right) on November 20, 1941

Because of the embargo of Great Britain and the USA and because Japan was cut off from the raw material supplies of the European allies, a war with the USA and Great Britain appeared to be the only alternative to the loss of the empire in its previous form. In particular, the abundant natural resources of the Dutch and British colonies were a worthwhile destination for the Japanese.

On December 1, the Imperial Conference under Tōjō Hideki decided the violent expansion of the Japanese sphere of influence to the south and the war of aggression against the USA. Meanwhile, the Japanese Ambassador Admiral Nomura Kichisaburō held peace talks with the American Secretary of State Cordell Hull in Washington, DC .

In view of the worsening situation, the British put their troops on the Malay Peninsula on high alert that same day . The fleet under Admiral Tom Spencer Vaughan Phillips was instructed to search the waters east of Singapore for enemy ships.

At the same time, Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku issued the following order to the Imperial Fleet:

“Japan, under the necessity of her self-preservation and self-defense, has reached a position to declare war on the United States of America, United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The Supreme Commander of the Combined Fleet will start the war with an attack on the enemy fleet in the Hawaii Islands area and destroy it with the 1st Air Fleet. "

“For reasons of self-preservation and self-defense, Japan has reached a position that deems it necessary to declare war on the United States of America, Great Britain and the Netherlands. The Commander in Chief of the United Fleet will start the war by attacking the enemy fleet in the Hawaii area and destroy it with the 1st Air Fleet. "

Australian poster that warns of the advance of the Japanese to the south and lays down rules of conduct in the event of war

American planes sighted twelve Japanese submarines off the coast of Indochina on December 2, heading south, possibly to Singapore. On the same day, Yamamoto gave the signal to start all operations with the words "Climb Mount Niitaka " and the announcement of the day of the attack.

Admiral Phillips flew to Manila on December 4 and met with Admiral Thomas C. Hart and General Douglas MacArthur to reach an agreement for a cooperation agreement in the Far East. In the South China Sea, three Japanese divisions were on their way to invade Thailand and Malaysia at the time.

All Japanese consulates in the United States have been ordered to destroy all of their coding and secret documents. This happened via Radio Tokyo , which brought the words "Higashi no kaze ame" (German: "Ostwind, Regen") in a weather forecast - one of the possible sentences that should herald the war with the USA. In the Dutch colonies, too, this announcement was received and decoded by the listening station Kamer 14 (room 14) in the technical college in Bandung on Java, the importance of which was known to the top management. So they immediately forwarded the report to their embassy in Washington to have the American government notified.

On December 6, Australian reconnaissance planes spotted the Japanese convoy heading south from Indochina. Admiral Phillips then left the round table in Manila. British and American ships were given discontinuation orders to protect the East Asian islands and British reconnaissance planes took off from their bases in order to undertake steady patrol flights.

With the laying of mines off the coast of the Malay Peninsula by Japanese submarines and the large-scale attack on Pearl Harbor , the real Pacific War began on December 7th. The next day, the United States, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Netherlands declared war on the Japanese. Japan itself waited until January 11, 1942 to declare war on the Netherlands, as they hoped for a withdrawal of the Dutch troops through their rapid and successful advance southwards, but this did not happen.

The South Campaign

On December 1, 1941, the Japanese had more than 250,000 trained and trained soldiers stationed in Indochina to expand their empire south, and more units followed in the next few days. The troop transports and escort ships lay ready in the ports to carry out the expected orders.

Japanese naval parade 1940

The plan provided for the capture of the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines on the first train. The main force in the Philippines then gathered in Davao and met other units from Palau there . From there they set course for Jolo , a small island off Borneo, which the 23rd and 11th Air Fleet had reached at the end of December 1941. The 22nd Air Fleet, which was intended to cover operations in Malaya and stationed near Saigon , was available as an intervention reserve with more than 100 combat aircraft. Following this, the 21st Air Fleet took up station on Davao in early January 1942. The 2nd fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy was in Formosa with its main train from December 25th .

To conquer the East Indies, a pincer movement with two wedges was provided. The eastern fleet, which was to pass through the Moluccas and then take Manado , Kendari and Makassar on Celebes, and landing points on Ambon and Timor , and the western fleet, supported by the 23rd Air Fleet, coming through the Strait of Makassar , Tarakan , Balikpapan and Banjarmasin on the east coast of Borneo .

In the meantime, the air and land forces on the Malay Peninsula were to advance to Singapore and another tactical reaction force was to take Rabaul in New Britain , in order to station fighter planes there using aircraft carriers .

Malay Peninsula

Japanese units in Johore

The Japanese invasion of the Malay Peninsula (Operation "E") began on December 7th (8th) 1941 with the landings at Kota Bharu in the north of what is now Malaysia and further landings in Thailand . The commander-in-chief of the Japanese armed forces was General Yamashita Tomoyuki , who was nicknamed the Tiger of Malaya by the Allies after this campaign . It ended with the fall of Singapore on February 15, 1942.

Around 88,000 Allied defenders, consisting of Indian, British, Australian and Malay units, opposed the 70,000 Japanese who, equipped with bicycles and tanks, advanced from the north to Singapore in just under two months. The Allies lost around 5,000 men and around 50,000 of them were taken prisoner by Japan. The Japanese lost about 1,800 soldiers.

The British Commander- in -Chief in Singapore, General Arthur Percival , tried to defend the city with 85,000 men, but the Japanese succeeded in taking the city on February 15.

Philippines

Destruction at Hickam Field Air Force Base

On November 6, 1941, the Japanese Southern Army was set up, which consisted of three regional armies and a few armies with appropriate air support. General Terauchi Hisaichi was in command . For the invasion of the Philippines, the 14th Army under Lieutenant General Homma Masaharu was designated, which consisted of the 16th and 48th Divisions and the 65th Brigade .

The first air strikes against American bases in Luzon began on the morning of December 8th with attacks on American installations at Tuguegarao and Baguio . At noon the Japanese destroyed the US fighter planes at the Clark Field and Iba bases . At the same time, the Japanese took the Batan Islands on the Luzon Strait . They set up a small air force base there , from which the first operations could be started the next day.

In the next few days, the Japanese gained complete air and sea control over the area of ​​the northern Philippines. They bombed the Cavite naval port near Manila and incessantly bombed American air bases. The US Asia fleet (Task Force 5) had already been withdrawn.

The actual landings began on December 10 in northern Luzon at Aparri and Vigan and two days later at Legazpi in southern Luzon. They advanced rapidly inland from the landing beaches.

The Japanese celebrate their victory on Bataan.

In order to get a basis for the continuation of the conquests in the Southeast Asian area, General Homma had planned the capture of Davao on Mindanao in the southern Philippines. On December 20, 5,000 soldiers went ashore and occupied the city. From there two battalions started for Jolo in the Sulu archipelago , which fell on December 25th.

The main landings for the capture of Luzon finally took place on December 21 in the Gulf of Lingayen and on December 24 in Lamon Bay . The Americans and Filipinos failed to stop or even hit back the Japanese. They had to withdraw gradually to the Bataan peninsula . Manila fell into Japanese hands on January 2, 1942.

The allied troops in the south of Bataan were able to hold out until April 9, but then had to surrender to the Japanese with around 70,000 men and were taken prisoner of war. During the subsequent death march from Bataan , which took them back to prison camps in central Luzon, around 16,000 of them were killed.

As the last Allied bastion in the Philippines, the small island of Corregidor off the coast of Bataan had to surrender on May 6th.

Dutch East Indies

The Japanese conquest of the Dutch East Indies

The Dutch Defense

When fighting began in the Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia , the Royal Dutch East India Legion (KNIL) consisted of only about 85,000 soldiers in this area, whose main task was to maintain order in the colonies. By means of recruiting in the colonies as quickly as possible , the KNIL increased its strength to 121,000 men. The majority of the troops were made up of local mercenaries who had been employed in the military units or at local police stations. The Dutch soldiers and officers made up only a small part of the entire force, which was better equipped than the domestic army, but not as modern as the Japanese.

In contrast to the land army, the Royal Netherlands Navy was in a good state of defense when the war broke out. It had three light cruisers, seven destroyers, fifteen submarines and a large number of minesweepers and miners, who joined forces with the other allies to form the ABDA fleet . The Dutch Navy Air Force also had many modern combat aircraft, such as the German Dornier Do 24 and the American Consolidated PBY Catalina , but the Air Force aircraft were all outdated and posed no threat to the modern, fast Japanese aircraft.

Borneo (Dutch-British)

The invasion of the island of Borneo by Japanese forces took place from December 16, 1941 to around mid-March 1942, and led to the fall of the entire colonial possessions of the Dutch and British on the island.

Major General Kawaguchi Kiyotake's units succeeded in capturing the strategically important Singkawang II and Samarinda II airfields , as well as occupying the oil production facilities in Miri , Seria and Lutong . Other oil deposits and refineries on Tarakan (→ Battle of Tarakan ) and Balikpapan and the important oil port Bandjermasin also fell into Japanese hands.

Sumatra

The invasion of Sumatra took place from February 14th to March 28th 1942 and resulted in the fall of the entire colonial possessions of the Dutch on the island. The fall of Sumatra was planned before the invasion of Java in order to eliminate the strong western flank of the Allies with access to Java .

The Japanese invasion plan was divided into two parts and consisted of Operation "L", which envisaged the capture of Palembang in the south of the island, the surrounding oil fields and the P1 airfield located there, and Operation "T", which started the invasion on February 28 continued in the northern part of the island.

Sumatra finally fell on March 28th when the last KNIL units surrendered at Kutatjane in North Sumatra .

Riau Islands ( Kepulauan Riau )

Do 24K-1 X-19 of the Dutch. On December 25, 1941, the machine was involved in an aerial battle with Japanese fighter planes over the Anambas .

In Tanjung Pinang on the island of Bintan , only a small KNIL garrison under Major J. H. de Vries was stationed for defense . In addition, there were Landsturm infantry companies in Tanjung Uban and Pulau Sambu . They all retreated to Australia when the Japanese approached.

Celebes

At the beginning of 1942, the KNIL on Celebes, today's Sulawesi , in the north near Manado had about 1,500 men at its disposal. Among them were about 600 locals. The units were not particularly trained and poorly armed. They were to be used to guard and defend the two airfields near Manado. There were around 1,000 KNIL soldiers in the Makassar area. Another 200 men were stationed in the southwest of the island. The units were all under the command of Colonel M. Vooren , who was aware that he had little chance of coastal defense. Therefore, he decided to wage guerrilla warfare inland against the Japanese forces. For this purpose he had a replenishment depot set up in Enrekang and trained 400 locals there to become guerrilla fighters by Lieutenant Colonel Jan Gortmans . In addition, there were some fortified positions at Tjamba about 80 kilometers northeast of Makassar . Towards the end of January, while the Japanese were already taking the north of the island, all European women and children were evacuated to Java and the KNIL families moved from Makassar to two camps, Malino and Pakato, in the mountains east of the city.

Vice-Admiral Ibō Takahashi , to whom the fleet for the conquest of the Dutch East Indies was subordinate
North Celebes (Kema and Manado)

To carry out the landings on Celebes (Operation H), the 1st Sasebo Special Landing Force in Davao under Captain Kunizo Mori boarded six transporters, which left the port on January 9th, together with minesweepers, submarine hunters, eleven destroyers and the light one Cruiser Nagara as the flagship , formed a convoy towards Celebes. The commandant was Rear Admiral Kubo Kyūji . After an air landing on Langoan Airfield (Manado II) by 334 paratroopers who had taken off from the air base in Davao, the invasion unit landed on the beaches of the Minahassa Peninsula near Kema , southwest of Bitung , at 3:00 a.m. on January 11 and at Manado at 4:00 a.m. The following day, 185 more paratroopers landed on the airfield to reinforce them.

Southern Celebes (Kendari and Makassar)

The 1st Sasebo Special Landing Force boarded six transporters in Bangka , near Menado , on January 21 and ran with a cruiser, several destroyers, mine layers and miners and a freighter to Kendari , where they met without significant resistance. January went ashore. However, there was an incident at sea on the same day when the transporter Myoken Maru was sunk by the US submarine Swordfish and American bombers damaged the destroyer Hatsuharu .

Ambon

At the end of 1941, the port of Ambon was quite well armed with 19 coastal batteries and there was a fortified airport near Laha , where some Hudson bombers were stationed. There was also a small flying boat station. However, even before the beginning of the Pacific War, responsible officers expressed their doubts about being able to prevent a possible Japanese occupation of the island, as they saw their units completely underarmed.

In order to better defend the Moluccas Islands was Brigadier Edward F. Lind beginning of the war the command to set units to Timor and Ambon in March and then ended on 17 December 1941, the Australian Gull force with 1,170 soldiers under Lt. Col. Leonard N. Roach on Ambon to support the 2,800 KNIL soldiers stationed there under Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph RL Kapitz . Roach was replaced by Major John R. Scott on January 16, 1942, not least because of his criticism of the weak defense . At this point in time, the Australian units were already suffering from dysentery and sometimes malaria due to the poor supply and hygiene situation .

The first air strike by Japanese airmen occurred on January 6th when seven flying boats attacked targets on the island. Further attacks followed on the 15th and 16th of the month, during which some Hudson bombers were destroyed and the flying boat base was rendered unusable. Japanese aircraft of the carrier association under Rear Admiral Yamaguchi Tamon , with the carriers Hiryū and Sōryū , who operated to cover the landings on Celebes in the Banda Sea, attacked the Allied base on Ambon with 35 fighter planes on January 24th and 25th. The attacks were repeated with smaller waves on the following days. At the end of January the remaining Hudson bombers were flown out, leaving Ambon without an air defense. A day later, shortly before dawn on January 29, guards reported the sighting of five incoming warships and seventeen transports, as well as a few unidentifiable ships. The defenders on the island immediately began to destroy the most important oil storage depots, bomb depots and aircraft hangars.

Japanese planning did not envisage an invasion of the island until February 6, 1942, but the quick and successful conquests put them ahead of their original plan and preferred the capture of Ambon. So they landed on the morning of January 29th at Hitu-Iama and on the Laitimor peninsula . Since there were only smaller units of the KNIL at Hitu-Iama, the Japanese could go ashore there without major problems, overrun the defenders and advance further inland to Paso over undamaged bridges . In a short time the Dutch units lost contact with the Australians and, since they had no radios, also with each other. With that they also lost the overview of the overall situation on Ambon.

Fighting with the Australians began on the Laitimor Peninsula, and fierce resistance lasted until February 2nd. But they were pushed further and further towards the coast and on the morning of February 3rd had exhausted themselves so much that a surrender was discussed. After all weapons were made unusable, the Australians surrendered to the Japanese. Around 800 Australians were taken prisoner by Japan.

The main Japanese landing under Major General Itō Takeo took place at Hutumor . From there the Japanese advanced quickly to Laha on bicycles and horses.

The battle for Laha began in the late afternoon of January 31st. The defenders who remained there had little to counter the strong machine gun and artillery fire and when dive bombers and naval artillery intervened in the battle on February 2 and the Japanese succeeded in taking the airfield, the defenders were defeated and surrendered. The 300 or so surviving KNIL soldiers were taken to a camp near Tan Tui, north of Ambon City , together with the Australian prisoners . There the Japanese committed the Laha massacre on them .

Timor

An Australian army unit with 1,400 men, the Sparrow Force , reached Kupang , the capital of the Dutch western part of the island , on December 12, 1941 . The unit was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel William Leggatt . The Sparrow Force was joined by 650 men from the Royal Dutch-Indian Legion ( Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger KNIL) under Lt. Col. Nico van Straten including the Timor and Dependencies Garrison Battalion , a company of the 8th Infantry Battalion, a reserve infantry company, a machine gun platoon of the XIII. Infantry battalions and an artillery battery. The land forces were supported by 12 Lockheed Hudson light bombers of No. 2 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and a 189-strong contingent of the British 79th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery of the Royal Artillery . Allied troops were stationed around the strategically important airfield at Penfui . Some units were also stationed in Klapalima , Usapa Besar , Babau . The Sparrow Force supply base was further east in Champlong .

Australian Commando fighters in a camp in the Timor jungle

On January 26th, the first attacks by Japanese planes on the Allied troops in West Timor took place. On the night of February 19-20, the 228th Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Japanese Army began landing on Timor. The Australians retreated south into the mountains with losses and about 200 Dutch soldiers moved under Van Straten to the southwest towards the border.

On the same night, the Allied troops in West Timor came under heavy air strikes, which forced the RAAF to retreat to Australia. The bombardment was followed by the landing of the main power of the 228th regiment in the undefended southwest of the island on the Paha River .

At the end of February, Japan controlled most of West Timor and the area around Dili in the northeast. The Australians began a guerrilla war from the mountains with the Japanese, which lasted until December 1942. By this time the Japanese had already stationed 12,000 soldiers on Timor. The last allies left Timor in February 1943.

Bali

The island of Bali , east of the actual main target Java, was not a primary component of the Japanese invasion efforts until the airfields in southern Borneo near Banjarmasin failed due to heavy monsoon rains . At short notice, the Japanese leadership decided to take Bali, because from there the strategically important naval port of the Dutch in Surabaja could be easily reached with fighter planes. In the night of February 17-18, 1942, a Japanese invasion fleet destined for Bali under the command of Rear Admiral Kubo Kyūji from Makassar .

No regular KNIL units were stationed in Bali. Only one local auxiliary corps, the Corps Prajoda , established in 1938 with around 600 soldiers and a few Dutch officers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel WP Roodenburg, stood ready to defend the island. Their most important task was to hold the airfield at Denpasar when the Japanese arrived and, if that were impossible, to destroy it. However, the Dutch had no fighter planes at the time.

On the night of February 19, the two transporters Sagami Maru and Sasako Maru anchored near Senoer . A little further at sea were the four destroyers Arashio , Asashio , Oshio and Michishio of the 8th Destroyer Division for convoy cover and the light cruiser Nagara with another three destroyers, Hatsushimo , Nenohi and Wakaba as intercepting fleet. Shortly afterwards, Japanese soldiers went into the landing craft and landed on the beaches. This was the almost complete 3rd Infantry Battalion (one company was missing) of the 48th Japanese Infantry Division under the command of Major Kanemura Matabei . It was able to quickly advance to Denpasar under cover of darkness and take the airfield undamaged around 10:30 in the morning. The Dutch pioneers misinterpreted Roodenburg's order not to postpone the destruction action as a postponement and had not triggered the explosions. The next day, the first Japanese fighter planes from the Tainan Air Group landed on the airfield.

After the landing, the departing Japanese fleet met the arriving units of the ABDA fleet and the sea ​​battle broke out in the Strait of Badung . It was successful for the Japanese Navy.

Java

The Japanese celebrate their landing near Merak , West Java

After the battle in the Java Sea , which ended in disaster for the allied ABDA fleet, the Japanese began the landings on Java on March 1, 1942 in the east and west of the island. They faced around 25,000 KNIL soldiers, around 6,000 soldiers from the British Army and a small number of Australian and American units on the island. After some heavy fighting, the cities of Tjilatjap and Bandung fell to the Japanese on March 7th. The Dutch surrendered the following day and the other nations involved on March 9th. Java was finally completely occupied by the Japanese from March 28th.

With the fall of Java, the Dutch lost their colonial possessions in Southeast Asia. The Japanese had not only broken through the so-called Malay Barrier , but also opened up access to the Indian Ocean and Australia. The rich natural resources, above all the oil and rubber deposits, could now be exploited for military production.

Operations in the Banda Sea and Invasion of the Moluccas

The Japanese High Command launched Operation T on July 29, 1942 under the command of Rear Admiral Hatakeyama Koichiro . The departing fleet divided into three attack units to approach the targets on the Moluccas . The first fleet ran from Babo in New Guinea to Aru, the second from Misool to the Kei Islands and the third from Ambon to Babar and Tanimbar.

  • Ceram , was occupied in the run-up to "Operation T" on March 31, 1942 - The landing took place on the beach of Boela - The KNIL defenders (100 men) destroyed the oil fields and left Ceram at the end of January.
  • Kei , July 30, 1942 - Toeal - A small KNIL ( Operation Plover ) force was stationed on the quay in July to keep local uprisings down. The command of the 27-man unit was Lieutenant F. Hieronymus . A first Japanese landing wave could be repulsed. After Japanese reinforcements arrived, Kai was overrun by the landing forces.
  • Aru , July 30, 1942 - The KNIL force, which was stationed on Aru in Dodo in July as part of Operation Plover , comprised 41 men. They did not resist the Japanese.
  • Tanimbar , July 30, 1942 - Landing in Saumlaki Bay - The KNIL troops ( Operation Plover ) were stationed on Tanimbar in July. Her strength was 13 men under Sergeant Julius Tahija . The first Japanese landing could be repelled by the KNIL, which was only equipped with two light machine guns. Relief by Australian units failed on July 31 ( Plover Force - 30 men) due to their fire from the sea. Shortly afterwards, the Japanese ships also shot at the KNIL unit, which then embarked on a sailing ship and headed for Australia.
  • Babar , July 30, 1942 - no KNIL units on the island.
  • Banda , February 23, 1942 - Bombing by the Japanese and evacuation of the Dutch administration, May 8, 1942 - Landing of the Japanese

New Guinea (Dutch-Australian)

Operation "SR" (from March 1, 1942)

Australian New Guinea

The 4th Fleet under Vice Admiral Inoue Shigeyoshi ran from Rabaul to New Guinea to land a battalion of the South Seas troops at Salamaua on March 5 . A landing force of the Navy went ashore on March 8th near Lae in Huongolf , another on March 10th near Finschhafen (→ Operation SR ).

The cover took over the 6th cruiser squadron with the cruisers Aoba , Furutaka , Kako and Kinugasa and the 18th cruiser squadron with the light cruisers Tenryū and Tatsuta . On March 8, the Tenryū also explored the situation at Buka , north of Bougainville . The 6th destroyer flotilla with the cruiser Yūbari and the destroyers Asanagi , Mochizuki , Mutsuki , Oite , Yayoi and Yūnagi as well as the 24th naval aviation group with the makeshift seaplane tender Kiyokawa Maru took over the direct security and supply of the landing forces .

An American convoy with the registration ZK.7 transported the Americal Division from Melbourne to Noumea from March 7th to 10th . It was secured by the cruisers USS Honolulu and USS New Orleans and the destroyer USS Mugford .

Task Force 11 under Vice Admiral Wilson Brown with the aircraft carrier USS Lexington and the cruisers USS Indianapolis , USS Minneapolis , USS Pensacola and USS San Francisco as well as the destroyers USS Aylwin , USS Bagley , USS Clark , USS Dale , USS Dewey , USS Drayton and USS Starting March 6, Hull , USS MacDonough , USS Patterson and USS Phelps , together with Task Force 17 under Rear Admiral Fletcher, formed an attack group with the carriers USS Yorktown and the destroyers USS Russell and USS Walke to move from the southern waters of New Guinea to the landing beaches of the Attacking Japanese.

Both aircraft carriers launched a total of 104 aircraft on March 10, which attacked the Japanese landing areas after their flight over the Owen Stanley Mountains. They sank the auxiliary cruiser Kongo Maru and the transporter Yokohama Maru . The cruiser Yubari , the destroyers Asanagi and Yunagi , the mine- layer Tsugaru , as well as two other auxiliary ships and a transporter were damaged in the attacks. The transporter Tenyu Maru was grounded and abandoned by the Japanese after heavy hits.

An Australian-New Zealand Association ( ANZAC ) supported by US ships operated under Rear Admiral John Gregory Crace with the cruisers HMAS Australia , USS Chicago and the destroyers USS Lamson and USS Perkins with the cruisers USS Astoria and USS Louisville and seconded from Task Force 17 Destroyers USS Anderson , USS Hammann , USS Hughes and USS Sims southeast of New Guinea.

The Australian auxiliary cruiser HMAS Westralia transported a battalion of the Americal Division from Noumea to Éfaté in the New Hebrides between March 16 and 18 . The New Zealand cruisers HMNZS Achilles and HMNZS Leander serve as escorts .

With Operation MO , the Japanese leadership attempted the advance on Port Moresby from May 3, 1942 . The capture of the city, planned by Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku , had to be canceled as a result of the battle in the Coral Sea . As a result, it is decided to conquer Port Moresby overland.

On July 21st, Japanese units landed near Buna and Gona in northeast New Guinea as part of Operation RI . From there they started the Kokoda Track campaign to advance over the Owen Stanley Mountains to Port Moresby, which had to be given up in mid-November against a strong Australian defense.

Dutch New Guinea

According to the naval directive 62 of the Japanese headquarters of March 5, 1942, after the capture of Java, the troops were ordered to New Guinea to wipe out the KNIL units that remained there. Strategically important places were to be conquered, which had been previously selected with regard to possible hostile air bases, landing points and locations of oil fields. It was also important to establish a good communication and supply line with the Australian administered part of the island. The planned landing sites were Babo , Fakfak , Hollandia , Manokwari , Moemi , Nabire , Sarmi , Serui and Sorong . The main power should go ashore in the area at Fakfak and Manokwari. Boela on Ceram was chosen as an upstream base , as an oil field could also be captured there. Rear Admiral Fujita Ruitaro began to assemble the invasion fleet on Ambon on March 15, which reached Ceram on March 31.

  • Fakfak: The small KNIL garrison surrendered to the Japanese on April 1st without a fight.
  • Babo: The approx. 200 KNIL men were busy building a second runway on the airfield. Three Hudson bombers were stationed there, which were to be used as fighters against Japanese air raids. After the Japanese landing on April 1, the Dutch tried to flee to Australia.
  • Sorong: Location of the Dutch naval aviation group GVT-2 with three Dornier Do-24K (X-11, X-12, X-25) under Lieutenant WJ Reynierse. The Japanese landing took place on April 4th. The Dutch capitulated after a brief exchange of fire.
  • Manokwari: The KNIL had around 125 men stationed here under Captain JBH Willemsz Geeroms. The Japanese landing units disembarked in Dore Bay on April 12th. The KNIL resistance was quickly broken. The KNIL troops (60 men and 17 locals left) withdrew into the jungle, where they had set up storage camps as a precaution, and waged a guerrilla fight until the Japanese overran the last camp with 35 remaining KNIL soldiers on April 18, 1944. Few were able to escape. Captain Geeroms fell into the hands of the Japanese. Sergeant Mauretz Christiaan Kokkelink took command. Under him, in October of the same year, contact was made with Allied troops near Sansapor , who evacuated the remaining 17 soldiers and one local to Australia.
  • Moemi: KNIL units weren't stationed here. The plantations operated by the Japanese before the war were the target of the landing forces on April 15th.
  • Serui: The place on the island of Yapen was taken by the Japanese on April 16 without a fight. The island of Biak was captured by the 36th Infantry Division on April 25 to create an airfield there.
  • Nabire: A small KNIL outpost that was overrun by the Japanese on April 17th. The few KNIL soldiers stationed there could hardly offer any resistance and the forestry operations formerly under Japanese concession were occupied.
  • Sarmi: After brief skirmishes with the local KNIL units, the Japanese occupied the city on April 19 and stationed 68 soldiers there.
  • Hollandia: On April 19, the Japanese took the city after a short battle with the KNIL and stationed some soldiers there.

On April 21, the main forces of the Japanese landing units reunited in Manokwari. After the KNIL could virtually no longer offer any resistance and the Japanese said they had no victims to complain about, they transferred the landing units back to Ambon.

New Britain

The natural harbor of the city of Rabaul in northeast New Britain had been chosen by the Japanese as the base for their further operations in the direction of New Guinea , specifically Port Moresby , the Solomon Islands and Australia . In addition, Rabaul had to be protected from further Allied expansion, as the important strategic base Truk was within the range of Allied bombers that could take off from Rabaul. Therefore, Rabaul was originally supposed to be captured at the beginning of the fighting in Southeast Asia.

Gasmata in the south of the island was captured by the Japanese on February 9th. The airfield created there by an Australian plantation owner was expanded by them and equipped with nine light anti-aircraft guns. The Japanese named the airfield "Surmi". It served as an important base , especially during the battle in the Bismarcksee .

Rabaul

Major General Horii Tomitarō , Commander in Chief of the landing forces in Rabaul

Rabaul was only manned by a small Australian unit, the "Lark Force" under the command of Colonel John Scanlan , with around 1,400 soldiers. In addition, there were the crews and maintenance units of the ten Wirraway combat aircraft of the Royal Australian Air Force stationed there . Two cannons aimed at sea and three anti-aircraft cannons were available for defense. Despite this very poor defense strength of Rabaul, the Japanese gathered a huge force. To secure the "Operation R" they offered four aircraft carriers, two battleships as well as a cruiser and eight destroyers. The landings were carried out on the evening of January 22nd and Rabaul was in the hands of the Japanese the next day.

For the Japanese, Rabaul was subsequently the most important outpost in Southeast Asia. They repaired the airfields as quickly as possible and expanded the city into a fortress with a gigantic, partly underground supply base, which was temporarily manned by up to 200,000 soldiers.

New Ireland

On the same day, January 23, 1942, when the Japanese Navy took Rabaul, New Britain, Japanese units landed north of Kavieng in New Ireland . The small Australian garrison, consisting of 250 soldiers under the command of Major J. Edmonds-Wilson , was unable to offer any significant resistance. In addition, some of them were also on outposts that were spread as far as Tulagi in the Solomon Islands .

All European women and children had been flown to Australia before Christmas 1941. The first attacks by 60 Japanese fighter planes and bombers, which had been launched by four aircraft carriers of the Kidō Butai returning from Hawaii , took place on January 21 against Kavieng. They mainly hit the port and the recently built airport. Shortly after the attacks, the decision to evacuate the city was made and immediately implemented.

The Japanese captured Kavieng the same day they landed. The airport, which was defended by a small group of soldiers, was in Japanese hands in the early morning of January 24th. Within a week, the Japanese repaired the runway, which had been damaged by bombs, and used the airfield to attack the Solomon Islands as the war continued.

Manus

Manus was occupied by a platoon from the First Independent Company of the Australian Imperial Force in November 1941 . They moved into quarters in Lorengau , where they began to expand the small airfield located there. They hired hundreds of the local population to do this. The airfield was completed after a few weeks, but no Allied warplanes landed there during the war that had broken out in the East Asian region. The first and only Japanese air raid was carried out on January 25, 1942 by three single-engine flying boats that attacked at tree height. The main target was the antenna mast of the small radio station on the airfield.

On April 8, the Japanese light cruiser Tatsuta , the destroyer Mutsuki and the troop transporter Mishima Maru arrived in the port of Lorengau. Japanese troops occupied the city within a very short time without encountering any resistance. The Australians had withdrawn into the nearby jungle with little equipment and food to wait for promised evacuation ships. However, these never happened.

After a few weeks, the Australians fought their way to the south of the island. A launch and a ketch lay hidden at anchor there, with which they managed to escape to Bogadjim ( Stephansort ) in Astrolabe Bay , south of Madang . On May 16, they reached Mount Hagen Camp, where they met other refugees from Manus. From there they were flown out from the Wau airfield .

Christmas Island

The British garrison on Christmas Island consisted of only a handful of Indian soldiers ; together with the local police, about 100 men were available. The only heavy weapon available was an outdated 15 cm gun . After a Japanese task force had shelled the island on March 7, it was decided that the defense of the island would be hopeless in the event of an attack and therefore no resistance should be offered. The soldiers were then taken as a prisoner of war .

After the survey of the island, the Japanese found it unsuitable for the establishment of a larger reconnaissance base and evacuated except for a small garrison.

Prisoners of war

During the campaigns on the islands of Southeast Asia, the Japanese armed forces fell into the hands of a large number of Allied soldiers. In many cases, these were first brought to their respective quarters and these were often converted into primitive prison camps. Sometimes the Japanese also set up their own large camps to bring together prisoners from different camps. The conditions in the camps were usually relatively good at the beginning, but deteriorated noticeably over time. Above all, the hygienic conditions and the diet left a lot to be desired, so that diseases such as dysentery and malaria spread quickly. The harassment of the guards, mostly recruited from Korea , also contributed significantly.

Borneo

Sandakan death marches : The Sandakan POW camp had been located in the northern part of Borneo since mid-1942 , where around 2,700 Allied prisoners, mostly Australians and British, worked together with a large number of locals to expand an airfield for the Japanese occupiers. Living conditions in the camp deteriorated as the war continued, and in early 1945 the Japanese decided to move 455 of the healthiest prisoners to Jesselton . As a result of the increasing Allied air raids, the march ended in Ranau. In late May and mid-June of that year, more prisoners were transferred to Ranau. Of the prisoners who remained in Sandakan, 1,400 and 3,600 locals died by the end of the war. All prisoners died on the marches and then in the Ranau camp. Only six Australians who managed to escape survived with the help of the local population.

Sumatra

The Dutch had given up their plans to build a railway line between Pakan-Baroe and Moecura to transport oil and coal before the outbreak of war. The route through impassable rainforests and swamps as well as the construction of bridges over rivers, which became raging waters during the monsoon season , seemed too difficult and dangerous for them. From May 1943, the Japanese carried out the old plans, first using 120,000 slaves ( Romushas ) from Java and locals, then from May 1944 also using more than 5,000 prisoners of war. They were made up of Dutch (approx. 4,000), British (almost 1,000), American, Australian and New Zealand soldiers. The workers were guarded by Korean guards. The railway line was completed on August 15, 1945, the day of the Japanese surrender . The news of the surrender did not get through to the Sumatra rainforest until August 31st. The last camp was evacuated on November 25th. Around 2,500 British and Dutch people and around 80,000 locals died during the work.

consequences

Dictatorial rule by the Japanese - Sukarno is politically tolerated in Indonesia because he has professed to work with the Japanese. A plunder of natural resources began, especially oil. Above all, local forced laborers were used for this purpose. Starting in September 1943, local militias were set up in Sumatra, Java and Bali and on October 3rd the PETA (Indonesian: Pembela Tanah Air - defender of the homeland) was founded. From October 1944 the Japanese introduced limited self-government and after preliminary talks in the first months of 1945 it was announced in July that Indonesia would be handed over to the Indonesians shortly. Due to the Japanese surrender, Indonesia came under the administration of the British ( SEAC - South East Asia Command) after the decision of the Potsdam Conference , as did the southern part of Indochina, Thailand and Malaysia. The Australians administered eastern Indonesia and Kalimantan. As a result, the Indonesians began their struggle for their own independence.

See also

literature

  • Tom Womack, Dutch Naval Air Force Against Japan: The Defense of the Netherlands East Indies, 1941-1942 , McFarland & Company, 2006, ISBN 0-7864-2365-X
  • Ong Chit Chung, Operation Matador: World War II: Britain's Attempt to Foil the Japanese Invasion of Malaya and Singapore , Times Academic Press, Singapore, 2003, ISBN 981-210-266-3
  • William H. Bartsch, December 8, 1941: MacArthur's Pearl Harbor , Texas A&M University Press, 2003, ISBN 1-58544-246-1
  • Nicholas Tarling, A Sudden Rampage: The Japanese Occupation of South East Asia , C. Hurst & Co, 2001, ISBN 1-85065-584-7
  • Masanobu Tsuji , Japan's Greatest Victory / Britain's Worst Defeat , Sarpedon Publishers, 1997, ISBN 1-885119-33-X
  • J. Kennedy, British Civilians and the Japanese War in Malaya and Singapore, 1941-45 , Palgrave Macmillan, 1987, ISBN 0-333-41603-1
  • Robert H Firth, A matter of time: Why the Philippines fell, the Japanese invasion 1941-42 , self-published, 1984, ISBN 0-9605060-0-4

Web links

Malaysia and Singapore

Dutch East Indies

Miri, Sarawak, Borneo

Riau Islands

Celebes

Ambon

Bali

Banda Lake Operations

New Guinea

Japanese war crimes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Discussions with Japan 1941 and Pearl Harbor on mtholyoke.edu
  2. ↑ 2001 History Conference - Remembering 1941: Strategy and Command in Australia's Campaigns of 1941 by Professor David Horner at awm.gov.au
  3. ↑ Memorandum [91] Regarding a Conversation Between the Secretary of State, the Japanese Ambassador (Nomura), and Mr. Kurusu on ibiblio.org
  4. ↑ Chronology of the Dutch East Indies, December 1941 at dutcheastindies.webs.com
  5. ↑ The date line must be observed for the date. While it was December 7th in Pearl Harbor, it was already December 8th in Kota Bahru. Universal time applies in the text.
  6. ^ Australian War Memorial: Australia and the Dutch in the Pacific War at awm.gov.au
  7. ↑ Peter Stanley (2002): Remembering 1942: The defense of the 'Malay barrier': Rabaul and Ambon, January 1942 at awm.gov.au , accessed on July 18, 2018.
  8. ↑ Sea War March 1942 on wlb-stuttgart.de
  9. ↑ Bullard, Steven: Japanese army operations in the South Pacific area: NewBritain and Papua campaigns, 1942–43 . Ed .: Australian War Memorial. Canberra 2007, ISBN 978-0-9751904-8-7 (English).
  10. ↑ a b Australia-Japan Research Project: Offensive against Rabaul and key surrounding areas on ajrp.awm.gov.au
  11. ↑ Gasmata Airfield (Surumi, Tsurumi) on pacificwrecks.com
  12. ↑ The Japanese Invasion of New Ireland 1942 on jje.info
  13. ↑ Kavieng Flugfeld on pacificwrecks.com
  14. ^ Manus Island, experience of No. 4 Section, 'B' Platoon, First Independent Company, Australian Imperial Force on dutcheastindies.webs.com
  15. ↑ Pakan Baroe Death Railway on pakanbaroe.webs.com
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Matsuoka is the family name, Yōsuke the first name.