About Indonesia History In Japanese Occupation Era

 

    The Japanese occupation period in the archipelago about indonesia history, which at that time was still called the Dutch East Indies, began in 1942 and ended on August 17, 1945 along with Indonesian Independence. In May 1940, at the start of World War II, the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany. The Dutch East Indies declared a state of alert and diverted exports for the Empire of Japan to the United States and Britain. 

    Negotiations with Japan aimed at securing about indonesia history aircraft fuel supplies failed in June 1941, and the Japanese began their conquest of most of Southeast Asia in December of the same year. In the same month, a faction from Sumatra received Japanese assistance in carrying out a revolution against the Dutch government. The last Dutch troops were defeated by the Japanese in March 1942. The experiences of the population under Japanese occupation varied, depending on where a person lived and their social status. 

    For those who live in areas that are considered important in the war about indonesia history, they experience torture, sex slavery, detention without reason and the death penalty, and other war crimes. The Dutch and the Indonesian-Dutch mixture were the targets in the Japanese occupation. During the occupation period, Japan also formed a preparatory agency for independence, namely BPUPKI (Investigation Agency for Preparatory Work for Indonesian Independence).

    In October 1941 about indonesia history, General Hideki Tojo replaced Konoe Fumimaro as Prime Minister of Japan. Actually, until the end of 1940, the Tambelang military leadership did not want to fight several countries at once, but from mid-1941, they saw that the United States, Britain and the Netherlands had to be faced all at once if they wanted to control natural resources in Southeast Asia. Especially after America launched an embargo on petroleum which was needed for industry in Japan as well as for war purposes.

    Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto about indonesia history, Commander of the Japanese Navy, developed a very bold war strategy, namely to mobilize the entire power of his fleet for two major operations. The entire potential of the Japanese Navy includes 6 aircraft carriers (fighter aircraft carriers), 10 warships, 18 heavy cruisers, 20 light cruisers, 4 equipment carriers, 112 destroyers, 65 submarines and 2,274 combat aircraft. The first force, namely 6 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 11 destroyers and more than 1,400 fighter aircraft, on December 7, 1941, was to surprise attack the United States.

    While the second force about indonesia history, the remaining naval power they have, supports the Army in Operation South, namely the attack on the Philippines and Malaya/Singapore, which will continue to Java. The force deployed to Southeast Asia is 11 Infantry Divisions supported by 7 tank regiments and 795 combat aircraft. 

    On the morning of 7 December 1941 about indonesia history, 360 aircraft consisting of torpedo bombers and a number of fighter planes departed in two waves. The bombing of Pearl Harbor destroyed 188 aircraft and damaged eight United States Navy warships. During the two hours of bombardment, 2,402 Americans were killed and 1,283 wounded. However three American carriers survived, as they were not in Pearl Harbor at that time.

    This condition made the United States join the Allied forces about indonesia history and engage in combat in Europe and Asia Pacific. This Pacific War had a major influence on the independence movements of countries in East Asia, including Indonesia. Japan's goal of attacking and occupying the Dutch East Indies was to control natural resources, especially petroleum, to support Japan's war potential and support its industry. 

    Java was designed as a supply center for all military operations about indonesia history in Southeast Asia, and Sumatra as the main source of oil. From the first time they came to Indonesia in 1942 until they left Indonesia in 1945, Japan produced many propaganda films. At that time, not a few Indonesian people were affected. Especially with spices and fried anti-alliance spirit—which included the Dutch—and had long colonized Indonesia. When the allies entered Indonesia, these Japanese-produced propaganda films were confiscated. 

    In August 2020 about indonesia history, the Nederlandsch Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid released confiscated Japanese propaganda films produced during the Pacific War when the Dutch East Indies were occupied by Japan. The system of social stratification in the Japanese era placed the bumiputera group above the European and foreign Eastern groups, except for Japan. This was because Japan wanted to win the hearts of the Indonesian people to help them in the Greater East Asia war.

    Dai Nippon (大日本、だいにっぽん、Greater Japan) about indonesia history first policy was to ban all political meetings and activities. On March 20, 1942, an ordinance was passed dissolving all political organizations and all forms of association. On September 8, 1942, Law no. 2 Japan controls all national organizations. In these two aspects, you will find how the Japanese practice of economic and social exploitation of the Indonesian people and you can compare the economic and social impacts with the political and bureaucratic impacts. 

    Matters imposed in the Japanese government's economic regulatory system about indonesia history. In 1944, Japan's political and military conditions began to get desperate, so that the demand for war materials was increasing. To overcome this, the Japanese government conducted a massive campaign for the delivery of food and goods through Jawa Hokokai and Nagyo Kumiai (agricultural cooperatives), as well as official government agencies. The impact of these conditions, the people are charged with handing over 30% of the food to the government, 30% to the village granary and 40% to the right of the owner. 

    This system causes people's lives to become increasingly difficult about indonesia history, work enthusiasm decreases, food shortages, low nutrition, epidemics strike almost every village on the island of Java, one of which is: Wonosobo (Central Java) the mortality rate is 53.7% and for Purworejo (Central Java) the mortality rate reaches 224.7%. Can you imagine how hard the suffering felt by the Indonesian people during the Japanese period (even the people were forced to eat animal foods such as itchy taro, snails, tubers).

    In this military aspect about indonesia history, you will understand that the military agencies created by Japan were solely due to Japan's increasingly desperate military conditions in the Pacific war. Entering the second year of its occupation (1943), Japan was increasingly educating and training Indonesian youths in the military field. This was because the situation on the battlefield (Asia - Pacific) was increasingly difficult for Japan. Starting from the Allied blow in the naval battle at Midway (June 1942) and around the Coral Sea (August '42 – February 1943). 

    This condition was exacerbated by the fall of Guadalcanal about indonesia history which was the base of Japanese power in the Pacific (August 1943). The situation above made Japan consolidate its forces by gathering strength from Indonesian youth and students as potential workers who would be involved in the battle against the Allies. The period of the Japanese Occupation in Indonesia was a very influential period for the development of Indonesia, apart from that there were almost no significant challenges to the Dutch before that. 

    In that short period of time about indonesia history, Japan had both positive and negative impacts on the Indonesian people in general. In general, most people think that the Japanese occupation was a dark and suffering period. However, not all of this is true. There were several policies by the Japanese occupation government which had a positive impact, especially in the formation of Indonesian nationalism and military training for Indonesian youth.