Also called the Netherlands East Indies, this was, at the time of World War II, a vast Dutch colony in Southeast Asia encompassing Java, Sumatra, Dutch Borneo, Dutch New Guinea, Celebes, the western portion of Timor, and the Moluccas. The colony was an extraordinarily rich source of oil (concentrated in Sumatra), tin, bauxite (the ore from which aluminum is produced), and coal. The colony was densely populated by some 70.5 million persons, including a quarter million Dutch nationals (most of whom fell into Japanese hands and suffered internment under extremely inhumane conditions for the duration of the war).

After the Netherlands fell to Germany and came under occupation in May 1940, the People's Council in Batavia, Java, declared the colony loyal to the Dutch government in exile. This did not impress Japan, Germany's Axis partner, which proclaimed the region part of the so-called Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and summarily demanded a large portion of the colony's produce, as well as fishing and mining rights and access to all ports. The People's Council protested the Japanese declaration and demands, but nevertheless traded with Japan until August 1941, when the Dutch government in exile ordered the colony to cease trade and, in particular, to cut off the supply of oil. Thus, when general war broke out in the Pacific in December, the Dutch East Indies loomed as a great prize for the Japanese.

On December 20, 1941, elements of the Sixteenth Japanese Army, operating from Mindanao in the Philippines, attacked Dutch Borneo, Celebes, and the Moluccas. In a rare Japanese Airborne Assault, paratroops seized the Celebes airfield on January 11, then fanned out to the oilfields of Dutch Borneo and the airfields in Celebes and the Moluccas. Paratroops also preceded the Sixteenth Japanese Army's land invasion of southern Sumatra on February 16. This captured the major refinery at Palembang, Sumatra. Three days later, paratroops cleared the way for the Japanese occupation of Dutch Timor. . .

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