The Jappentijd — the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies from 1942 to 1945 — was the period of Japanese military rule that began with the Japanese invasion of January-March 1942 and ended with the Japanese surrender of August 1945, during which the K.N.I.L. was dissolved, its European soldaten interned in prisoner-of-war camps, and its indigenous soldaten — including the Ambonese of the Marechaussee — demobilised, pressed into Japanese auxiliary formations like the Heiho, or killed. In Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. the Jappentijd is the great rupture of the colonial army’s history: the moment at which the tangsi culture that had made Oom Ambon was broken, and the moment that conditioned the 1945-1949 Indonesian revolution that followed.
The invasion and the dissolution of the KNIL
The Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies began in January 1942 and was complete by March 1942. The K.N.I.L. — weakened by the cutbacks of the 1930s and the absence of modern equipment — was unable to mount an effective defence. The European soldaten were interned in prisoner-of-war camps; the indigenous soldaten were demobilised, pressed into Japanese auxiliary formations like the Heiho, or killed. The tangsi — the barracks culture that had made Oom Ambon — was broken.
The Japanese occupation of Ambon
The Japanese occupation of Ambon was particularly harsh. The *Kempetei]] — the Japanese military police — conducted the *mass arrest of 23 September 1943|mass arrest of 23 September 1943]] on Ambon, in which large numbers of the Ambonese elite were seized and many executed. The book’s named victim of the Japanese occupation is Pietje de Fretes — the fourier and later onderluitenant, nephew of Thijs de Fretes — who “helaas hebben later de Jappen ook deze aardige, vlotte en flinke vent onthoofd” — the Japanese beheaded him.
The Heiho and the auxiliary formations
The Japanese pressed indigenous soldaten into auxiliary formations like the Heiho — a paramilitary labour corps — and the *PETA]] (Pembela Tanah Air, “Defenders of the Fatherland”). The book registers these formations as part of the Japanese occupation’s dissolution of the colonial army: the indigenous soldaten who had served the Dutch were now made to serve the Japanese, in formations that had no continuity with the tangsi culture that had made them.
The end of the occupation (August 1945)
The Japanese occupation ended with the Japanese surrender of August 1945. The Allied landing that followed — under British command — was the beginning of the 1945-1949 Indonesian revolution. The book’s chapter Onder Brits bewind describes the brief British interregnum that followed the Japanese surrender, before the Dutch returned in force and the colonial army was reconstituted as the instrument of the 1945-1949 war.
Significance
The Jappentijd is significant in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. as the great rupture of the colonial army’s history. The book’s argument is that the tangsi culture that had made Oom Ambon was broken by the Japanese occupation, and that the 1945-1949 Indonesian revolution that followed was therefore a war fought by a reconstituted colonial army, not by the old K.N.I.L.. The beheading of Pietje de Fretes is the book’s small personal register of the occupation’s cost: the Ambonese soldiers who had served the Dutch were killed by the Japanese, and the survivors were then used in the Dutch war against the Republic.
Sources
De geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Korps Mariniers van 1665‑1945, OCR transcription, pages 429‑434, 20260707_232246_DLP-55-De_geschiedenis_van_het_Nederlandsche_Korps_Mariniers_van_1665_1945_OCR.txt. De geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Korps Mariniers van 1665‑1945, OCR edition, pages 410‑415 (mentions of the war years 1940‑1945 and the Dutch East Indies’ involvement in the conflict with Japan). 20260707_232246_DLP-55-De_geschiedenis_van_het_Nederlandsche_Korps_Mariniers_van_1665_1945_OCR.txt.
See Also
- K.N.I.L.
- Heiho
- Kempetei
- Mass arrest of 23 September 1943 (Ambon)
- Pietje de Fretes
- Onder Brits bewind (1945-1946)
- Tegen de rood-witten (1946-1949)
- Souvereiniteitsoverdracht (27 December 1949)
- Tangsi
- Ambon
- 1942
- 1943
- 1945
- Royal Netherlands Marine Corps
- Dutch East Indies
- Aceh
- Java Sea Campaign
- 27 February
- Colonel Von Frijtag Drabbe
- Captain G. Wilhelmy Damsté
- World War II in the Dutch East Indies
- Netherlands East Indies
- World War II
Source
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), chapter “Jappentijd.”