Japan Opens to the World
Japan had been a closed society for hundreds of years until it was obliged to open to the outside world in the nineteenth century. Becoming aware of the advances in technology and organization among western nations that meant Japan had started to lag far behind, the Emperor and his government initiated a rapid program of modernization and industrialization. This program succeeded to the extent that by the turn of the Twentieth Century, Japan was able to engage in a victorious war against Russia, which was one of the main western powers.
Over the next few decades, the Japanese began to set their sights further afield and, by the 1930s, the greatly increased power of the imperial Japanese navy had brought Southeast Asia into what it considered to be its sphere of influence. There, it saw a possibility for securing strategic supplies of oil that would lessen its current reliance on oil imports from western interests. When the invasion of China made it inevitable that a military government would join the fascist Axis alliance, it was only a matter of time before Japan would seek to invade Southeast Asia.
Indonesia under the Dutch
Indonesia is a vast archipelago of thousands of islands, representing a loose alliance of different ethnicities that were knit together by religion and the degree to which one prince could enforce his will on people on other islands. There had never been much sense of nationhood.
The piecemeal colonization of the Indonesian spice islands by the Dutch was significantly assisted by this lack of unity. However, a sense of unity was inspired by the forced servitude of the people to the Dutch. Those who wished to resist colonization needed to locate an alternative ideology to replace subservience: the most commonly considered options included combinations of nationalism, Islam and Communism. However, any idea of revolution or even passive resistance frequently foundered on the belief that the Dutch, as representatives of what were considered to be a superior race, were natural leaders and, hence, the Indonesians natural servants.
The arrival of the Japanese, who conquered Southeast Asia which greater or lesser ease from state to state and who received some support from the oppressed peoples of the region, was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the martial law enforced was extremely strict and measures taken to ensure public order both harsh and entirely in the Japanese interest; on the other hand, at least they were Asians and not alien westerners.
Japan had been a closed society for hundreds of years until it was obliged to open to the outside world in the nineteenth century. Becoming aware of the advances in technology and organization among western nations that meant Japan had started to lag far behind, the Emperor and his government initiated a rapid program of modernization and industrialization. This program succeeded to the extent that by the turn of the Twentieth Century, Japan was able to engage in a victorious war against Russia, which was one of the main western powers.
Over the next few decades, the Japanese began to set their sights further afield and, by the 1930s, the greatly increased power of the imperial Japanese navy had brought Southeast Asia into what it considered to be its sphere of influence. There, it saw a possibility for securing strategic supplies of oil that would lessen its current reliance on oil imports from western interests. When the invasion of China made it inevitable that a military government would join the fascist Axis alliance, it was only a matter of time before Japan would seek to invade Southeast Asia.
Indonesia under the Dutch
Indonesia is a vast archipelago of thousands of islands, representing a loose alliance of different ethnicities that were knit together by religion and the degree to which one prince could enforce his will on people on other islands. There had never been much sense of nationhood.
The piecemeal colonization of the Indonesian spice islands by the Dutch was significantly assisted by this lack of unity. However, a sense of unity was inspired by the forced servitude of the people to the Dutch. Those who wished to resist colonization needed to locate an alternative ideology to replace subservience: the most commonly considered options included combinations of nationalism, Islam and Communism. However, any idea of revolution or even passive resistance frequently foundered on the belief that the Dutch, as representatives of what were considered to be a superior race, were natural leaders and, hence, the Indonesians natural servants.
The arrival of the Japanese, who conquered Southeast Asia which greater or lesser ease from state to state and who received some support from the oppressed peoples of the region, was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the martial law enforced was extremely strict and measures taken to ensure public order both harsh and entirely in the Japanese interest; on the other hand, at least they were Asians and not alien westerners.
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