Seventeenth Army
Imamura adopted an unusually lenient policy towards the local population of the former Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia), which was often in conflict with general opinions and plans of the senior staff of the Southern Army and Imperial General Headquarters. However, his policies won much support from the population (particularly in Java, where he and the 16th Army, placed under his command, were based) and helped to mildly reduce the difficulties of the Japanese military occupation. In late 1942, he assumed command of the new Eighth Area Army, responsible for the Seventeenth Army in the Solomon Islands Campaign and the Eighteenth Army in the New Guinea Campaign. Imamura was then based at Rabaul in New Britain.