Dutch East Indies campaign The Dutch East Indies campaign of 1941 – 42 was the conquest of the Dutch East Indies ( Indonesia ) by forces from the Empire of Japan in the early days of the Pacific Campaign of World War II . Forces from the Allies attempted unsuccessfully to defend the islands . Indonesia was targeted by the Japanese for its rich oil resources which would become a vital asset during the war . The campaign and subsequent three and a half year Japanese occupation was also a major factor in the end of Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia . Background . The East Indies was determined to be one of Japan ' s primary targets if and when it went to war because the colony possessed abundant valuable resources , the most important of which were its rubber plantations and oil fields ; the colony was the fourth - largest exporter of oil in the world , behind the U . S . , Iran , and Romania . The oil made the islands enormously important to the Japanese ( see below ) , so they sought to secure the supply for themselves . They sent four fleet carriers and a light carrier along with the four fast battleship s of the , 13 heavy cruiser s and many light cruisers and destroyers to support their amphibious assault s in addition to conducting raids on cities , naval units and shipping in both that area and around the Indian Ocean . Access to oil was one of the linchpins of the Japanese war effort , as Japan has no native source of oil ; it could not even produce enough to meet even 10 % of its needs , even with the extraction of oil shale in Manchuria using the Fushun process . Japan quickly lost 93 percent of its oil supply after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued an executive order on 26 July 1941 which froze all of Japan ' s U . S . assets and embargoed all oil exports to Japan . In addition , the Dutch government in exile , after the urging of the Allies and with the support of Queen Wilhelmina , broke its economic treaty with Japan and joined with the embargo in August . Japan ' s military and economic reserves included only a year and a half ' s worth of oil . As a U . S . declaration of war against Japan was feared if the latter took the East Indies , the Japanese planned to eliminate the U . S . Pacific Fleet , allowing them to overtake the islands ; this led to the attack on Pearl Harbor . Campaign . On 8 December 1941 , Netherlands declared war on Japan . General Hisaichi Terauchi ( also known as Count Terauchi ) — who was the commander of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group — began the campaign with attacks against Borneo : on 17 December , Japanese forces successfully landed on Miri , an oil production centre in northern Sarawak , with support from a battleship and aircraft carrier along with three cruisers and four destroyers . Initially , the Japanese forces launched air strikes on key areas and gained air superiority . Following the airstrikes , landings were made at several locations targeting airfields and other important points in the area . In addition to the landings at Miri , the Japanese forces made landings at Seria , Kuching , Jesselton and Sandakan between 15 December 1941 and 19 January 1942 . After these main objectives in Borneo were completed , the Japanese forces planned a three - pronged assault southward using three forces named as Eastern Force , Center Force and Western Force . The aim of this assault was to capture the oil resources in the East Indies . The Eastern Force was to advance from Jolo and Davao , and move on to capture Celebes , Amboina and Timor while protecting the Center Force ' s flank . The Center Force was to capture oil fields and airfields in Tarakan Island and Balikpapan . Both these forces would support the Western Force , which was to attack and capture the oil refineries and airfields in Palembang . The Japanese forces launched the assault on 11 January and landed at Tarakan . To coordinate the fight against the Japanese , the American , British , Dutch , and Australian forces combined all available land and sea forces under the American - British - Dutch - Australian Command ( ABDACOM or ABDA ) banner . This command was activated on 15 January 1942 , with the overall commander being British Field Marshal Sir Archibald Wavell . The command structure had the American Army Air Force Lt . General George Brett as deputy commander , the British Lt . General Henry Royds Pownall as chief of staff ; under this came the American Admiral Thomas C . Hart as naval commander , the Dutch Lt . General Hein ter Poorten as ground forces commander , and the British Air Chief marshal Sir Richard E . C . Peirse as the air commander . Although the forces were combined , they had differing priorities : the British believed the defense of the territory of Singapore and the eastern entrances to the Indian Ocean ( the route to British Ceylon and British India ) to be paramount , the Americans and Australians did not want a total penetration of Southwest Asia that would take bases necessary for any serious counterattack , and the Dutch considered Java and Sumatra , their " second homeland where [ they ] had been trading and living for over three centuries " , to be the most important place to defend . Even the combined forces could not stop or even slow the Japanese advance due to their much greater numbers ; to face the Japanese attacking naval forces , the ABDA command had a conglomerate of ships drawn from any available units , which included the U . S . Asiatic Fleet ( fresh from the fall of the Philippines ) , a few British and Australian surface ships , and Dutch units that had previously been stationed in the East Indies . Major forces included two seaplane tender s ( and ) , two heavy cruisers ( and ) , seven light cruisers ( , and , and , and ) , 22 destroyers , and , perhaps their greatest strength , 25 American and 16 Dutch submarines ( although the Dutch submarines were geriatric and short of spare parts ) . Being based on Java , these ships had to take on the central and western prongs of the three - headed Japanese assault ; the central force ' s combat ships , the light carrier , the seaplane tenders " Sanyo Maru " and " Sanuki Maru " , three light cruisers and sixteen destroyers , while the western force contained five heavy cruisers , and seven destroyers . In addition , four fleet carriers ( , , and ) and the four battleships . The Japanese forces were using Tarakan airfield as a forward airbase by 17 January , and Balikpapan was also captured a week later . However , the Dutch garrisons had destroyed the oil fields before they were captured by the Japanese in both cases . Several Japanese vessels were destroyed or damaged due to naval and air counterattacks from the Allied forces , but the defending Dutch battalions were overrun by the Japanese forces . By 28 January , the Japanese forces had taken control of the airfields at Balikpapan and their aircraft were operating from them . By the end of January , Japanese forces had captured parts of Sulawesi and Kalimantan . By February , Japanese forces had landed on Sumatra and encouraged a revolt in Aceh . Most of the naval components of the allied force were crushed in the battles of Java Sea , Sunda Strait and Second Java Sea ; the only American ship larger than a destroyer to survive was the old cruiser " Marblehead " . In addition , the land forces on the islands were quickly overwhelmed and most major resistance was overcome within two months of the initial assaults , although a guerrilla campaign in Timor was successfully waged for a time . The ABDA command fell apart at about 01 : 00 on 1 March , less than two months after its inception , when Admiral Conrad Emil Lambert Helfrich , Governor - General of the East Indies , dissolved the command . Allied operations in Indonesia ( except Sumatra ) were later controlled by the South West Pacific Area command , under General Douglas MacArthur . Aftermath . Allied forces did not attempt to retake the islands of Java , Sumatra , Timor , or Bali during the war . Japanese forces on those islands surrendered at the conclusion of World War II . Most of the Japanese military personnel and civilian colonial administrators were repatriated to Japan following the war , except for several hundred who were detained for investigations into war crimes , for which some were later put on trial . About 1 , 000 Japanese soldiers deserted from their units and assimilated into local communities . Many of these soldiers provided assistance to Indonesian Republican forces during the Indonesian National Revolution .