March 8

  • DUTCH SURRENDER EAST INDIES

    ByNorm Haskett Reading Time: 6 minutes

    Batavia (Jakarta), Dutch East Indies • March 8, 1942 The mineral- and oil-rich Dutch East Indies (today’s Indo­nesia) was Japan’s next colo­nial tar­get in the Pacific Theater—this after Allied resis­tance had col­lapsed in the British Crown colony of Sin­ga­pore (Febru­ary 15, 1942) and all but did so in the U.S. Philip­pines with Gen. Douglas Mac­Arthur’s forces holed…