Battle of Java (1942) - Aftermath

Aftermath

On 3 March, the U.S. Navy Gunboat USS Asheville was sunk south of Java.

On 10 March, Lieutenant-General Hitoshi Imamura became the new governor of Java and Madura, thus becoming the highest authority in the occupied Dutch East Indies. He stayed in this position for approximately eight months, until 11 November 1942. Imamura was subordinated to Field Marshal Count Hisaichi Terauchi, the Supreme Commander of the Southern Army, headquartered in Saigon, French Indochina. He was also the governor of the so-called "Southern Territories" (Malaya, Burma, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Java, Sumatra, and Borneo) and directly subordinated to the Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.

On 12 March, the senior British, Australian and American commanders were summoned to Bandoeng where the formal instrument of surrender was signed in the presence of the Japanese commander in the Bandoeng area, Lieutenant-General Masao Maruyama, who promised them the rights of the Geneva Convention for the protection of prisoners of war.

Immediately after this, the widely-spread Japanese troops were reorganised. The 16th Army (2nd Division and 48th Division) was ordered to guard Java, while the eastern territory (Lesser Sunda islands, Celebes, Ambon and Netherlands New Guinea) became the responsibility of the Imperial Navy. The other units were deployed to other combat areas in the Pacific or returned to Japan.

The surrender of the Dutch marked the end of the ABDA defence in the Dutch East Indies and the collapse of the "Malay Barrier" (or "East Indies Barrier"). Because the Allied naval force had been destroyed, the Indian Ocean and the approach to Australia lay open to the Imperial Japanese Navy.