After Japan attacked the United States military base at Pearl Harbor, various European colonies in Asia began to worry. Because logically, it's only a matter of time before Japan invades their territory, including the Dutch East Indies.
That concern was confirmed a few months later, in just a few weeks Japan had brought the Dutch East Indies to its knees. After capturing the Dutch East Indies, Japan forbade all things related to the Netherlands, including the language used in everyday life.
The Japanese then set up internment camps to take Dutch women and children into captivity. Meanwhile, Dutch men were taken to various regions to undergo forced labor to win the Pacific War. Even the Governor General of the Dutch East Indies was brought to Manchuria to undergo forced labor and was only released when Japan lost the war in 1945.
Needless to say, the Dutch women and children in the internment camps certainly faced an inhuman life and various abuses from the Japanese soldiers.
The photo above shows the atmosphere in a Japanese internment camp in Indonesia, 1942-1945 which housed Dutch women and children. Dutch people who previously lived as first-class citizens, after the arrival of the Japanese turned into third-class citizens and were oppressed.
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