Sunday January 11, 1942. Japan rolls on.

The Japanese declared war on Holland, which was already occupied by the Germans, but whose government in exile retained its overseas possessions.

They also landed troops on the Dutch East Indies, commencing their invasion of those Dutch holdings.

The Japanese had launched their war on the West in the name of resources, and their invasion of the oil rich East Indies had always been a principal target. They'd been fighting the Dutch Navy nearly since December 7, so none of this was a surprise. Their first target was Tarakan, an oil rich tiny island off of Borneo.  Later the same day they'd move on to the Celebes and land paratroopers at Kakas and Menado.

The actions raise a little noted but interesting point on the respective strengths and weaknesses of the Axis powers, and their relationship with each other.  Japan remained on the rise, showing the ability to really hit targets far from the home islands.  It's plan of knocking the U.S. Navy out of the war for a sufficiently long enough time to grab things appeared to be working perfectly.  At this point, it was truly achieving its war aims, and against Western powers.

Nazi Germany, however, was in trouble.  On this day, the Red Army captured German supply dumps at Sychevka and its 11th Cavalry Corps made a massive mounted charge through the German 9th Army.  Whether the Japanese noticed that its European ally was no longer achieving its war aims is unknown, but it wasn't.

Moreover, by grabbing Dutch possessions, and by already having effectively grabbed French ones, the Japanese were taking possessions that arguably could be claimed by its Axis allies and also-rans.  Oddly the French possession in Indochina had kowtowed to their defeated regime, but the Dutch ones had not as the Dutch government had not.

The East Indies would also prove to be an exception, somewhat embarrassingly, to the rule in regard to Japanese occupation.  The Japanese proved to be universally detested whatever they went in World War Two, except for the East Indies where their collaborationist government would not taint those who cooperated with it.  The reason was that the Dutch themselves were more detested than the Japanese, and for good reason. For those same reasons, following World War Two the British would not allow the Dutch back in. 

The British evacuated Kuala Lumpur.

A Japanese submarine 500 miles southeast of Oahu torpedoed the USS Saratoga, which made it back to Pearl Harbor under her own power.

German U-boats took up positions off of the American East coast for a planned submarine offensive.