Friday, August 17, 1945. The long trip of the U-977.

The U-977 surrendered at Mar del Plata, Argentina.  It had left Kiel on April 13th and had sunk a Soviet ship in the Arctic before the end of the war, and the start of its really long journey.

The crew actually intended to defect to Argentina, freighted by a late war Goebbels broadcast which stated the Morgenthau plan intended to turn Germany into a "goat pasture" and that German men were to be sterilized.  The commander, Oblt.z.S. Schäffer, allowed those who did not want to go to be put ashore in Germany, and sixteen were.  The hopes were to integrated into Argentina's German community.  He personally stated:

I left Kristiansand S. on 2 May 1945, normally equipped, and under orders to proceed to the Channel, (i.e. English Channel).  

A few days later I picked up fragments of signals, which I suspected of being the work of enemy deception.  When, however, these signals were not cancelled, I had to assume that the radio stations had fallen into enemy hands and that we had lost the war.  The fact that the uncoded signals signed “Allied Committee” were coming through, convinced me that the orders contained in these signals were illegitimate and not in agreement with the German High Command.  When we began our patrol, an official slogan had been posted on all Naval establishments and ships which said:  The enemy shall find in Germany nothing but rats and mice.  We will never capitulate.  Better death than slavery.  

It must be remembered that radio reception on board the U-977 was only sporadic since, for tactical reasons, we only occasionally came to Schnorchel depth.  However, enough signals had been received so that I no longer had any superiors, and that I was relieved of my oath.  In any case, I did not feel obligated without direct orders from my government to accept enemy orders.  

 I no longer considered my ship as a man-of-war, but as a means of escape, and I tried to act for the best interests of all aboard.  I respected the wishes of members of my crew insofar as they did not imperil the ship or cause damage to it.  

 One of my main reasons in deciding to proceed to the Argentine was based on German propaganda, which claimed that the American and British newspapers advocated that at the end of the war, all German men be enslaved and sterilized.  Another consideration was the bad treatment and long delay in return home suffered by German prisoners-of-war held in France at the end of World War I.  Then again, of course, the hope of better living conditions in the Argentine.  

It was absolutely my intention to deliver the boat undamaged into Allied hands, while doing the best I could for my crew.  I felt that the ship’s engines might be a valuable adjunct to the reconstruction of Europe.  I carried out these intentions and delivered the boat in perfect condition.

In fact they were extradited to the US where they faced charges of having sunk a Brazilian ship after the war, which the US, based upon Argentine information, concluded they could not have done, and then to the UK, where they were accused of having landed German officials in Argentina prior to surrendering, which they also did not do.

Schäffer wrote a book about the boat and its escape after the war.  The entire event gave rise to long lasting rumors and myths as to what the boat was doing.

Hirohito issued a letter to the officers and men of the Japanese military. 

TO THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE IMPERIAL FORCES:

Three years and eight months have elapsed since we declared war on the United States and Britain. During this time our beloved men of the army and navy, sacrificing their lives, have fought valiantly on disease-stricken and barren lands and on tempestuous waters in the blazing sun, and of this we are deeply grateful.

Now that the Soviet Union has entered the war against us, to continue the war under the present internal and external conditions would be only to increase needlessly the ravages of war finally to the point of endangering the very foundation of the Empire's existence

With that in mind and although the fighting spirit of the Imperial Army and Navy is as high as ever, with a view to maintaining and protecting our noble national policy we are about to make peace with the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and Chungking.

To a large number of loyal and brave officers and men of the Imperial forces who have died in battle and from sicknesses goes our deepest grief. At the same time we believe the loyalty and achievements of you officers and men of the Imperial forces will for all time be the quintessence of our nation.

We trust that you officers and men of the Imperial forces will comply with our intention and will maintain a solid unity and strict discipline in your movements and that you will bear the hardest of all difficulties, bear the unbearable and leave an everlasting foundation of the nation.

This is likely the message mentioned in yesterday's entry, but I'm noting it here, as this is the date I had for it.

Indonesia, where Japanese occupation had not been wholly unwelcome, declared independence the Netherlands.  They'd have to fight for it.

The declaration was read by Sukarno, with a Japanese officer standing nearby. The Dutch had not reoccupied the islands.

Sukarno had been a pre war prisoner of the Dutch, and had been freed from incarceration by the Japanese.  The Dutch, for that matter, were really hated colonial masters, and nobody was keen about their return, including the British.

The Battle of Tianmen was fought between warlord and Japanese troops turned Nationalist and the Communist in China. The Communists prevailed.

This was small battle, and 1/3d of the troops were Japanese.

Oppenheimer wrote Henry Stimson.

From: J R Oppenheimer

To: Henry Stimson, Secretary of War

Date: August 17, 1945

Dear Mr. Secretary:

The Interim Committee has asked us to report in some detail on the scope and program of future work in the field of atomic energy. One important phase of this work is the development of weapons; and since this is the problem which has dominated our war time activities, it is natural that in this field our ideas should be most definite and clear, and that we should be most confident of answering adequately the questions put to us by the committee. In examining these questions we have, however, come on certain quite general conclusions, whose implications for national policy would seem to be both more immediate and more profound than those of the detailed technical recommendations to be submitted. We, therefore, think it appropriate to present them to you at this time.

1. We are convinced that weapons quantitatively and qualitatively far more effective than now available will result from further work on these problems. This conviction is motivated not alone by analogy with past developments, but by specific projects to improve and multiply the existing weapons, and by the quite favorable technical prospects of the realization of the super bomb.

2. We have been unable to devise or propose effective military counter-measures for atomic weapons. Although we realize that future work may reveal possibilities at present obscure to us, it is our firm opinion that no military countermeasures will be found which will be adequately effective in preventing the delivery of atomic weapons.

The detailed technical report in preparation will document these conclusions, but hardly alter them.

3. We are not only unable to outline a program that would assure to this nation for the next decades hegemony in the field of atomic weapons; we are equally unable to insure that such hegemony, if achieved, could protect us from the most terrible destruction.

4. The development, in the years to come, of more effective atomic weapons, would appear to be a most natural element in any national policy of maintaining our military forces at great strength; nevertheless we have grave doubts that this further development can contribute essentially or permanently to the prevention of war. We believe that the safety of this nation – as opposed to its ability to inflict damage on an enemy power – cannot lie wholly or even primarily in its scientific or technical prowess. It can be based only on making future wars impossible. It is our unanimous and urgent recommendation to you that, despite the present incomplete exploitation of technical possibilities in this field, all steps be taken, all necessary international arrangements be made, to this one end.

5. We should be most happy to have you bring these views to the attention of other members of the Government, or of the American people, should you wish to do so.

Very sincerely,

J. R. Oppenheimer

The latest edition of Yank was out.

 A new book was also out.

Orwell's Animal Farm was published.

I'll confess, I have not read it.

The British government announced the intent to introduce socialized medicine.  It also announced that 38,000 British soldiers and 112,000 British civilians were being held by the Japanese as prisoners.

Last edition:

Thursday, August 16, 1945. Hirohito orders the Japanese military to lay down their arms.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Battle of Yongjiazhen (雍家镇战斗), Chinese Civil War, Collaborators, Hirohito, Japan, Manchukuo, Monarchy, Qing Dynasty, Red Army, The Cold War, the spoken word, Winston Churchill, World War Two

Saturday, May 19, 1945. Landing in Syria and Lebanon.

The Australians took Tarakan Island.

More heavy fighting occurred on Okinawa.

The Czechoslovak Extraordinary People's Court distributed over twenty thousand sentences - seven percent of them being for life or the death sentence - to "traitors, collaborators and fascist elements."

Philipp Bouhler, age 45, Nazi official and philosopher committed suicide with a cyanide capsule while in a U.S. internment camp.

French troops landed in Syria and Lebanon to reassert control over the region.  The landings sparked protests from Arab nationalists.

Last edition:

Friday, May 18, 1945. Paying the consequences.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Chinese National Army, Clean Wehrmacht Myth, Eamon de Valera, German American Bund, German Flensburg Government, Ireland, Karl Dönitz, Ku Klux Klan, Okinawa, The Holocaust, World War Two

Monday, April 9, 1945. The End of B-17 Production.

"Tankmen of the 781st Tank Battalion, supporting the 100th Infantry Division, relax while awaiting the construction of a new bridge across the Neckar River in Heilbronn, Germany. The former pontoon bridge put in by the engineers was knocked out by effective and accurate artillery fire. 9 April, 1945.  781st Tank Battalion, 100th Infantry Division."

Photographer: T/4 Irving Leibowitz, 163rd Signal Photo Co.

The Battle of Königsberg ended in a Red Army victory.

The Japanese invaded west Hunan.

The Battle of Bologna began in Italy.

The Australian Z Special Force began Operation Opossum with the goal of rescuing the Sultan of Ternate from Ternate Island in Indonesia.

The RAF sank the Admiral Scheer, the U-804, U-843 and the U-1065.

B-17 production stopped in Seattle.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, age 39, German Lutheran pastor; Wilhelm Canaris, age 58, German admiral; Ludwig Gehre, age 49, German officer; Hans Oster, age 57, German major general; Karl Sack, age 48, German jurist; and Theodor Strünck, age 50, German lawyer, and  Johann Georg Elser, age 42, were executed by the German government.

Last edition:

Sunday, April 8, 1945. Cebu City.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Battle for Cebu City, Croatia, Italy, Operation Amherst, Philippines, South African Army, Weapons, World War Two, Yugoslavia

Monday, August 28, 1944. Hungarians reconsider.

The Kaunas Offensive in Lithuania ended in a Red Army victory.

The 1st Army crossed the Marne at Meaux.

German garrisons at Toulon and Marseilles surrendered.    The encircled 11th Panzer Division begins a breakout offensive towards the north.

Lakatos.  His government stopped the deportation of Hungarian Jews.  He'd be overthrown by fascists in October.  He lived in poverty after the war until immigrating to Australia, where he died in 1967 at age 77.

A new Hungarian government is seated lead by Gen. Lakatos.  It announces that it wishes to negotiated with the Soviet Union, which did not result in an end of the war for Hungary.

The BBC began Southeast Asian broadcasts in Dutch and French.

Last edition:

Sunday, August 27, 1944. Collateral damage.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle for Paris, boats and ships, Buchenwald, Château-Thierry France, Eastern Front, French Navy, Italy, Monarchy, Normandy Breakout, Romania, Royal Air Force, U.S. Air Force, Women, World War Two

Saturday, May 27, 1944. Landing at Biak.

 The Battle of Biak in Indonesia (then part of New Guinea, which it is just off of) began with the landing of the U.S. Army's 41st Infantry Division.

If you are like me, and I'm well-informed on World War Two, you've never heard of this battle, which occured just before the Allied capture of Rome and the Allied landings in Normandy.

Today it is a tropical tourist destination.

The U-292 was sunk by a British B-24.

Last prior edition:

Friday, May 26, 1944. Striking out for the airbases.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Advertising, Aircraft, boats and ships, Daily Living, Food, Italy, Operation Ichi-Go, Personalities, The family, The Holocaust, World War Two

Wednesday, April 19, 1944. Operation Ichi-Go.

 Operation Ichi-Go commenced in China.

Japanese plans for the offensive, which would be a largely successful Japanese effort.

Control of the ground at the end of the war.

The massive and highly successful offensive was designed, in no small measure, to help force a conclusion to the war in China, something perhaps best demonstrated by its alternative Japanese name, Tairiku Datsū Sakusen (大陸打通作戦), "Continent Cross-Through Operation"). It would gain a huge amount of ground, and demonstrate the importance of the war on the mainland to the Asian conflict.  It's specific goas were to link railways in Beijing and Hankou in northern China to the southern Chinese coast at Canton and spare shipping and avoid American submarines; to take the airfields in Sichuan and Guangxi to preclude U.S. bombing of Taiwan and the Japanese mainland; and to destroy elite Nationalist units to cause the Nationalist government to collapse.

It was ambitious and would be, late war though it was, the largest military campaign of the Japanese war against China.  Japan committed 80% of their forces in China, some 500,000 men, as well as 100,000 horses, 1,500 artillery pieces, and 800 tanks.

700,000 Nationalist Chinese troops were eliminated from combat in the operation, which would continue into October.

The Allies launched Operation Cockpit, an operation that featured all of the principal Allied forces in the East, the same being an air assault on Sabang Indonesia.

The RAF mined the Danube.

 

Sarah Sundin notes, on her blog:

Today in World War II History—April 19, 1944 In the US, shortening, salad & cooking oils are removed from rationing, but butter & margarine are still rationed. Read more: “Make It Do—Rationing of Butter, Fats & Oils in World War II.”

Congress extended the Lend Lease Act.  Apparently the 78th Congress was a little more active than the 119th.

The 1944 NFL Draft was held, and the first draft pick was Angelo Bertelli, who was drafted by the Boston Yanks.  It wouldn't matter, Bertelli was already slated to enter the Marine Corps.

Canadian Gérard Côté won the Boston Marathon.

Côté winning the 1940 Boston Marathon.

He was serving in the Canadian Army at the time, and took leave to run in the race, sponsored by a Montreal restaurateur.  While the Canadian Army, which initially used him as a physical education instructor, and then stationed him in a munitions plant, had been proud of his status as Canada's premier runner, it had taken heat for perceived preferential treatment that he received, and reacted negatively to his taking leave and running in the race. Côté was shipped to the UK and served the rest of the war in Europe, winning three English marathons during that time period.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, April 18, 1944. 4,000 tons v. 53.

1940s, 1943, Battle of Kohima, boats and ships, Catholic, Crimea, Eastern Front, German Luftwaffe, London England, Operation U-Go, Royal Air Force, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Monday, January 28, 1974. End of the Siege of Suez.

The Israeli siege of the Egyptian city of Suez ended at noon.  The IDF withdrew and the 20,000 encircled Egyptians were able to withdraw across the Suez Canal.

Suez.

Both Time and Newsweek's covers dealt with the Nixon tape. U.S. News & World Report's cover was on inflation.  

Sports Illustrated had a cheesecake photo, although it hadn't crossed over into pornography on the cover yet, for its swimsuit issue. Ann Simonton was the cover model, who was actually relatively covered.

Indonesian President Suharto took control of the country's internal security agency.

Bolivia was declared to be in a state of siege following a peasant uprising at Cochambamba.

Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier fought for a second time in a non-title fight.  Ali won.

George Foreman was the heavyweight champion at the time.

March 29, 1942. The Hukbalahap Rebellion begins.

On this day in 1942 the Hukbalahap Rebellion, a Communist peasant rebellion, commenced in the Philippines.  The Huks, as they were called, conducted a guerilla war against the Japanese which lasted through the war and turned into a rebellion against the Philippine government which lasted until 1954.

The movement was supported by the US during the war, and opposed by it after the war.

It was interestingly put down after the war not only by military means, but by political reforms that co-opted the most pressing grievances of the Huks, leaving them essentially without a political base.

Stafford Cripps.

Stafford Cripps met with Mahatma Gandhi and presented British plans for a semi-independent India after World War Two.

Cripps was a left wing lawyer and a member of the Labour Party.  He'd been ambassador to the Soviet Union before it was attacked, during which time Cripps had warned Stalin that a German attack was inevitable.  Churchill had appointed him to the position due to Cripp's Marxist sympathies.  He became a member of the war cabinet during the war and his mission to India presented a plan of his own devising which met with support from nobody on either side of the issue.  After the war he was a figure in the Labour government and was one of those who approved of the sending of jet engines to the Soviet Union, something Stalin had dismissed as impossible due to being "foolish", which resulted in the design going into the early Mig 15s.

The Japanese won at Toungoo.

In a bizarre event, German internees managed to convince their native Indonesian guards to rise up in a rebellion against the Dutch on the island of Nias, and declared it to be an independent state.  This followed Japanese landings on other Indonesian islands. The Japanese would land on Nias in April and they removed all of the Europeans, save for a physician, from the island.

Sunday, March 1, 1942. Disastrous Day for the Navy, Elanor Roosevelt in Cheyenne.

Elanor Roosevelt in the Panama Canal Zone during World War Two.

As we can see from our companion blog, Today In Wyoming's History, for this day March 1: 1942:

1942 Elanor Roosevelt visited Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Not a large event, in the overall context of things, but something memorable locally.

She was a political force in her own right, something that was well appreciated during her own time. Arguably politically to the left of her husband, the era guaranteed that her role would be largely behind the scenes, but it was as out in the open as the times would allow and then some.  Given her husband's role and his limited mobility, she took on roles that were really unique for a First Lady up until then, and frankly up until the present time.

In big, and disastrous, events:

Today in World War II History—March 1, 1942: In the Battle of Sunda Strait off Java, Japanese ships sink heavy cruiser USS Houston, light cruiser HMAS Perth, and Dutch destroyer Evertsen.

The Japanese also sank the HMS Exeter, the HMS Encounter and the USS Pope.  It was not a good day, although US ships sank five Japanese transports.

The USS Pecos was sunk by a Japanese dive bomber and the USS Edsall was sunk by surface fore from Japanese battleships.

The Navy, as her blog relates, had the first victory against a U-boat, that scored by a Hudson flying off of Newfoundland.

Thursday, February 19, 1942. Commencement of Japanese Internment.

Today is remembered as a black mark on American history, and is now officially commemorated as the Japanese Internment Day of Remembrance.  It was the day in which President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, resulting in internment.

Today In Wyoming's History: February 19: 1942 Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of any or all people from military areas "as deemed necessary or desirable."  This would lead to internment camps, including Heart Mountain near Cody.

 Map showing interment camps and other aspects of the exclusion of ethnic Japanese from the Pacific Coast during World War Two.

The text of the order read:

Executive Order No. 9066

The President

Executive Order

Authorizing the Secretary of War to Prescribe Military Areas

Whereas the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities as defined in Section 4, Act of April 20, 1918, 40 Stat. 533, as amended by the Act of November 30, 1940, 54 Stat. 1220, and the Act of August 21, 1941, 55 Stat. 655 (U.S.C., Title 50, Sec. 104);

Now, therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders whom he may from time to time designate, whenever he or any designated Commander deems such action necessary or desirable, to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion. The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to provide for residents of any such area who are excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations as may be necessary, in the judgment of the Secretary of War or the said Military Commander, and until other arrangements are made, to accomplish the purpose of this order. The designation of military areas in any region or locality shall supersede designations of prohibited and restricted areas by the Attorney General under the Proclamations of December 7 and 8, 1941, and shall supersede the responsibility and authority of the Attorney General under the said Proclamations in respect of such prohibited and restricted areas.

I hereby further authorize and direct the Secretary of War and the said Military Commanders to take such other steps as he or the appropriate Military Commander may deem advisable to enforce compliance with the restrictions applicable to each Military area here in above authorized to be designated, including the use of Federal troops and other Federal Agencies, with authority to accept assistance of state and local agencies.

I hereby further authorize and direct all Executive Departments, independent establishments and other Federal Agencies, to assist the Secretary of War or the said Military Commanders in carrying out this Executive Order, including the furnishing of medical aid, hospitalization, food, clothing, transportation, use of land, shelter, and other supplies, equipment, utilities, facilities, and services.

This order shall not be construed as modifying or limiting in any way the authority heretofore granted under Executive Order No. 8972, dated December 12, 1941, nor shall it be construed as limiting or modifying the duty and responsibility of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with respect to the investigation of alleged acts of sabotage or the duty and responsibility of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice under the Proclamations of December 7 and 8, 1941, prescribing regulations for the conduct and control of alien enemies, except as such duty and responsibility is superseded by the designation of military areas hereunder.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The White House,

February 19, 1942.

While the choice of Heart Mountain in Park County was not one that Wyoming asked for, the event would prove to be a bit of a black mark on Wyoming's history as well.  Governor Lester Hunt, who did not come into office until 1943, would be vociferous in his statements regarding the internees and the legislature would take at least one act in regard to them, that being voting to deny them the right to vote in the state's elections.

On the same day, Darwin, Australia was bombed by the Japanese, inflicting heavy losses on facilities at the town. Twelve ships were sunk in the harbor, making the raid somewhat comparable to Pearl Harbor.

Like the attack at Pearl Harbor, the raid came in two stages and was a surprise attack, albeit on a nation already at war.  The Japanese aircraft were air and land based.  More bombs were used in the attack than had been used in the Pearl Harbor raid.  Australian defenses were relatively light and incapable of dealing with the attack. The resulting chaos resulted in a breakdown of civil authority, with looting taking place even by Australian troops in the town.  Many people would leave the city never to return, or only to return many years later.

The raid was the largest to occur against mainland Australia during the war and was an unqualified success.  The goal was to remove Darwin as a base for the Australians to counteract Japanese forces in Indonesia.

The Vichy government commenced a lengthy trial in Riom with the aims of showing that the preceding Third Republic had been responsible for France's defeat at the hand of the Germans in 1940.

In Winnipeg, Manitoba, the city staged If Day, a simulated German invasion.  The event was a huge success which boosted local bonds sales, which was the goal, enormously.

Monday, February 16, 1942. The Bangka Massacre and the Japanese New Order of Coexistence and Co-prosperity on Ethical Principles.

Nurses of the 2/13th.

Japanese soldiers murdered 22 Australian nurses and 60 Australian and British men on Bangka Island in Indonesia.  Most of the nurses in their captivity on the island, including the murdered ones, were raped.

The nurses were part of the 2/13th Australian General Hospital who had ended up on the island when a ship carrying them, and civilian men, women and children was sunk by Japanese aircraft.   They surrendered to the Japanese, who held the island.  One nurse and two men survived the massacre, but one of the men died soon thereafter.  They all later surrendered due to the impossibility of surviving on the island.

As with some other atrocities committed by the Japanese against the Australians, the Australian government worked to suppress some of the grimmer information following the war.  That the nurses were raped was not revealed until 2019.  Japanese authorities on the island following the war claimed to have no knowledge of the killings.  Japanese atrocities of this type were common.

On the same day, Hideke Tojo appeared in front of the Japanese Diet and proclaimed that the war aim a "new order of coexistence and co-prosperity on ethical principles in Greater East Asia."

Teusday July 29, 1941. The Dutch Oil Embargo

On this day, the Dutch Government In Exile joined the United States and the United Kingdom and froze Japanese assets.

The impact of this on Japan was real, but not as great as sometimes suggested, nor was the "pressure" put on the Dutch as great as suggested.  The Netherlands were already at war with Germany and already an Allied power which was fully invested in a German defeat.  Aligning with the UK and the US was a foregone conclusion.

Japan actually had received 80% of it oil from the United States prior to the US embargo.  While the early focus of Japanese efforts would in fact be the Dutch East Indies, due to its oil supplies, that goal was to obtain a replacement source for oil, not to restore an existing primary source.  Of course, the Dutch embargo meant that Japan could not simply switch to the Dutch East Indies as a source.

Having said that, the Japanese were having success with occupied administrations, which was evidenced by their entering into a mutual defense treaty with Japan for the defense of Indochina, which was a practical matter already occupied by Japan.

It should be noted that this entire story has become somewhat distorted in recent years, with it commonly being claimed the embargoes "forced" Japan into war.  This isn't really directly correct, although it may be if given only a very short term analysis. 

The cause of the embargoes was Japan's intervention in Indochina.  US reaction to that, followed by the UK's and the Netherlands, was due to those nations being left with no other action at that time.  The US had already exhausted its diplomatic efforts in regard to Japan in protest of its actions in China.

The Japanese war in China itself was the reason for Japanese intervention in Indochina.  The Japanese may have been confused at the time of their intervention on what the US reaction would be, as early US signals concerning that were muddled, but the US had to react or had to acquiesce to the action. Acquiescence would have also acquiesced, effectively, to the French Indochinese colony passing to Japan and to the Japanese aggression in China.

On the Japanese in China, the US had consistently opposed that imperial effort.  It was really that action that led to the US countering of Japan economically.

Dutch cartoon from 1916 depicting Indonesia as its crown jewel.

It's sometimes been noted that Japan was simply acting like any other colonial power, but frankly this wasn't really true.  By the 1920s, when Japan really started becoming active in China, the colonial era was passing and China was a neighbor.  Without meaning to defend colonialism in any fashion, the era of colonizing immediate neighbors was long over and what little excuse remained for it was always focused on underdeveloped, if a person cares to look at it that way, regions of the globe.  In truth, the condition of the average Chinese citizen wasn't hugely different from the average Japanese citizen, and Japanese aggression was based to a very large degree on a combination of greed and racism.

By 1941 Japan had placed itself in a hopeless spiral towards war.  It couldn't leave Indochina and save face, and the US, which did not have a real colonial history, could not allow the aggression in Asia to go unnoticed.

The Dutch decision isn't without its long term ironies.  The Dutch were in fact cruel administrators in Indonesia and came to be hated.  They moreover fostered the development of a Chinese administrative class that came to the islands as immigrants and whom were favored by the Dutch over the native Indonesians.  Their record was so bad that the British did not allow the Dutch to return to power in Indonesia, and actually turned the post-war government over to politicians who had been Japanese collaborators. So somewhat ironically the ultimate Dutch invasion of Indonesia might be the one location where its propaganda for expansion accidentally came true.  More ironic yet, Indonesian oil never did become a significant oil replacement source for Japan, given the difficulties of actually importing it in wartime conditions.

And now, Mt. Krakatoa is erupting. . .

or actually Anak Krakatau, which means, in the Indonesian language, the child of Krakatoa.  That latter volcano, of course, blew itself off the face of the earth in 1883, destroying half of the island that it had formed, and leaving a subsea caldera. That in turn depressed the temperature of the planet by .72F, darkened the skies and caused a year of spectacular sunsets and sunrises.  It also resulted in the direct deaths 36,417 people.

Ash plume from Anak Krakatau in 2010.

Anak Krakatau came up out of its caldera in 1927 in the the destructive process of rebuilding the island, making the distinction between Anak Krakatau and Krakatoa merely one of human perception.  The volcano's 2018 eruption produced a deadly tsunami that killed over 400 people.  No deaths have been reported this year, but the ash has ascended to 50,000 feet.