The Invasion of the South

Army Air Force Operations, and the Invasion of Northern and Central Sumatra

Extraordinary material from those who planned and conducted operations, including an abundance of tabular data regarding air strength, losses

Between 1966 and 1980, the War History Office of the National Defense College of Japan (now the Center for Military History of the National Institute for Defense Studies) published the 102-volume Senshi Sōsho (War History Series). The present book completes the trilogy of English translations of the sections in the Senshi Sōsho series on the Japanese operations against the former Dutch East Indies (Indonesia).

The first volume (The Invasion of the Dutch East Indies, 2015) details the army operations, the second volume (The Operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal, 2018) the navy operations, and this third volume the army air force operations. The three volumes provide an unparalleled insight into the Japanese campaign to capture Southeast Asia and the oil fields in the Indonesian archipelago in what was at that time the largest transoceanic landing operation in the military history of the world. It was also the first time in history that air power was employed with devastating effect over such enormous distances, posing complex technical and logistical problems.

As for the military details of the Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia, I gratefully used the remarkably detailed book The invasion of the Dutch East Indies (Leiden, 2015). This study was published in Tokyo as early as in 1967, and was compiled by The War History Office of the National Defense College of Japan. This exceptionally detailed source book and reconstruction was translated and annotated by Willem Remmelink. The book has provided guidance during my fieldwork in Japan and I have used it several times during interviews with witnesses, which repeatedly yielded new stories.– David van Reybrouck on The Invasion of the Dutch Indiesin Revolusi (2020).

Highly recommended, and sure to be a very strong contender as one of the top new books of the year...The third and final volume of English translations of the Japanese history of the invasion of the East Indies, without which no study of that campaign is complete. Extraordinary material from those who planned and conducted operations, including an abundance of tabular data regarding air strength, losses, etc.– Bill Stone.

About the author: Willem Remmelink was the executive director of the Japan-Netherlands Institute in Tokyo for more than twenty-five years. He is a specialist in Japanese and Indonesian history.