Camps in the Dutch East Indies (1942-1948)

During the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (1942-1945) tens of thousands of European civilians ended up in internment camps. Servicemen were sent to POW camps and put to work in and outside the Dutch East Indies (DEI). After the Japanese surrender an independence struggle broke out on the island of Java that seriously hampered the evacuation of the people from the camps. Civilians who had until then remained outside the camps also ended up in so-called Republican camps during this bersiap period. On this website the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) presents the camps that existed in DEI territory between 1942 and 1948. Click on a region in the map below to start your journey through this website.