Hello, and thank you for listening to the history of World War II podcast, Episode 281,

the Fall of Java Part 1.

Last time, the island of Sumatra, with its vast oil reserves, fell to the Japanese.

Once had happened before, Singapore was relying on the defense of Malaya to stime the invaders.

Then Sumatra was relying on Singapore to do the same.

It also went that way with the Philippines, Burma, Borneo, Bali, the Maluku Islands, and

the Celeps.

But now that it was Java's turn, there were no major Allied held lands nearby to seek

relief, except Australia.

With that was having invasion fears of its own.

With the fall of southern Sumatra, by February 16th, Java knew its turn could come at any day.

Yet again, there was nowhere else to go.

As such, civilian evacuees, soldiers, and airmen from Singapore and Sumatra were pouring

into Java, congesting the ports and nearby roads of Batavia, modern day Jakarta, the

then capital of the Dutch East Indies on the northwest corner, and Surabaya near the

northeast corner.

And this mass confusion could have been worse, had the Allied troops from Singapore and Sumatra

come with much of their equipment, but they did not, leaving it behind in their haste

to evacuate.

Back on January 10th, Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Wavel came to Java from New Delhi

and held a conference at Batavia.

Abdukaman was formed, but the idea had come from the Washington Conference, aka the Arcadia

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