THE INVASION OF THE SOUTH

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 Sosho (War History Series). The present book co
mpletes the trilogy of English translations of the sections in the Senshi Sosho 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 operat
ions, 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 ca
mpaign 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 emplo
yed with devastating effect over such enormous distances, posing complex technical and logistical problems.

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