Invasion and Occupation

Abstract

According to Japanese military thinking, Borneo possessed economic as well as strategic importance. As already mentioned, the economically essential oil fields at Miri (Sarawak), Seria (Brunei), Tarakan and Balikpapan (Dutch Borneo) were prime targets. The island of Borneo, equidistant for bombing raids from both British Malaya and Dutch Java, made its capture a fundamental prerequisite to successful operations in these two erritories. Furthermore, the occupation of Borneo was essential to securing control over the south-west Pacific. The strategic position of the island of Borneo is obvious: it is centrally located between the main sea routes of South-East Asia, namely the Straits of Malacca to the north which guarded British Malaya and Dutch Sumatra on the one hand, and the Sulu Sea and the Java Sea, which protected the greater part of Dutch East Indies, particularly the Celebes and Java respectively. More important from the military standpoint was the north-west coastline of Borneo, which covered the approaches to Singapore and British Malaya by way of the South China Sea.