“We preferred to behead someone we had found guilty on the spot with a samurai sword, rather than waste weeks or months of military time and energy.”
Japanese officer

Cruelty
The Japanese were ruthless with anyone involved in the resistance. The Japanese Military Police (Kempeitai) were renowned for their cruelty. Vague suspicions were enough to arrest and torture someone. Based on forced confessions, those arrested would be imprisoned or beheaded. Even if the crimes were minor, the punishments were severe.

The Kempeitai received assistance in their detection work from the Political Information Department (Politieke Inlichtingen Dienst -- PID), which employed a lot of Indonesian and Dutch East Indian spies and informers. In the course of 1943, the organised resistance movement was all but eliminated.

Forced to cooperate
The Japanese expected the Dutch East Indians to cooperate voluntarily. But these ‘Asian brothers’ were often anti-Japanese. In the course of the occupation, the Dutch East Indians were forced to cooperate.

In 1945, hundreds of young men who failed to support the Japanese sufficiently were arrested, abused and imprisoned. Many died from the hardships. In total, 15,000 people were arrested because of their attitude to resistance. Half of them were killed.