ABSTRACT
IT will not be possible to write the complete history of the relations between the Netherlands Indies and Japan, and of the growth and the frustration of Japanese ambitions in South-East Asia, until the Empire of the Rising Sun has been defeated and compelled to give up the secrets of those long years of planning and preparation which preceded Pearl Harbour. Facts and events have established the conviction that underneath and behind the stage upon which the pre-war drama of negotiations, pacts, and embargoes was presented, the plans of campaign and the armaments for outright aggression were being prepared and amassed without pause. But we cannot yet determine at what time the dreams of a number of ultra-nationalists became the aims of organized political and military groups; when those aims were incorporated in the policy of the Japanese Government; and on what occasion that Government decided the time had come for execution.
