The Heiho during the Japanese Occupation of Indonesia

During the Pacific War large numbers of young men from the Indonesian archipelago served alongside Japanese soldiers as heiho (auxiliary soldiers) in the Japanese army and navy. Technically civilian employees of the military, the heiho supplied labor for the Southern Army (Nanp÷o S÷ogun) in its effort to sustain the Asia-Pacific War. They served in many areas, including Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Borneo Sumatra, Sulawesi, Malaya, Thailand, Burma, Indochina, East and West New Guinea, and the Bismarck and Solomon Islands along the Australian front.1