A large number of native prisoners of war were released, the others were mostly taken to labour camps outside Java. The male civilian internees were concentrated in Bandung and Tjimahi, the women and children in and around Batavia. The main Japanese targets were the cities of Batavia, Buitenzorg and Bandung, and Kalidjati airfield to the north of Bandung. The Japanese combat group that had landed near Eretan Wetan was able to capture Kalidjati airfield, some 80 kilometres from the landing location, on March 1st.
The next day the Japanese fighter planes and bombers started using the airfield. The Japanese forces that had landed on the north-western tip of Java met little resistance and were impeded mainly by bridges that had been blown up. Only at Leuwiliang, to the west of Buitenzorg, the strong resistance of Australian troops managed to hold them off for a while.
On the 5th of March the first Japanese soldiers marched into the undefended city of Batavia; Buitenzorg was taken the next day. Japanese airplanes dominated the skies, and morale among the KNIL troops was low due to the many retreats.
Many of the native servicemen, especially the Javanese among them, had deserted. When the Japanese were finally on the verge of breaking through to Bandung, the situation seemed hopeless. On March 8, it was agreed at Kalidjati airfield that the general capitulation of the KNIL would be announced the next morning. The assembly camp in Sukabumi, centrally situated in West Java, was gradually evacuated to camps in Tjimahi in May and June In addition, in the area surrounding Tjima two labour camps were established on farms in Leuwigadjah and Tjimindi.
In Bandung the prisoners were concentrated in the encampments of the 15th Infantry Battalion, the 1st Depot Battalion, and the Anti-aircraft Artillery. Halfway through most of the POW camps had been cleared. Civilian camps Civilian internment started in March with the rounding up of prominent figures from government and industrial circles.
