We have several picture of Axis (Japan) troops in Dutch East Indies. Not a pretty sight actually, because the officials maintain some segregation with the locals. But some of them showed sympathy to the locals and eventually become a hero. They are quite human than most popular portrayals actually,
sometimes crazy blinded fanatics,
sometimes "some guy with duty to uphold" and taking that as serious as a samurai,
sometimes normally confused classical Confucian dudes seeing the world for their first time.
Visiting local Cikini Zoo (now closed) in Jakarta
Enslaving local populace to build infrastructure they eventually destroyed before giving up to the allies
Training local militias (Heiho Kempeitai, recruited from local indigenous people) to make them always combat-ready.
Some propaganda
"Japan's glorious victories"
Random mobilisation
Sex slaves (comfort battalion) or commonly known as "Jugun Ianfu"
Being rounded up (those sex slaves are collected from village-to-village, sometimes causing uproar and resulted in the next picture).
Some random soldier inspecting murdered bodies of local populace (in Banten, West Java)
During the later days of the war, the Japanese lost its charisma it has firstly when they defeated the "evil European empire of Dutch". They presented themselves as "fellow older Asian brother" and "the liberators." But then, as the war situation deteriorated, they began to implement forced-cultivation, rounding up valuables from the locals, which caused even greater suffering than those during the Dutch occupation.
