Seabees in World War II loaded into a U.S. Army Air Force B-29 bomber, named the Enola Gay. A short time later, the Enola Gay took off with its secret load from Tinian's North Field, The largest airfield of the WWII, which the Seabees had built, and started on her mission to Japan. Later in the day, the mission ended with the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. This historic event sealed the fate of Japan. Realizing that the war was lost, the Japanese government negotiated a cease fire that went into effect on 16 August. On 2 September 1945 Japan formally surrendered,
Indos in colonial history continued resulting in various political organisations such as Dekker‘s ‘Indische Party’ and Zaalberg’s 'Indo European Alliance', but was cut short by WWII and never established a structural connection to the Indonesian independence movement. When World War II broke out the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940, while the Dutch East Indies was occupied by Imperial Japan in 1942. All non Axis Europeans, including most Indo-European males, were interned in Japanese prisoner camps until 1945. During this period close to 25% of the POW’s did not survive their imprisonment. The end of WWII heralded the end of colonialism worldwide.