Indonesia Dutch Ethical Policy that was aimed at improving living conditions and welfare, expanding education to native peoples, and preparing the archipelago for self-government under Dutch control. The policy, however, inadvertently contributed to the Indonesian National Awakening, and subsequent rise of independence movements, which the Dutch actively suppressed. During World War II, the Empire of Japan invaded and occupied the archipelago, effectively ending Dutch rule. Famine and forced labour ("romusha") were common during the occupation, and war crimes were committed in areas that were deemed important for the Japanese war effort. A later United Nations report stated that the Japanese occupation
Germany–Indonesia relations Indonesia. The German painter Walter Spies (1895-1942) settled on the island of Bali and his works influenced local art. President B.J. Habibie studied and spent most of his life in Germany. The bilateral diplomatic relations officially established in 1952 when Indonesia opened a representative office in Bonn for Federal Republic of Germany, and an embassy in 1976 in East Berlin for German Democratic Republic. During official visit to Indonesia in December 1, 2011, Federal President Christian Wulff and his counterpart, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, identified five key sectors of strategic partnership between Germany and Indonesia; trade and investments, health,