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With the uneasy prescience that comes with proximity and imminent danger, mindful of many an instance of bland Jap duplicity, the Dutch, instead of putting faith in the Japanese conferences with Cordell Hull in Washington, had got ready to fight.
Blood on the Moon. Born in Surabaya, Hein ter Poorten, like most other Dutch colonials, had seen blood on the moon over the Java Sea since he was a slim stripling. It was part of life in the underarmed, fabulously rich, strangely strategic Indies, lying like a rich, jewel-encrusted girdle athwart the sea traffic of half the world. Some day the hungry Jap would snatch at that girdle to pilfer its jewels. If he succeeded, that half of the world was his.
Like every other youngster at the Royal Military Academy at Breda, in the motherland, Cadet Hein ter Poorten had to make a choice before he entered. He had to decide where he would serve, and stick to his choice. He chose The Netherlands East Indies, went to his first post in Java rarely well-equipped. He was not only an artillery specialist. He was also an airman. After winning an international balloon race in Germany, he learned to fly an airplane in 1911, was one of the world's earliest military aviators.
At a time when the U.S. Army was making its first tentative experiments with the new military weapon, Hein ter Poorten came to the U.S., bought two Glenn Martin flying boats, took them back to Java. Later, on, flying the N.E.I. Commander in Chief, Pilot ter Poorten crashed, the Commander was killed, and Ter Poorten was so badly hurt that newspapers printed his obituary. According to Army legend, Ter Poorten was billed for a casket he did not need. But beefy Hein ter Poorten was soon on his feet, headed back to the U.S. for more Martins, more of the new lore of military flying. He had no trouble getting either.
After World War I, the moon over the Java Sea grew ruddier than ever before. The Jap had wangled the mandated islands, and soon clamped a fortified strangle hold on the U.S.'s line of supply between Pearl Harbor and Manila. While the Jap entrenched himself he reached north into Manchuria for his supplies against the great war, then crept down China's coast toward Hong Kong. The fearful Dutch did more than the rest of the world to get ready. Dutch diplomacy, dedicated to the proposition that oil to the enemy is poison to the giver, slapped down Japanese demands with no fear of offending Japanese sensibilities. No longer an active pilot, Hein ter Poorten bought airplanes, Martin bombers, Curtiss pursuits, Ryan trainers. The Netherlands East Indies worked to build up an air force.
With it, the N.E.I. Army and Navy grew. When Hein ter Poorten took command last October he had around 100,000 soldiers. Motorization was speeding along. Artillery, another Ter Poorten specialty, was heavily increased. For defense against the inevitable attack, oil wells were mined. Around airfields and open spaces were set poles tipped with poison which slant-eyed Malayans constantly renewed.