World war II in the pacific ended after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

The empire of
Japan surrendered to the Allies aboard USS Missouri in 1945. It inspired the East Indies (Indonesian)
nationalists to proclaim independence, which the Japanese had promised. Soon, the leaders of the
Indonesian nationalist movement insisted that Soekarno, a son of school-teacher and theosophist, and
Mohammad Hatta, a Sumatra economist, proclaim Indonesian Independence on the August 17 th,
1945. They were also appointed president and vice president of the new nation.
After the Japanese fled from the East Indies, the Dutch came back to recover the territory.
They realized that the East Indies was very important for the Dutch economy. Armed with Japanese
weapons, the nationalists declared war on the Dutch. However, with their modern weapons, the
Dutch were able to make significant headway in Sumatra and Java.
The Dutch aggression came under much criticism from the United Nations. They proposed a
negotiation between the Dutch and the Indonesian nationalist movement and both sides agreed to
negotiate. Eventually, a conference of 120 delegates was held in Den Haag in 1949. The Indonesian
nationalist delegates were led by Mohammad Hatta. After ten weeks of meetings, both sides reached
an agreement by which The Dutch recognized the sovereignty of The United States of Indonesia, with
Queen Juliana as the titular head of an Indonesian-Dutch Union.