After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States, the United Kingdom and Holland suffered setback after setback at the hands of the Japanese throughout the western Pacific, or the eastern Pacific for those of you in Asia. The British possessions of Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong were overrun, as were parts of New Guinea, the giant island north of Australia. The United States lost Guam, Wake Island, and worst of all from the point of view of both prestige and power, the Philippines. The Free Dutch, whose nation had been conquered by Hitler in 1940, maintained control of their Indonesian colony, including the territory of Brunei – two of the richest territories in the Pacific, mainly in oil and rubber after Hitler's takeover of Holland, but lost it to his allies the Japanese in beginning in January, 1942. At the time, Indonesia was known as “The Dutch East Indies.”