http://www.vanderheijden.org/ng/military.htmlIn May 1940 KNIL consisted of 1,345 regular officers and 35,583 non-commissioned officers and lower ranks. With reserve officers, local conscripts etc. the total could grow to 3,200 officers and and 73,000 non-commissioned officers and lower ranks. When The Dutch government declared war with Japan on December 8, 1941, KNIL was mobilized. On March 9, 1942 KNIL capitulated. Only a small units escaped to Australia.
This link also has this to say:
http://niod.nihon.nl/en/diary_historinroduction.htm
It appears that conscription existed in the East Indies for Dutch Europeans/Eurasians?This would also indicate that the KNIL of around 76,000 men consisted of 42,000 Dutch and 34,000 Indonesians?There were about 294,000 Europeans living in the East Indies in 1942, a very small group by comparison with the 68 million Indonesians. Roughly half of the Dutch were Eurasians, i.e. of mixed Dutch and Indonesian ancestry. The Europeans formed the élite in society. However, most of the Eurasians were treated as social inferiors by the Dutch. Still, many of them obtained employment in the civil service, in the Royal Dutch East Indian Army (KNIL), and in the world of industry and commerce, usually in the lower or intermediate positions. The Indonesians occupied the lowest positions.....
....After the capitulation of the KNIL on 9 March 1942, the KNIL troops were made prisoners-of-war by the Japanese. The Indonesian prisoners-of-war were released after a short while, but the 42,000 Dutch remained prisoners. Although an exception was made for the Eurasian civilians on Java as far as internment was concerned, this did not apply to the Eurasian troops.
At first the prisoners-of-war were put into camps near the place where they had surrendered. Soon afterwards, however – in May 1942 on Sumatra, and starting in October 1942 on Java – the prisoners-of-war were taken to more remote locations, sometimes as far away as Japan or Manchuria. The regime to which the Japanese submitted the prisoners-of-war grew more and more strict. The Japanese also began to make the prisoners-of-war work. In Japan, for example, they had to work in the coal mines, and on the Moluccas airports had to be constructed on several locations. Prisoners-of-war were also deployed in the construction of railways, such as the notorious Pakanbaru line on Sumatra and the Burma-Siam line in Burma and Thailand. About 8,200 Dutch prisoners-of-war failed to survive the rigours.