Vol.:(0123456789) Journal of Maritime Archaeology https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-020-09287-5 1 3 ORIGINAL PAPER Battle of the Java Sea: One Event, Multiple Sites, Values and Views M. R. Manders 1,2  · R. W. de Hoop 2  · S. Adhityatama 3  · D. S. Bismoko 3  · P. Syofadisna 3  · D. Haryanto 4 Accepted: 21 December 2020 © The Author(s) 2021 Abstract Three Dutch naval ships, HNLMS De Ruyter, HNLMS Java and HNLMS Kortenaer, were lost during the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February 1942, claiming the lives of 915 sail- ors. Although the ships were relocated in 2002, no ofcial action was taken until 2016 when an international diving team from the Karel Doorman Foundation discovered that the warships had disappeared. This created tension between the government of Indonesia and those countries that had lost ships in the archipelago, especially the Netherlands. A three-track cooperation agreement was set up to investigate the disappearance of the three Dutch wrecks with the aim of understanding what had happened, in order to create a bet- ter basis for cooperation in the future. The management and protection of shipwrecks from WWII is very complicated, because of the diferent values that stakeholders attach to them. Only with the proper understanding and consideration of the diferent values or signif- cance WWII shipwrecks hold for diferent stakeholders can new ways of managing these complex sites be developed that have long-term efectiveness. This paper argues that difer- ent stakeholder groups from both the fag and the coastal state must work together on this issue. Keywords WWII · Shipwrecks · Value · Management · Cooperation Introduction In November 2016, a group of technical divers discovered the disappearance of three Dutch WWII wrecks—HNLMS De Ruyter, HNLMS Java and HNLMS Kortenaer—that sank on the 27 February 1942 during what has become known as the Battle of the Java Sea in Indo- nesian territorial waters. The large metal shipwrecks had been obviously salvaged from the seabed. How had this happened? Who was to blame? The discovery lead to tensions between the governments of Indonesia and the Netherlands, refecting the complications that can arise in the management and protection of shipwrecks from WWII because of the diferent values that stakeholders attach to them. This article discusses the results of a * M. R. Manders m.r.manders@arch.leidenuniv.nl Extended author information available on the last page of the article