indonesian army general abdul haris nasution wrote in 1977 that the battle was "the first major battle of the indonesian nation". british accounts of the events generally praised kido's actions, with tull writing that "the japanese [...] protected the internment camps from molestation and released numerous dutch and eurasian captives". hubertus van mook remarked that the japanese actions caused the european pows, who had been mistreated in the prisoner camps for years, to change their attitudes towards the japanese to that of gratitude.