[5] Japanese occupation forces in the area had begun to disarm and disband the Japanese-trained Pembela Tanah Air (PETA) Indonesian units as soon as 18 August.

The discharged officers and personnel were then recruited into the Badan Keamanan Rakyat (People's Security Agency, BKR), the new armed forces of the nationalist government.

[8] Takeovers were initially relatively peaceful, but soon more looting began to occur, primarily of military assets, with pemuda independently planning and launching attacks on Japanese posts or vehicles to capture weapons.

[9] In early October, the Japanese military commander in Bandung, Major General Mabuchi Itsuo, was negotiating a peaceful disarmament of his men.

[9] Throughout the first few days of the month, several arms factories and warehouses were seized by nationalists and on 8 October a large group of pemuda took over a Japanese airbase, taking control and disarming its guards with almost no resistance.

[18] On the night of 24 November, the 3rd Division under Kartawinata was pressured by pemuda following the outbreak of the Battle of Surabaya to launch a general attack against British and Japanese troops – which ended up being a relatively limited operation, with only scattered fighting in parts of the city.

[21] During the remaining days of 1945 and in early 1946, a relatively calm period ensued from the stalemate, with pemuda organizations continued to consolidate to form larger entities, and the 3rd Division saw a replacement of Kartawinata with Abdul Haris Nasution as commander.

[23] On 22 March, British authorities notified then-Prime Minister of Indonesia Sutan Sjahrir that they were planning a military operation in Bandung, requesting him to evacuate the city of armed forces to prevent fighting – specifically, the British requested that all armed Indonesian units be removed from an area within eleven kilometers of the city center.

[24] Major General Douglas Hawthorn, commander of the 23rd Division, announced on the radio on the afternoon the following day of the demands, requiring South Bandung to be evacuated of military forces while asking civilians to remain.

Indonesian leaders such as Nasution requested a delay in the deadline – nominally to organize the movement of people but primarily to move supplies and equipment – but this was rejected by Hawthorn.

On 4 p.m. that day, Nasution (who had approved of the plan) announced that the entire half of the city was to be evacuated by 8 p.m. – though some scorched earth actions had been conducted as early as the previous evening.

[26] Various figures were given for the affected population within the eleven kilometer limit – from 200,000 given by Merdeka newspaper a month after the event to 500,000 estimated by American historian John Smail (including those living in villages outside Bandung).

When many of the March 1946 evacuees returned to the city, they found their houses occupied by new residents – who in some cases had managed to obtain a residential permit from the government.