Hendrik Doeff

Hendrik Doeff was the Dutch commissioner in the Dejima trading post in Nagasaki, Japan, during the first years of the 19th century. During the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), in which the Netherlands was occupied by France, Dutch ships abstained from sailing to Japan directly due to the possibility of being captured by Royal Navy ships. They relied on "neutral" American and Danish ships. The Netherlands was annexed by Napoleon Bonaparte (1810–1813), while Britain captured several Dutch colonial possessions and after the 1811 invasion of Java, Dejima was the only place in the world where the Dutch flag still flew, as ordered by commissioner Hendrik Doeff.