It's my understanding that the Japanese authorities provided all necessary harbor accommodations, workshops, and labor, including native workers, for dockyard repairs. No Japanese labor could be employed because given all their propaganda about liberating Asia and Japanese exceptionalism, the Japanese obviously couldn't been seen laboring and sweating for Europeans in the eyes of the Asian natives. Although the Malaysian dockyard workers could be entrusted with simple constructional and engineering work, such as painting and maintenance, renewal of calking and packing, repairs and production of simple parts, all the more difficult work had to be done by crews and repair groups.
Local specialists generally failed to come up to German requirements. In their key positions, the dockyards had previously employed British and Australian personnel who had become internees. These were eventually replaced by Japanese who were not satisfactory. However, under the leadership of some experienced German civil engineers who had settled in east Asia years ago, German workshops were established which proved their worth.
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