[KS] Re: Japanese Colonization Period

[Richard C. Miller]

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>From what I have read and heard from people who lived through the 3-1/2
year Japanese occupation of Indonesia, it would be very difficult to
summarize the experience in a word or sentence. Indonesia is a big place,
covering as much area as the continental US (albeit a lot of that is
water...), and an incredibly diverse place as well.

There is no question that many of the political leaders welcomed the
arrival of the Japanese as an opportunity to get rid of the Dutch, much as,
hundreds of years earlier, the Dutch were welcomed in parts of Indonesia
(North Sulawesi, eg.) as an opportunity to get rid of the Spanish. And many
of those political leaders were openly supported by the Japanese, who
provided military training and logistical support. The Japanese occupation
forces had a plan for Indonesian independence (within the Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere, of course) within ten years--the Dutch only forecast
Indonesian independence for the mid 1970s. And when the ended so abruptly,
the Japanese occupation forces encouraged and supported Indonesian efforts
to keep the Dutch from taking back control of the islands. Quite a far cry
from Korea in this respect.

However, the Japanese occupation of Indonesia was a very fragmented affair
that had really just gotten going when the war ended. People's experience
of the occupation ranged from horrible to relatively pleasant depended on a
whole host of factors, including:

* Who was in control of the territory. The Army ran Java, Bali, and at
least southern Sumatra, if I remember correctly--the areas of most
intensive wet-rice cultivation and rubber plantations--but the Navy ran the
rest. The Army's record in its territories is largely one of executions,
humiliation, torture, forced labor, and the commandeering of rice and other
food to the point of widespread starvation of the local populace. The Navy
seems to have had a lighter hand, for the most part. Which is not to say
that there weren't arbitrary executions, particularly in the opening days
of the occupation.

* What the value of the territory was to the occupation forces. As I said,
the wet-rice areas bore a terrible burden. Eastern Indonesia, on the other
hand, is largely unsuitable for wet rice, rubber, and so forth, so the main
value seems to have been strategic. Eastern Indonesia was the first point
occupied (January 1942 and frogmen landed less than a mile from where I
type this in Manado) by the Japanese forces, and the first to undergo the
Allied offensive. In some ways, Eastern Indonesia actually suffered more
from the Allies than it did from the Japanese--Ambon, Manado, Makassar, and
all the population centers were firebombed just as ferociously as Dresden,
Osaka, and Tokyo. (Note that the Allies didn't firebomb Paris to get rid of
the Germans...) Eastern Indonesian did not experience the famine that hit
Java and Bali, in part because the Japanese were not interested in eating
the staple crops here (sago, bananas, yams, cassava, corn).

* Where you fell in the social/racial hierarchy. North Sulawesi before the
war had a racial hierarchy already, with the Dutch at the top, Indos in a
liminal position (sometimes near the Dutch, sometimes well below), and pure
Indonesians at the bottom. I hasten to add that, unique to the Dutch East
Indies, numerous pure Indonesians from this area received "gelijkstelling,"
or official standing equal to the Dutch. This area also had a local
parliament (the Minahasaraad) that had some power, although subject to the
veto of the Dutch Resident of Manado, and the local people who entered the
"native" branches of the Dutch Army and Navy, although segregated from the
Dutch, were occasionally placed above Dutch in the officer ranking.
    When the Japanese arrived, they turned this racial hierarchy
upside-down. The Dutch were instantly rounded up and either executed, put
into camps, or put into camps and then executed. Indos (people of mixed
European-Indonesian ancestry) were initially incarcerated, either with the
Dutch or in separate camps. However, at least here in North Sulawesi, many
of them were subsequently released, especially if the father was
Indonesian. Any land or belongings they had were confiscated, however, and
they were subject to arbitrary arrest and/or execution if some Japanese
officer decided they were "really" Dutch. So they were free, but not
necessarily much better off than the incarcerated Dutch. Anything to do
with the Netherlands was banned, so the Dutch-language schools were closed
for the duration, which shut off even the freed Indos from school, for the
most part. Pure Indonesians received probably the best treatment, within
the bounds described above. They were subject to arbitrary
imprisonment--but in jail, not in a camp--and execution like everyone else,
plus forced labor and so forth. But here in North Sulawesi, the Japanese
also set up a free public school system and required attendance through 6th
grade (the Dutch had exactly one elementary school, through grade 3, in the
Malay language--everything else required knowledge of Dutch), trained
Indonesians for police, military, and civil service--including sending
individuals to Japan for officer training--promoted public works other than
those required for the war effort, and so on.

So, how things were depended on who and where you were and who was in
charge. I have spoken with quite a few folks here in and around Manado who
lived through the occupation. Some can only speak with horror of the
executions they were forced to witness, the "beauty contests" which turned
out to be a convenience for Japanese officers looking for local women, and
the privations they endured; others smile faintly and talk about how they
finally given the opportunity to go to school, learn Japanese (an important
market for fish and other sea products from here), and better themselves in
general. They still remember the Japanese phrases they were taught in
school, the songs, the food, and in many cases friendly individuals. This
is not blind nostalgia; these same people remember the executions and
beatings and forced labor--but for them, this part was not so different
from Dutch rule that it could not be trumped by the new opportunities that
also came with the Japanese occupation.

Richard
--Richard C. Miller
--UW School of Music
--Manado, Indonesia
--rcmiller at students.wisc.edu
  http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~rcmiller/