4 - Transient and Enduring Legacies of World War II: The Case of Indonesia

Summary

The Indonesian islands were overrun by the Japanese military forces in March 1942. The defence of the Netherlands of Indonesia Army was very poor since it was not prepared for an international war. Its commander-in-chief immediately capitulated, the governor-general detained and later sent to a concentration camp in Manchuria. Almost all Dutch government officials were detained and placed in various concentration camps.1 Only a few of them succeeded in escaping to Australia. The Japanese divided Netherlands Indonesia into three administrative units. Java and Madura were placed under the control of the 16th Army and Sumatra under the 25th Army, and Kalimantan and Eastern Indonesia under the Second South Seas Fleet.

In one stroke the economic and political institutions of Netherlands Indonesia, built step-by-step in about 300 years, were wiped out. Supervised by Japanese military and government officials, the second and third echelons in those institutions consisting mostly of Indonesians were given opportunities to replace their former Dutch bosses. One of the main objectives of the Japanese occupational forces was to prepare the Indonesians in facing an invasion by the Allies forces. Their main strategy to accomplish this was by systematically eliminating every Western element in Indonesian society and culture. The existence of widespread Western elements was the reason Netherlands Indonesia was known by some scholars as “a dual society”.2 Some of the main characteristics of the dual society are as follows. The inhabitants of Indonesia were legally divided into “Europeans” with a higher social status and indigenous (inlanders) with a lower status. “Inlanders” with certain characteristics could obtain the legal status of “European”. Especially since the beginning of the twentieth century a dual school system was created, one for the majority of Indonesians and another for the “Europeans”. The occupational and the remuneration systems were also mainly dualistic, increasing the gap in social status between the two races. The Japanese eliminated the “Europeans” school system, the Dutch language, and the Dutch salary system. Indonesia is one of the countries in Southeast Asia where the imprints of the Japanese Occupation is still a reality.