Hello Indo community and supporters!

This is Jamie Stern, and a lot has happened in the year-and-a-half since you kindly responded to my first survey. To those who are unfamiliar with the first survey, you may view the results here:

http://dutch-indonesiansurveyresults.yolasite.com/survey-results.php

As I delved more deeply into the stories you shared with me, I realized how much so many of you have endured. My heart goes out to you. Originally this research was for my Master’s thesis but I have postponed its submission to make it much more thorough. The Indo community deserves it! This survey will provide the information needed to continue my ethnographic research on the Indo people. The goal in this survey is to fully describe what has happened to the Indos and where we are today; geographically as well as within society. With this organized information, I believe we can remind the world around us of our presence. This survey is intended for each generation. We want to hear from everyone!!

This new survey will allow comparisons between information obtained in the first survey and will supplement much of it with even more precise data. Hopefully, we can establish a stronger geographical base and distribution. Through this survey, I hope to have answers for these salient questions:

1)How are we distributed geographically?
2)What have been the patterns of marriage into the general population?
3)What has been our academic progress and contributions to our society?
4)Are there any lingering effects of the migrations and WWII that are still being felt today?

Because of my research, I was invited to join and I have accepted board membership on “The Indo Project.” The Indo Project (TIP) is dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and celebration of Indo culture and history through education and raising public awareness. TIP serves as a portal between the academic world and the experiential world. Being part of TIP led me to the development of this follow-up survey in which I hope you will participate. Once complete, the final report will belong to our community with our community’s statistics available for all to see!

We really appreciate your time, knowledge and information. Because of you, precious pieces of information will not be lost. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us with this research!

Very Truly Yours,

Jamie Stern
Board Member at The Indo Project
jamies@theindoproject.org

Extremists Run Amok Against Indische-Nederlanders

Who will now help our own refugees?
Translated from an article in De Haagsche Post published on 4 December 1954

For a short time the end of the Japanese dream of power seemed to mean liberation for the Dutch and Indo’s in the Far East. That illusion did not last long. The Dutch East Indies were indeed liberated from Japanese domination but another, even more hostile power stood in the wings, ready to declare itself heir of the Japanese reign.

How all this came about is known now, and some weeks ago Mr. Gerbrandy used his knowledge to explain an unclear facet in this publication. At that time the old – incorrect – controversy reappeared. This publication has often argued that after the war the issue at hand was not the choice between the continuation of the old colonial system and Soekarno, but rather about the correct interpretation of royal language in which the Dutch intentions were described.

Everyone knew that enormous changes were in the works and everyone was prepared for them. There was, however, a group that maintained that authority in the Dutch East Indies should not be suddenly handed over to inexperienced insurgents. It is now common knowledge that this did, indeed, occur.

Soekarno’s reign no longer has any supporters in the Netherlands, not even among the most progressive circles. The terrible consequences of his misguided politics are well-known and many groups must pay a heavy price. At this time our interests lie mainly in what this state of affairs means to our Indo’s.

The Vendetta
Once Japan had capitulated and it was forbidden for us (Dutch) to set foot on the shores of the Dutch East Indies, a vacuum of authority arose. Oil was thrown on top of the embers of Indonesian hatred against belandas (Dutch) which hatred had been diligently sowed by the Japanese during their three-and-a-half year occupation of the DEI. Buccaneers, robbers, sadists and criminals gathered behind the flag of extremism and adulterized honest nationalism by seeking bloody revenge. In particular, they turned fiercely against our Indische-Nederlanders.

“The Indo-Nederlanders are bloodhounds,” so began one of Boeng Tono’s notorious addresses to the extremists in Djogjakarta on November 24, 1945,

“Torture them to death, eradicate those watchdogs of colonialism down to the root, before they escape to Irian (New Guinea) from where they – as unadulterated lion cubs of the imperialistic Netherlands – intend to build a springboard to recapture our beloved fatherland. For 300 years they have emaciated our country in order to fill the coffers of a white queen. But now Allah has announced the hour of revenge. Brave warriors of Indonesia, countless generations of oppressed ancestors are looking down on you. Their undying spirits require revenge from you. Vendetta!”

The raging crowd stripped fields and looted villages, looking for victims, and started a massive amok against the Indische-Nederlanders while in the mother country victory celebrations and thanksgiving services abounded.

These victims were defenseless. They were the Indisch-Nederlandse women and children, malnourished and without male family members who had been interned by the Japanese.

The excessive cruelty even filled the Japanese with horror. The human remains of hundreds of mutilated women and children came floating down the large rivers, nailed to rough wooden crosses. During this time of uncertainty not much attention was paid to this excessive cruelty. People do not really want to read about this type of news.

It was terrible. It was far worse than people in the Netherlands would ever want to believe. Those who experienced it are still reluctant to speak of it.

The English soldiers did nothing to stop it.

This most awful period began to see its end when Dutch rule started to be restored in wider circles.

It is known that through the actions of some foreign powers and powerful Dutch the so named Politionele Acties (police actions) had to be stopped. What in reality was the liberation of a country of criminal guerillas, was denounced and condemned as a colonial war. That means that authority in the Netherlands-Indies would fall to a small group who supported extremism. And that word extremism has to be taken in most literal of meanings. They were not extremists in their thoughts, but all the more in their deeds.

No More Room
From the time of the Japanese capitulation until now the fate of the Indische-Nederlander in Indonesia is miserable. Many sought salvation in the mother country, many tried to adapt themselves to new circumstances….but that would never really succeed, because in Soekarno’s republic there was no room for them. Some made it to New Guinea. A small core would attempt to create an asylum for Indische-Nederlanders there. Wherever they found themselves, nowhere would they receive the support of the Dutch government, which they would be able to claim. The Dutch government refused to make New Guinea a new home for them. In 1953 the Dutch congress rejected the Lemaire motion which would make it possible for the Dutch government to pay for the travel costs for all Indo’s who wanted to repatriate to Holland.

The group in New Guinea feels uncertain. Many are preparing to travel again to make use of the possibilities offered by Brazil. 100,000 are still in Indonesia. Their lot is miserable. They are hated. This probably means very little to Dutch people because they don’t know what it is to be hated by an Oriental.

Once they are no longer part of the workforce, poverty awaits them. The Dutch High Commissariat supports the jobless Indo’s, but it is infeasible in a country with high inflation. What would an Indo couple do with 200 rupiahs per month when a pair of shoes cost 90 rupiahs and a kilo of meat 24 rupiahs?

The High Commissariat offers little support, in money or otherwise.
The Indo can hardly complain because the Dutch also receive little aid. In the Netherlands one tends to keep quiet and ignore this.

For too long………
These circumstances cannot last forever. The Dutch people need to know and understand that avoiding the situation can no longer go unpunished After all these people are our fellow countrymen.
Let the painted picture speak for itself. Today, it is just as current as it was yesterday and people in the Netherlands don’t like to hear it. Every description of the misery facing the Indo’s casts a stain on the Indonesia (foreign) policy of the current (Dutch) government.

The government rather turn its attention to Eastern European refugees. An Indo says, “It is indeed curious that the Dutch worry so much about the scratches on someone else’s skin while ignoring the festering sores on their own body.

Translated by Kareen Richard from The Indo Project

Related Links:

• Original Article (Dutch)
• Thread at Kaskus (Indonesian)
• Thread at Faith Freedom
• IEV
• Bersiap@Wikipedia

The account of one East Dutch Indies family’s survival during World War II and the Indonesian Revolution is the subject of this edition of Dialogue.

Joan Cartan-Hansen interviews sisters Ilse Evelijn Veere Smit and Edith Evelijn Veere, who survived the two atrocities, as well as author Dorothy Read, who helps Ilse tell her family’s story in the new book End the Silence.

The sisters lived through the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies in 1942 and the revolution in the war’s aftermath and talk about their lives during those turbulent times.

After the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies in 1942, 9-year-old Ilse, her mother and siblings were sent to a concentration camp. Tortured by her captors, Ilse survived the war only to see her family become targets of Indonesian revolutionaries determined to wipe out Dutch colonialists. How Ilse survived a war and a revolution became a family secret, not to be discussed until now as Read documents the story in their book.

The story told in End the Silence is a little known yet relevant piece of World War II, an addition to the tragic sagas of Europe’s concentration camps and the interment of Japanese Americans in the U.S. It is a piece of history that belongs to a world audience, as it exposes the iniquity and indignities suffered by people interned in the Dutch East Indies, now known as Indonesia.

Please visit this page to download the video/audio file.

Hello everyone, I would like to inform you that The Indo Project’s website is up and running.

The Indo Project is dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and celebration of Indo culture and history through education and raising public awareness.

People of mixed European and Indonesian ancestry, in particular, those of Dutch and Indonesian ancestry are called Indos, Dutch-Indonesians, or Indo-Europeans. Their origins date back over 350 years to the Spice Islands of the Indonesian archipelago.

We are thrilled to have you visit our website to learn more about our project. The Indo Project serves as a portal between the academic world and the experiential world.

Halfway around the world from Indonesia, you can enjoy a sumptuous plate of nasi uduk and sip es cendol while taking in the melancholic sounds of a keroncong band. Tese tastes, sights and sounds come to life once a year in the Dutch city of The Hague during the annual Tong Tong Fair.

For many members of the Netherlands� Indo community � persons with mixed- Indonesian ancestry � the event, more popularly known as the Pasar Malam Besar (Grand Evening Fair), is a chance to celebrate their Indonesian heritage.

�Many Indos have a sort of unofficial agreement: �see you at the Pasar Malam,�?� said Paul Isaak, whose Eurasian father was born in the Central Java town of Klaten. �It�s a very important event for them to maintain social contacts and reminisce about the past.�

The Pasar Malam Besar, held during the last two weeks ofMay, is housed in giant white tents filling 20,000 square meters of The Hague�s biggest plaza, Malieveld. The festival features cultural performances and lectures, a market filled with wares ranging from trinkets and batik to fresh durian, and, naturally, an overabundance of Indonesian food.

�In a nutshell, the Tong Tong Fair is a meeting between East and West, in the form of culture, food and trade,� said Florine Koning, a historian and spokesperson for the fair.

The first Pasar Malam was held in The Hague in 1959, initiated by a group of Indos who were sent back to the Netherlands following the end of Dutch rule in Indonesia.

Under colonial rule, legal status in Indonesia was based on ethnicity, with the Europeans on top of the heirarchy, the Chinese, Arabs and others of Asian or Middle Eastern descent in the middle, followed by the indigenous Indonesians. While many Indos were officially classified as Europeans, others were identified with the archipelago�s natives.

�Indos are a true mix of Asia and Europe. We sort of lived between the classes, and formed our own culture. We feel both Eastern and Western, but mostly we are our own people,� Koning explained.

When hundreds of thousands of Indos emigrated to the Netherlands after World War II, people there knew very little about them. �Some didn�t even know that we spoke fluent Dutch,� Koning said.

In the 1950s, Indo writer and intellectual Tjalie Robinson set up a group to organize events to celebrate Indo culture and make it wider known in the Netherlands.

�The group had no money, so the idea of a Pasar Malam was hatched to raise funds,� Koning said.

The first Pasar Malam, was held at the city zoo for three days and attracted some 3,000 visitors. �It was an instant success. People were thronging to get in,� Koning said.

Since then the Pasar Malam has blossomed into a two-week event with as many as 133,000 visitors. The festival is now one of the largest annual fairs in the Netherlands. The event has attracted prominent officials, including Queen Beatrix who opened the Pasar Malam for its 50th anniversary in 2008.

Over the years, the festival has grown much closer to its Indonesian roots. �In the earlier years, the fair was more Western, with stands one might see in boardwalks or fairgrounds, such as cotton candy and shooting hoops,� Koning said.

�Many people now forget that the relationship between the Dutch and Indonesian states only started normalizing in the late 1960s. Aside from that, overseas travel only became affordable in the 1970s.�

In 1973, the fair�s first Indonesian performer, Balinese dancer Djoni Ginsir, was invited to Pasar Malam. The event has since introduced more Indonesian culture and now showcases rock groups such as Slank, along with traditional dance troupes from across the archipelago.

The event also features theater as well as literary and historical discussions. This year the fair will host 400 performances, workshops and discussions in five theaters. Among the highlights are a photo essay exhibition, �First Generation Show: We Still Remember Everything,� a wayang (shadow puppet) performance from West Java and gamelan ensembles .

The stalls offer a variety of Indonesian textiles, crafts and snacks, including fresh mango juice and coconut cakes. And in the most-packed pavilion in the fair, the food court, there is sate, countless varieties of noodle and rice dishes, and tables filled with Padang delicacies.

In one room elderly Indos are singing along to �Bengawan Solo,� a keroncong classic by Gesang Martohartono about Java�s longest river. Watching them one can easily imagine an era long gone, but which is clearly still fresh in the memories of the graying audience.

Paul Isaak, 53, is among the youngest in the audience. �I know these tempo doeloe [old times] songs from my father,� he said.

Reflecting on what might happen to Indo culture once his father�s generation has passed on, he said: �Actually, apart from the songs and the food, my father told us very little about his Indonesian past.�

Isaak said he was still left with many questions of what his father�s generation experienced in Indonesia.

�Many Indos of that generation, including him, were traumatized. They were interned in camps during the Japanese occupation in Indonesia, then forced to leave their birth country and felt misunderstood in Holland,� Isaak said.

But even for the next generation, Isaak�s children, the emotional ties to their Indonesian heritage are still palpable. He said his daughter was 8 years old when he first brought her to Pasar Malam. He said that when she got there she told him, �I feel like I�m among family.�

According to Koning, worries that the Indo culture might fade away are unfounded because even third-generation Indos, many now in their 20s, are very aware of their heritage, though without the emotional traumas of their elders. �They are proud of being Indo,� he said.

Dylayna Awondatu, 20, said Pasar Malam had become an annual family ritual.

�I�ve been going here every year, since as far as I can recall. There were times when I was younger that I found it boring, but now I really like it,� she said.

Her eyes widened when asked whether she could see herself in the future taking her own children to the festival.

�I�ve never thought about that, but the answer is probably yes,� she said.
Tong Tong Fair For more information, go to www.tongtongfair.nl and www.tongtongfestival.nl

New Film Project “Buitenkampers”. The Dutch Film Foundation that produced the documentary of interviews of people that were in the Japanese Concentration Camps 1942-1946. http://japanseburgerkampen.org is now looking for stories of individuals that spent the war years in Indonesia OUTSIDE the camps during the war years. If your parents and/or grandparents were any of these people and are interested, go to this page. If pages are in Dutch, click on the British Flag for the English version.

Young East Indies Dutch explore their identity

By Marcel Decraene*

27-06-2008

Kirsten Vos is East Indies Dutch or an “Indo” which is an abbreviation of “Indo-European” – the word refers to people with ancestors both from the Netherlands and from the former Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia.

She is one of 458,000 Indos in the Netherlands, a large community with a turbulent history. Although she is third generation, she retains a firm hold on her mixed identity:

“We don’t have our own country. A lot of other cultures, ethnic groups, at least have a country they can go to, but we don’t have that any more.”

Kirsten Vos Mother country
After the Second World War, the Dutch East Indies became the Republic of Indonesia. Despite centuries of colonial history, many Dutch people and East Indies Dutch saw no future for themselves in the country.

Between 1945 and 1970 this led to a major wave of migration. Between 300,000 and 330,000 people came to the Netherlands, the “mother country” they often knew only from geography lessons.

Two thirds of the immigrants were of mixed descent. This group in particular had a pressing reason to leave Indonesia, says Wim Willems, Professor of Social History:

“When the Indonesians became independent and formed their own republic, they saw the people of partly Dutch descent also as colonisers. So they were pushed to the margins of society. They were regarded as an inferior sort of Indonesian, because according to the new rulers they were on the wrong side during the colonial period.”Not welcome
Once in the Netherlands, this mixed ethnic group received a lukewarm reception. During the post-war period, the Netherlands was preoccupied with reconstruction, and what’s more the country saw itself as a country of emigration rather than immigration, as at the time many Dutch people were leaving for Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Hence the influx of East Indies Dutch was met with some resistance:

“The East Indies Dutch were foreigners and they formed the first large group of immigrants that came to the Netherlands after the Second World War. What’s more, many were dark-skinned at a time the Dutch saw themselves as a white, homogenous population. So most Indos weren’t very welcome in the Netherlands.”

Next generation “Indo”
Nevertheless, the East Indies Dutch managed to adapt well. Furthermore, they were followed by immigrants from countries like Surinam, Turkey and Morocco. This meant they came to be seen no longer as immigrants at all, says Professor Willems:

“Indos are now seen as a sort of white Dutch people, even though their skin is a different colour. They now belong to the category of ‘Dutch’”.
Adaptability
The impression that Indos barely differ from the white majority in the Netherlands is mainly due to the adaptability of the first generation. Indos are seen as the ethnic group that has integrated into Dutch society the best.

But often this adaptation was accompanied by self-denial. Seldom was anything said about the suffering in the Dutch East Indies under Japanese occupation during the Second World War and about the hostility of Indonesians afterwards.

Third generation
However, the third generation have now put this self-effacing attitude behind them, says Kirsten Vos.

“There are people who say that what we’re doing as the third generation isn’t East Indies Dutch at all. Because in many people’s eyes, we aren’t self-effacing at all. We’re extremely outgoing.”
Kirsten Vos thinks it’s important for Indos to consider issues such as “Who are we and what is East Indies Dutch?” Certainly in the Netherlands today – with all its different cultures, and with room for new cultures – Ms Vos thinks its good for East Indies Dutch to look to the future:

“Without forgetting – and I think this is important – what happened in the past and where we come from.”

New consciousness
Young East Indies Dutch people are seeking recognition. They see themselves as a separate group in Dutch society, with their own history and lifestyle. This identity is expressed, for example, in a new internet forum, in which Indos discuss their culture.

The high point of East Indies cultural life in the Netherlands is the Pasar Malam Besar (literally “big evening market”), an annual Eurasian festival in The Hague lasting twelve days, and it’s well-attended by Dutch people of all types.

Lectures and discussions, dance performances from Indonesia, readings from Indonesian literature and Asian products show that 60 years on, East Indies Dutch culture in the Netherlands is still alive and kicking.

*RNW translation (mb)

Many stories of Dutch Indonesians who left Indonesia shortly after Independence are lost in the passage of time. Legend has it that they went to Holland. But some found a second home, or perhaps a third, in the USA.

Michael Hillis, a part-time teacher and history buff who resides in Portland, Oregon, estimates there are around 200,000 Dutch Indonesians, or Dutch Indos as they call themselves, living in the United States.

“Not many people in America know about them,” Hillis, who is making a film about the Dutch Indos, told the Sunday Post during a recent research trip to Indonesia.

“They left Indonesia and headed to The Netherlands shortly after Independence. But when they got there, they faced racial issues.”

The Dutch Indos repatriated to Holland between 1945 and the 1960s. But it seemed that Dutch society was not ready for an influx of postwar Eurasians hailing from the former Dutch East Indies colony.

As Eurasians, the Dutch Indos’ physical features vary greatly, with some having blond hair and blue eyes, and others having a dark complexion and black eyes. Many of these were believed to be Hispanic immigrants and so faced racial slurs.

However, their ability to speak fluent Dutch raised questions from people who were not aware of their origins. Hillis said that the Dutch Indos simply answered that they had learned the language during the journey by ship.

“In my opinion, I think they probably realized that they had gone through terrible things,” he said. “They lost their homes and their money in Indonesia. On the other hand, they had to cope with new issues, such as eating potatoes, instead of rice, and racial issues.”

He said that after arriving in Holland, most Dutch Indos learned martial arts to defend themselves, such was the extent of the attacks on them. Unable to bear the continuing discrimination, an estimated 60,000 Dutch Indos immigrated to the United States in the 1960s.

“Once they arrived in the US, they took any kind of job they could get and they worked really hard,” Hillis said.

“For them, the US was a place where they could work and live in freedom. They did not have to worry about people trying to kill them.”

Nowadays, he said, the Dutch Indos in the United States are into their third generation; Los Angeles is home to the largest Dutch Indo community, with some 100,000 people.

The first generation of Dutch Indos still speak Dutch, as it was the language they were born with, Hillis said, adding they also speak Indonesian because they spent a lot of time with their nannies, servants and helpers.

“Most of the first generation came from wealthy families. They used to have 10 maids in their houses. When they reached the US, they decided that they had to make it there so they learned English. Most of them are around 80 years old now,” he said.

“These people would have loved to stay in Indonesia but they had no choice, they had to leave. Many of them still live in Holland but I believe there many who left for the US or perhaps other countries.”

Members of the second generation, now aged up to 60, speak English; the third generation, aged between 20 and 30, no longer speak Dutch and are unaware of their Dutch Indo roots.

The Dutch Indos quickly assimilated into their new country, marrying people outside the community; most never returned to Indonesia.

Hillis first came across the issue of the Dutch Indos when he read Jan A. Krancer’s The Defining Years of the Dutch East Indies 1942-1949. He contacted the writer, who introduced him to Bianca Dias-Halpert, a Dutch Indo residing in Seattle. Dias-Halpert invited Hillis to a Dutch Indo community gathering.

The Dutch Indo community often holds gatherings where they cook Indonesian food and do line dancing to Indonesian music played on small guitars, which, Hillis said, sounded to his ears like Hawaiian music. They also publish a bulletin about their community activities, all written in Dutch.

“When I first saw them, I was wondering who these people were,” Hillis said with a smile. “They look like Hispanic people, speak Dutch, eat Indonesian food and sing Hawaiian-like songs.”

As the younger generation immerse themselves into America’s melting pot multicultural society, the older Dutch Indos are concerned that the young ones will forget their roots.

As Hillis learned more about this concern, he was inspired to make a film about the Dutch Indos.

After Hillis met filmmaker Marlin Darrah, the project began. They financed it privately and invited selected people to invest in the project.

“I have a strong relationship with this movie, because I’m married to an Indonesian woman,” Hillis said. “I want my daughters to understand the history of Indonesia during hard times.”

Hillis said that the movie would paint a new picture of Indonesia for Americans, most of who know little about Indonesia apart from terrorism threats and Bali. He said that the movie would take audiences to the World War II base of American general Douglas MacArthur on Morotai Island, as well as to other places of interest.

“Most Americans know little about Indonesia. We hope this movie can show them that Indonesia and America have a historical relationship,” he said.

“We also want to see Garuda Indonesia flying to the US again. The US is the second largest country, Indonesia the third but there is no direct flight between these two countries.”

Hillis and Darrah visited Indonesia last December to do research. During their stay in Jakarta, they met and interviewed historian Des Alwi. They also met with a former Army official, who agreed to help with security during filming.

“We will begin filming in April, shoot for 35 days and leave for other shooting places in May,” Darrah said. “We plan to go to Holland to track down the Dutch Indo community there. Perhaps we will return to Indonesia in June for extra shots.”

Darrah, an experienced documentary filmmaker, said that the documentary would be shot in high definition format and would be 90 minutes long. He plans to submit it to this year’s Jakarta International Film Festival as well as to other international film festivals.

They also plan to distribute the movie through PBS, BBC and Discovery Channel.

“I think the film will help the Dutch Indos to be at peace with their past,” Hillis said. “They will be happy to see the film. It’s going to be a legacy, something they can pass on to their children.”

Just recently bought this book from Periplus for $6. This is story about a rich dutchman of French heritage, lived in Jatinegara in late 19th century. This is not book about eurasian, but it’s still useful to see the social life among dutch, eurasian, and indonesians in the dutch east indies. The author, Edward du Perron was born in Dutch East Indies. He was probaby best classified as Creoles, the european people who was born in Dutch East Indies.

Charles Edgar du perron was born in Java 1899, his parents, the only son of french-dutch descent. Even though he was Dutch, the author is remoted from friends at his age, so his friends were only the native children.

Part of this book describing his life in Dutch east Indies as boy, and the others living in Europe as man. It’s like visiting the past and its people, looked through glass of dutch, like how the young boy was very close with his guardian angel Alima (an indigenous), and how he was taught by mistress/teachers of eurasian and dutch background.

For these who are looking for dutch east indies literature, I recommend you to pick this one, though I must admit I’m too lazy to read anything not related of his life in dutch east indies. I skipped the first chapters or anything about his life in Europe, because I only see this book as reference about life and social reality in the Dutch East Indies.

This is another fact that is hidden from public’s consciousness. Apparently Dutch Indonesians history has been effectively removed from the timeline of Indonesian history. We are thought of being non-existant.

For these who unaware of Bersiap, this is google translation of dutch Wikipedia which still does not exist in english or Indonesian wikipedia:

The Bersiap period was a violent period in Indonesian history that lasted from about October 1945 until early 1946. After the capitulation of Japan on August 14, 1945 created a power vacuum in the former Dutch East Indies.

Political activists seized the opportunity to colonial ties with the Netherlands on August 17, 1945 and break the independence of Indonesia was proclaimed by Sukarno and Hatta. In fact, Sukarno was kidnapped by activists (most students) and in his home on East Pegangsaan successfully put under pressure to the Republic of Indonesia to declare. Preparations for the proclamation of the R.I. had obviously started much earlier. Almost all political parties in Dutch East Indies (the PNI and the PKI, the Parindra etc.) did not wish the return of Dutch rule.

With political pressure had Sukarno, Hatta and others where the Japanese force that had an Indonesian army was formed (the Peta = Pembela Tanah Air) but that no firearms had been trained by Japanese instructors.

There was also, more or less organized into a model communist cell structure, a nation force launched the so called “groups Banteng (Banteng one is a buffalo). The armament was sober, she was a machete (a daily tool, each ethnic group varied in shape and size, in virtually the entire archipelago) and the bamboo-runcing (runcing = spear) in a one point cut bamboo pole of about 2 meter long. The argument to the Japanese occupation to the creation of these military and paramilitary groups were: the Japanese troops to support a possible Allied invasion. It is obvious that these paramilitary militias very much violent, predatory elements were.

When the Netherlands have tried to restore authority over the archipelago came to a number of places to violence, in particular among Indo-Europeans and Chinese probably thousands of deaths. In large parts of Sumatra, the indigenous people’s heads off in a very violent manner. The latter is the historical significance of the Bersiap period.

Settlers of pure Dutch descent (totok) were still in Japanese internment camps (Japanese camp), the Japanese designated as protected areas, making them among relatively few casualties. In contrast, for many the liberation almost one years later only took place when they were “exchanged” or liberated by British-Indian troops (especially the Ghurka’s). Presumably, most victims (hundreds) of cases in Surabaya, just before the outright war between the British army and the brand new republic broke.

The organization of the “forces” showed little consistency. The communication between all groups / cells was extremely low: the fixed telephone network was neglected and there were no mobile phones. Effective communication in the city were the lampposts. It then hit with a piece of iron on the lampposts in the cries of the “battle cry”. Great Awakening was the battle cry of the very many nationalist Indonesian youth (Pamoeda’s) in the Indonesian revolution. The two meanings are “Be prepared!” and “shun”. Literally it means: “Get ready” (Bersiap). This course was very effective for the muster of large masses, she was also very / too broad and unfocused content.

The killings were facilitated by the fierce propaganda radio broadcasts from the station “Radio Pemberontak” which openly called for “elimination of all programs Belanda (Dutch) and all Anjing’s Belanda (the dogs of the Dutch), that the Eurasians were intended. The Indonesian Minister Shahrir called for an end to the violence.
In 2005 the Dutch government was still the date August 17, 1945 recognized as the official beginning of the independence of Indonesia.

Ironic, isn’t it? There is yet study to measure and estimate the victims that died during atrocity. Inez Hollander’s book, Silenced Voice is probably a good reference if you are looking for victim’s testimony. Many members of Dutch-Indonesian Community also voiced similar opinion, it was the worst time of Dutch-Indonesian, yet almost no people bothered to investigate this.

It’s like a Jewish who forgot their ancestors were victim of Holocaust or Chinese Indonesians who forgot the decades of discrimination from Soeharto.

If you have opinion to be shared, join the discussion here.

EDIT: as 17 Januari 2012, Bersiap has been covered extensively in English Wikipedia.