Condensed from AMERASIA URING the months following V-J D Day, British and Dutch forces, with the full acquiescence of the US., made a determined effort to crush the Indo- nesian republican movement and . restore Dutch rule over this rich and strategically important colony. Yet on November 15 last the Netherlands government concluded an agreement recognizing the. de facto authority of the Republic of Indonesia over the islands of Java, Madura and Sumatra, which to- gether account for approximately 86 percent of the entire population of Indonesia and are by far the richest and most developed of the thousands of islands in the Malay archipelago. The factors that brought about the birth, consolidation and de facto recognition of the republic are of immense signifi- cance because they illuminate the new maturity and intensity developed by colonial liberation Movements;as a result of the war. It is clear that the plans for a restoration of Western imperialist control over the Colonies following Japan’s de- feat overlooked the attitude of the peoples involved and their Stubborn determination to shake off the chains of colonial de- pendency. The republic was born on August 17, 1945, in the chaotic period between Japan’s military capitulation and formal sur- render, with proclamation of a Declaration of Independence signed by Achmed Soekarno and Mohammed Hatta. . Birth of the republic climaxed a rising tide of Indonesian na- tionalism and anti-Japanese re- sentment that reached the boil- ing point towards the end of the Japanese occupation. An ef- fective underground movement translated the people’s griev- ances into nationalist and anti- fascist channels and popular bitterness was so intense that even the Japanese-trained Indo- Nesian armed forces staged five against Major uprisings the Japanese between 1943 and 1945. Throughout this period the underground resistance leaders maintained contact with Soek- arno and Hatta, who had en- tered the government under the Japanese as a strategy to aid the nationalist movement. The role of Soekarno and Hatta dur- ing the war was not analogous to that of Laurel or other Japa- nese puppets in the Philippines. For though they pursued tactics that have been criticizied by certain sections of the Indone- sian resistance, they remained loyal to the principles of Indo- nesia nationalism and cooperat- ed secretly with the underground. APAN has erroneously, been credited with voluntarily en- couraging the independence movement in Indonesia. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Japanese conquest of south- east Asia did, of course, shat- ter the legend of Western su- periority and invincibility. But Japan’s own policy called for a colonial enslavement even more harsh than that of the Western imperialist powers. And in Indonesia itself, Japan recog- nized the independence move- met only when her own defeat was virtually certain. ' Even after the surrender the Japanese did. nothing to aid the | Ali 4) | om) Mian iP ipi fe aE aa ens CUNIEY nif asreeaveattbans Teanga Pa — mn ion evnuanacesenanay un att @ Poland Plows Up the Roots of Prussia r Page 10 by John Pittman . @ The Day That Marches With History — by Nigel Morgan Page " goBTaN Indonesians in achieving their freedom. The day the republic was proclaimed the Japanese began to disband and disarm the Indonesian army they them- selves had established. This marked the beginning of a ser- des of armed clashes between Indonesians ang Japanese dur- ing which several thousand Japanese were disarmed and interned by republican forces. The unexpected ‘suddenness of the Japanese surrender gave the new-born Indonesian repub- lic an opportunity to establish its authority before the arrival of any Allied troops. The flag of the republic waving high in Djakarta (the old name for Batavia, revived by the repub- lic) not only surpriseqd but in- furiated the Dutch, who launch- 'ed an immediate: campaign against the nationalists. e M