http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/14/news/vj-jakarta.php
Occupation helped put Indonesia on the path to independence By Donald Greenlees International Herald Tribune MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 2005 JAKARTA When the war ended, Hideo Fujiyama had to choose where his true loyalties lay. He decided not to return to Japan, but to stay in Indonesia, a country he barely knew. His decision to desert the Japanese Army was motivated by a mix of reasons, both practical and sentimental. He had been accidentally left behind when his unit shifted base. But he was also resentful at the way he had been treated in the wartime army, had an ill-defined sense that he could have a better life in the tropics and was inspired by Indonesia's burgeoning nationalist movement. Witnessing a stirring call for independence by Sukarno, the nationalist leader who later became Indonesia's first president, at a mass rally in Jakarta on Sept. 19, 1945, was a turning point. "He was so energetic and impressive," said Fujiyama, at the time a sergeant in an aircraft maintenance unit. "I was so moved by Sukarno's speech." Fujiyama joined the rapidly forming Indonesian nationalist military forces. He was one of about 1,000 Japanese troops in Indonesia to desert and stay behind to fight for the country's independence from the returning Dutch colonial power. Only 11 of those veterans are alive today and still living in Indonesia. The eldest is 96; the youngest 78. Fujiyama, 83, lives with his Indonesian Muslim wife on the northern edge of Jakarta, in Tandjung Priok, a port-side neighborhood. Still energetic and eager to tell his story, Fujiyama describes his days of service in the Indonesian forces as the proudest time of his life. He was twice wounded in combat fighting alongside Indonesians. Asked whether he would have been happier to serve Japan or Indonesia, he shot back, "Indonesia, of course." He added, laughing, "I didn't fight much for the Japanese." The vital role of Japanese veterans in the postwar independence struggle is a largely overlooked chapter of Indonesia's recent history. The Japanese deserters provided tactical leadership, weapons and training to the ramshackle Indonesian forces. Although there was a modest contribution to the ultimate victory over the Dutch in 1949, it illustrated the varied and complex part played by Japan in Indonesia's attainment of independence and development as a nation. Unlike in other countries in East Asia, Japan's occupation of Indonesia - which took place from 1942 to 1945 - elicits ambivalent responses from local people today. There is none of the bitter hostility that has erupted in China's or Korea's relations with Japan - perhaps because of the benefit of geographic distance. The Japanese conquest in 1942, which caused the Dutch to flee, undoubtedly hastened Indonesian independence. Later, Japanese development aid and investment was a major contributor to Indonesia's industrialization and remarkable economic growth. The legacy of Japanese wartime rule is still present in ways both great and small: Indonesia's 1945 Constitution was written by committees of nationalists brought together by the Japanese, and a nationwide system of neighborhood chiefs and committees was implemented during the Japanese occupation. Yet, Indonesia also suffered during the occupation, if not to the same degree as China or Korea. There is no accurate record of the number of women forced into sex slavery - to be so-called comfort women - but it is thought to be in the thousands. Historians estimate that there were at least 200,000 forced laborers, or Romusha, more than half of whom died. Periodic uprisings were brutally suppressed. Salim Said, a military analyst at the Center for National Strategic Studies in Jakarta, captures the current feeling of ambivalence when he describes the occupation as "a blessing in disguise." From the time of their arrival, the officers of the Japanese administration embarked on a program of social mobilization with the aim of garnering support for the war effort. They organized political advisory councils, self-defense militias, and religious, youth and women's groups. And they adopted the nationalist term for the Dutch East Indies - "Indonesia." "The Japanese could not use the machine that they created," Said said. "When we proclaimed our independence it was easy to get support from the mass of the public because they were already mobilized by Japan." But the Japanese occupation also influenced Indonesia in less fortunate ways. Some historians believe the authors of the 1945 Constitution were influenced by the Japanese political model when they created a powerful presidency and hence the opportunity for authoritarian rule. It was not until 2003 that the Constitution was significantly reformed. Among the young soldiers to be trained by the Japanese were many of Indonesia's future political and military leaders, including Suharto, the second president, who served for 32 years. The experience, according to Said, imbued authoritarian habits in them. "The memory, experience imprinted in their souls under the Japanese played an important role in the way they shaped society," he said. Suharto's first overseas visit as president was to Tokyo in 1968. But it was not a sentimental journey. He went in search of development aid and investment. Japan was to become Indonesia's most important benefactor. In recent years, Indonesia has often taken the largest slice of Japan's aid budget, and Tokyo's annual aid grants have topped $1 billion. About 1,000 Japanese companies are set up in the Jakarta area alone, according to the Jakarta Japan Club. The money has paid diplomatic dividends. Peter McCawley, the Tokyo-based dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute and an Indonesia specialist, remembers sitting next to Indonesia's senior economics minister, Wijoyo Nitisastro, at an international aid forum for which Japan played host Japan 10 years ago. McCawley recalled Wijojo leaning over to him and saying of the Japanese: "These people have given us a lot of support over the years. They have been very good to us." Because of the aid and investment, the Indonesian government has been wary of getting mired in historical debates. The issue of official war reparations was settled under a 1958 treaty and has not been reopened despite later revelations about the existence of comfort women. Said, the military analyst, said that in the early 1970s the Japanese Embassy protested the imminent release of an Indonesian film called "Romusha," depicting the story of forced laborers. But there was a typically Indonesian solution. Said, then a film critic, said the embassy was allowed to buy the rights to the film. It was never publicly shown. Around that time the relationship between Jakarta and Tokyo was particularly sensitive. Indonesian students, angry over the direction of economic policy, were critical of the influence and pervasiveness of Japanese investment. During a visit to Jakarta by Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka in January 1974, there were student riots that aimed at Japanese businesses and cars. Today, concerns about the crimes of the occupation are dying with the victims. Ines Thioren Situmorang, a 28-year-old lawyer with the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, remembers that her elementary school textbooks taught that comfort women were simply prostitutes. "The current generation perceives comfort women as part of a system of voluntary prostitution. That is what our schools teach here," she said. Situmorang is part of a project that is trying to register comfort women in the hope of gaining direct compensation for them and an official apology from the Japanese government. With the number of Indonesians who recall the war rapidly dwindling, Said believes the relationship with Japan will continue to be dictated by commerce, not history. "Japan for us is Sanyo, Sony - all kinds of electronic equipment," he said. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hfs384q/M=323294.6903899.7846637.3022212/D=groups/S=1705329729:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1124075230/A=2896129/R=0/SIG=11llkm9tk/*http://www.donorschoose.org/index.php?lc=yahooemail">DonorsChoose. 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