VIVAnews – 66 years ago today, on 16 January 1942, after a month-long negotiation, unofficial Indonesian delegation returned from Malaysia with a promise of full Japanese military support against the Dutch.
Since the Japanese began its invasion of Asia in 1937, many nationalists in Indonesia (then, the Dutch East Indies) began to see Japan as their potential ally and liberator. In the eyes of the nationalists, Japan was portrayed as having military strength comparable to the Allies and a sincere intention to liberate them from the Dutch occupation.
The first Indonesian attempt to make overture to the Japanese was carried out in January 1941. Douwes Dekker, then secretary of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Batavia, through the assistance of Muhammad Husni Thamrin, initiated a contact with Sato Nobuhide, a Japanese businessman.
After the meeting, both men agreed to convey business data on the Dutch East Indies to the Japanese. Unfortunately, this first attempt to secure Japanese support for Indonesia’s independence failed, since the Dutch managed to discover the plot and arrested its leaders.
In early December 1941, the Japanese invaded Malaya (now, Malaysia) and expelled the British from the peninsula. Since the Japanese victory was becoming more and more obvious, a number of Indonesian nationalists, mostly Acehnese, tried to initiate a new contact with the invader.
On 16 December 1941, an Acehnese delegation arrived in Malaya and began a negotiation with the Japanese. The negotiation ended on 16 January 1942 with an agreement to cooperate against the Dutch East Indies. The Japanese promised to give full support to the nationalists in fighting the Dutch.
After fierce fighting for nearly three months, on 9 March 1942, the Dutch East Indies surrendered to the Japanese. Indonesia was now put under the Japanese protection.
Soekarno and Hatta, who have just been released from Dutch prison, agreed to cooperate with the Japanese as this seemed to be the best opportunity to secure independence.
The long-awaited independence was finally achieved on 17 August 1945, just days prior to the end of the Japanese rule and months before the Dutch reentered Indonesia to reassert its authority.
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