The Dutch East Indies, today known as Indonesia, has through the history seen different colonizers that governed the country in different periods of time. There were and still are different perceptions of the different colonizing countries among Indonesians. The Netherlands and Japan are one of the most important countries that impacted the country’s nation building. The paper will answer the research question in what ways were the Japanese different than the Dutch regarding nation-building in the Dutch East Indies. There were some similarities and a lot of differences in governance. The historical context played a vital role in the unintentional nation building in the Dutch and Japanese under different historical circumstances and used techniques to stay in power and control the country.
Background
Indonesia has been since the 16th century the Dutch’s colony. During the Second World War Japanese attacked Indonesia and defeated the Netherlands forces. The Japanese were occupying the country from March 1942 up until their surrender to the Allies in the year 1945. Consequently, in the August 17 1945 Indonesia declared the independence. Under those circumstances the Dutch wanted to regain the control over the country. Even by sending the troops back to the colony the Netherlands were unable to defeat the Indonesians. The Dutch removed their forces only after the condemnation of the United Nations on November 1949 (Ciment, 597-602). To explain, the nation building can be defined as “the development and strengthening of a shared set of overarching values and an overarching common identity among the inhabitants of a country with a sovereign government” (Paine, 7). The values and identity are the foundation for the legitimate development of legal state and institutions in the international community. The nation building of Indonesia was slower because of the colonization by which the commercial opportunities were taken over by colonizers, first with the naval power and after, with the legal techniques. Netherland favored Chinese in the archipelago and constructed political order with a special relationship with the indigenous aristocracy. They formalized the class distinction with indirect ruling. Further on, they created the geopolitical framework for the country (Paine, 277-281). Both Netherland as well as Japan contributed to the nation building in Indonesia, with their different policies and tactics that will be further examined.
The impression of the Indonesians of its colonizers
The Indonesian impressions about the Netherland and Japan were based on the length of the occupation as well as similarities and differences between their culture, language and values. The ideology of the Japan’s imperialism differed a lot from the Western’s imperialism (Ethan, 3). The Japanese were seen as “brothers” and were a lot closer to the Indonesian population as to the formal colonizer. Indonesia and Japan had the same goals of assimilation - Europeanization and Asianization of the country, based on the cultural and racial qualities (Ethan, 6-7). “Indonesian welcomed the chance to develop their culture and their nation along Asian lines under the Japanese, to rediscover themselves and their place in Asia / /” (Ethan, 9) and welcomed the Japanese that have removed the Netherlands rule. The differences among the Dutch and Indonesian population were far greater as the differences among the Indonesians and Japanese. The facial appearances, skin color, a way of life, customs and tradition of Indonesia had more similarities with the Japanese as with the Dutch (Ethan, 12). Further on, the Netherland was perceived as superior. The direct observation of two different nations showed that Japan’s culture was simple, but not primitive while European was oppressive and capitalist orientated. The genders were more equal in Japan and under Japanese occupation as under the occupation of Netherland (Ethan, 14). The greatest differences in the perception are seen from the way Indonesian saw the Japanese and the Dutch. The formal colonizing country did not perceive the population as equal in the opposite of the Japan rule. As a consequence, the Indonesians had greater enthusiasm in learning the Japan language as well as pick up their customs. There was more interaction between population and the ruling individuals (Ethan, 22-23). With the propaganda, shows and songs the Japanese showed the Dutch policy in a negative way which further showed the differentiation among races. The Japanese did not prohibit as Dutch the local newspapers without the direct Japanese supervision (Ethan, 25-28). The approach of the countries was different, which played an important role in persuading the population about the countries intentions. The Japanese managed “to lead Indonesia towards modern development, to respect and treat Indonesians as equal family members, and to show results in a relatively short time period, at least so far as wartime circumstances would allow” (Ethan, 35).
Dutch colonization
The Europeans arrived in the Indonesia and Southeast Asia in the sixteenth century. Among all of the European countries the Netherland had the most impact on the country. In the historical events of the Netherland’s war of independence against Spain in 1559 the first Dutch’s expeditions sailed for the East Indies. The Dutch East India Company – VOC was trying to expend the country domain in the Indonesia with the main aim to develop trade between countries. The military foundation of the Dutch was made in 1630 when it became clear that peace treaties cannot guarantee the VOC hegemony, which resulted in pursuing a more aggressive military policy, with which they intervened in the internal affairs of Indonesian state (Ricklefs, 73-74). Colonial and decolonizing violence of the Netherlands over Indonesian population was harsh. The VOC used extreme force in building their colony and empire for exploitation. There were various incidents among the domestic and Chinese population seen from the 1621 onward (Luttikhuis and Moses, 10). After the company’s bankruptcy in eighteen centuries the Dutch state overtook the control of various islands in Indonesia. With the founding of the VOC in 1602 the Indonesia came under the European control. In the next century the posts were established with conquering Java in eighteen century and further on in the next century the rest of the archipelago, with replacing the VOC by the Dutch government in 1910. They have made vast profits out of the colonization with exporting sugar, coffee, tobacco, tea and pepper with extending the products onto tin, oil and rubber. The Indonesians did not improve the education in the country since in 1930 there was only around 7% of the population literate. The Netherland has provided the Western education which should by their opinion bind the countries with imposing the Dutch language. The small educated segment of the Indonesian population was the educated class that led the Indonesia’s independence movement in the twenty century. The Dutch did create the country where true independent tendencies were not possible under the Dutch dominate ruling. There were various local uprisings against their rule after the Indonesia failure to avoid the occupation. The Dutch did unknowingly increase the resentment and greater wish for an independent state with changing their traditional patterns of living, since the population was forced to work for on their plantations. There were various extremist parties established after the year 1914 (Ciment, 597-599). With deepening the level of control over the entire area of the East Indies also violence intensified. The Netherlands used various different techniques to discourage the population of guerilla fighting. For example, the large civilian as well as fighter casualties were seen with burning the villages. As a result, intimidation among the domestic population spread further (Luttikhuis and Moses, 10-11). The Netherland has regarded the domestic population with suspicion, which resulted in the fact that the Indonesians were during their colonization not given any important function inside the country. All the administration and other state work were done by the Netherlands, which gave the appearances of the superiority over the Indonesians (Drakeley, 68-69). The Netherland was using the divide and rule, principle and based their segregation and power on the racial and ethnic segregation and on the social hierarchy. The legacy of the occupation is the educational system, which further segregated the population based on the race since only elites and middle class could attain the classes with Dutch language schools. They also created the social gap between the urban and rural population. As a matter of fact, the colonial legacy of social divisions and racial and ethnic prejudices were the issues the country needed to face during and after the revolution. The Dutch conquered and repressed others with making privileged groups to run the administration and to develop the cleavages between the religious as well as ethnic groups (Nam-Kook, 193-194). Various different ethnic groups, language and cultural heritage can represent problems in forming the homogeneous nation and can threaten the national unity. The differences among the Indonesian population were enhanced by the colonialism and inherited boundaries were imposed from the foreign states who forged the unity with the use of force (Schefold, 59-260). Different governance and techniques were used by the Japanese occupation from the year 1942 onward.
Japan’s occupation
The Dutch East Indies government surrendered to the Japan on the 8 of March 1942. The Japan’s invasion in Java began in the first of March 1942. The Netherland population was registered and placed under the detentions or house arrests. Through all the Indonesia eight different enslavement centers were established, which differed based on the types of prisons (Ethan, 1-20). The process of Japanisation in the Indonesian began with erasing and banning all of the remnants of the Netherland’s rule. Beside the center mainly created for the Dutch people there were more than four million Indonesian labors forced to help the Japan in war efforts to defeat the Allies. The Japanese tactics and Japanisation stimulated the Indonesian’s independence movement all around the country. On the 15th of August in 1945 the national forces declared the independence. New way of terror against the formal colonizers and pro Dutch Indonesian population began (Ethan, 20-35).
It is important to realize that the Japanese were the first that seriously challenged the Dutch occupation of Indonesia. Japan has been present in the country from the year 1942 until the Second World War, all together for three and a half years. The Japanese contributed to the Indonesian’s Revolution for independence with different policies stimulating nationalism. Under the Japan’s rule the country was divided among three different regions: Sumatra, Java and Madura. Unsurprisingly the Indonesians did not support the Netherlands when their troops were attacked. After the invasion the goal was to intern all Europeans. The conditions in the camps were poor. For example, about 20% of Dutch military, 13% of civilian women and 10% of children internees died. The Japanese proposed the Indonesian cooperation and choice which Netherlands in the past have not. The Japan’s primary goal was to fight a war and redirect the Indonesian economy to support the Japan’s war efforts to prevail in the East and Southeast Asia and not primarily to conquer the land (Ricklefs, 235-236). Indonesia population did not grow significantly in the Japanese occupation and suffered extreme hardship, shortages, corruption, high death rate and decreased economy. The main policy was aimed at wiping out the Western’s influence and mobilize the Indonesian population to achieve their goals. The Dutch colonial law remained in force along with the Japanese military law (Ricklefs, 236-237). The Japanese were aiming at mobilizing the masses with the leading figures of the pre-war nationalism movements. At the same time during the years of 1942 and 1944 there was seen resistance movement, but none of them seriously threaten the Japan’s rule. The Japanese were trying not to offend the Indonesian educated elite. By the end of the 1945 there were around 25.000 Indonesians youth trained the same as Japanese soldiers with creating various different organizations that aimed to mobilize the population. As a result, by the end of the war, 2 million of domestic populations were participants in various organizations (Ricklefs, 238-241). By the year 1943 the Japan started to exploit Indonesian labor in a ruthless way. In October the recruitment of “volunteer labors” began. The exact numbers of men involved are unclear, but there were between 200.000 and half a million. In 1944 the Japanese were aware of losing the war as well as the popular forces. In the light of losing the war on various fronts also in Indonesia, in September 1944 Americans landed in the east Indonesia. Under the circumstances, the Japan Prime Minister Koiso on September 7 promised independence for the East Indies without setting the exact date. Thereupon in the light of greater nationalism of the 17 August 1945 the declaration of independence was read (Ricklefs, 241-250). All in all, one of the most important contributions to the nation building in Indonesia brought with the Japan’s occupation was the implementation of the Indonesian language. The majority of the population were illiterate during the both occupations, but the situation improved with the introducing the local and domestic language as the educational and administrative language and the language to be used in all countries’ media. The country was more notified about the issues even though the majority still could not read (Paauw, 2-16). For the reason of the greater role in state affairs this further increased the Indonesian nationalist movements.
Fight for independence and nation building
Japan needed the Indonesian population and civil servants’ cooperation and was prepared to work with the nationalist leaders and give the domestic population the administrative positions at much higher levels than the previous colonizing country. The Japanese had even trained, arm and mobilize hundreds of Indonesians, where the Dutch policy was in this area quite the opposite. The Japanese did not plan to give the Indonesians total independence, but they did nevertheless prepare the population to seize power after the Second World War ended. Indonesia was more prepared in the areas of trained soldiers, as well as in the area of the politics. Further on, with the administrative positions being occupied by the domestic population the foreign forces were not perceived as superior (Drakeley, 67-70). The Dutch did not want to accept the independent state and as a result of the July 1947 despite the agreement from previous year the Dutch launched an offensive attack. The attack ended in August, but the peace was broken again by the Dutch with another offensive attack in 1948. Both attacks were met with the guerilla resistance. The agreement that ended the occupation over Indonesia was signed in November 1949. As a result, formal independence of the state followed on August 17 1950. The Dutch refusal of independent Indonesia has resulted in tens of thousands dead in the period of four years. The Indonesia has been aiming for the independence even prior the Second World War even though there have been different factions inside the country fighting among each other (Ciment, 597-602). The nation building in Indonesia therefore began prior the Second World War in the Dutch colonization, but the system measures were adopted only after the independence. The process was rough with various ethnic group’s self-identified as the Indonesian nation, that were the reasons for tensions in Aceh, Iran Jaya as well as in the East Timor (Quah, 38-70). By transferring sovereignty to the Indonesians at the end of the 1949 the process of nation-building intensified. In order to achieve more homogenous nation, they made changes in the educational system as well as in changing Chinese names. The nation building was faced with struggles between the domestic population as well as between the Indonesia’s and the Netherland’s forces.
On the other side, Japan that was present in the country for a much shorter period of time, not decades but just three and a half years. Their occupation was perceived as relieve, but the public opinion is based on the illusions since the Japan did not have any other plans as the Netherlands. Both wanted to exploit the population and its natural resources. As stated by the Tanasaldy (76) the Japanese created more egalitarian society which resulted in the mass mobilization. They have been working together with the Indonesian population. The rise of the participation of the Indonesian population in the politics was seen, with Japanese not killing the Indonesian elite. The oppression of the Dutch occupation was exchanged with the cooperation. The historical context of almost losing a war and being aware of their disadvantages and lost has forced Japanese to act and fulfil some of the Indonesian wishes and demands for the independence. This gave the population further enthusiasm to reach the independence. The Japanese did however only give as much as it was needed in order to get the Indonesian cooperation. The Dutch gave some minor part of the population the right education and the educated were the main actors in the fight for independence. The Japanese exchanged the politics of segregation into the cooperation and gave the population more important leading roles and jobs in the country, by which they were empowered to act against any occupations afterwards. Beside the administration and state leading the population was given the military training by which they got soft as well as hard power. The Japanese main goal was to institute the Japanese as the language of administration and education on the long term. However, on the short term they allowed the use of their domestic language. The Indonesian language was used as the language of education, mass media and administration (Paauw, 4). The differences between the Dutch and Japanese occupation were seen in the duration and different time periods, in different historical contexts that greatly impacted the techniques and tactics implemented in the country as well as in the methods of controlling the population in order to fulfill their national goals.
Conclusion
The hypothesis of the paper was that the historical context played a vital role in the unintentional nation building in the Indonesia by the Dutch and Japanese under different circumstances and techniques. The thesis can be confirmed since it is evident that both acted in accordance to the historical events of the colonization, decolonization and the Second World War. The circumstances in the national as well as on the international levels contributed to the techniques and tactics used by both of the colonizing countries. During the colonization by the Dutch the historical context of moving Netherlands away from Spain, the greater need for resources and lack of opposition at all levels resulted in the harsh techniques used upon the Indonesians. In the Japan’s case their actions resulted from the given situation of the need for the Indonesian military and resource contributions. The nation building was seen prior to the Second World War and have only intensified with the Japan’s occupation. With greater cooperation and improving the national perception with erasing the differences among races, greater political and administrative inclusion of the domestic population and domestic language use on the country level with promises of independence has led the Indonesia towards the path of the independence.
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