Word: indonesian
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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When the war was "over" in Java, Thamboe saw that some of the tigers were still fighting. This was meat to Charles Thamboe. He started a Dutch-baiting Indonesian newspaper, called the Independent, which he distributes among British soldiers in Java, telling them what imperialist devils the Dutch are. At the same time he is careful to praise the British. He doesn't know how long his latest game of wits with the lords of the jungle can last, though the British so far have not suppressed his venture...
...internees were escorted by 24 soldiers of the Indonesian army-the same army which has held them captive since they were prisoners of the Japanese. Nipponese P.O.W.s unloaded their baggage. Indonesian military police directed traffic outside the station as a motor convoy moved the forlorn group off to evacuation camps and hospitals. In all this dismal scene, the only other Dutchmen in evidence were a few doctors wearing Red Cross armbands...
Such is the plight of the quarter-million whites and Eurasians who had once ruled Java. Before the war they had attained a comfort of living probably unmatched elsewhere. Now their sprawling, marble-floored houses are occupied by British officers (in unreclaimed cities, by Indonesians). An estimated 200,000 Dutch and Indo-Europeans remain in Java, many of them still living in former Japanese "hell camps"; 17,000 evacuees are in crowded, poorly supplied camps in Singapore, 11,000 in Bangkok. Some 15,000 are hostages of the Indonesian rebels...
Most rankling of all is the war record of the Dutch army in Java. Built into a formidable myth by misleading propaganda, it yielded quickly to the Japanese. Now Indonesian papers fling taunting jibes like: "We pitied the Dutch when the victorious Jap hordes sent Dutch soldiers fearfully fleeing in sarongs and pajamas or underwear, hurriedly throwing their equipment away...
Meanwhile, John Bull dandled the unwanted Indonesian baby on his lap, alternately caressing and cuffing it. On the soft side, Britain's Lieut. General Sir Philip Christison attended an Indonesian art show with Premier Sjahrir (the Premier's eye was blackened from a beating administered by Dutch troops); British and Indonesian teams played a soccer match (scoreless tie). In sterner mood, the British skirmished with Indonesian guerrillas, and jailed as "undesirables" a good many members of Premier Sjahrir's Peace Preservation Corps; showing no favoritism, they also cracked down on trigger-happy Netherlands forces, sending back...