Japan’s Colonialism and Indonesia


Book Description

The rise and fall of the Japanese empire constitutes one of the most dramatic episodes of modern history. Within the short span of fifty years Japan grew out of political backwardness into a position of tremendous power. Japan's rise to power challenged Europe's hegemony over Asia, but, paradoxically, it was Japan's fall that caused the irreparable ruin of the colonial system over Eastern lands. Japan went to war against the West under the battlecry of Asia's liberation from European colonialism. In reality, for forty years, beginning with her first war against China, she had striven to imitate this colonialism, as she had endeavoured to imitate the political, military and economic achievements of Europe. A thorough understanding of the imitative character of the Japanese Empire might well have induced the leaders of the nation to side with the conservative trend of political thought in the Western world in order to maintain the existing world-wide political system of which colonial rule was an accepted part. They might have understood that an adventurous, revolutionary policy was bound to result in grave dangers for their own state and most conservative structure. Japan might have continued to grow and to expand if she had succeeded to play the role of the legitimate heir to Europe's decaying power in Asia. By violently opposing that power, she undermined the very foun dations of her own rule outside the home-islands.






















The Blue-Eyed Enemy


Book Description

The Blue-Eyed Enemy is a comprehensive account of the interwoven histories of the three major archipelago-nations of the West Pacific during the years of the Second World War. Theodore Friend examines Japanese colonialism in Indonesia and the Philippines as an example of recurring patterns of domination and repression in that region. He depicts Japanese rule in Greater East Asia as expressive of the folly of the general who exhorted his troops "to annihilate the blue-eyed enemy and their black slaves." At the same time he clearly shows where the return of Western power aimed at new links between conqueror and conquered, or lords and bondsmen. Throughout the work one encounters an infectious sympathy for those afflicted by imperialism and racism from whatever source, at whatever time. The book is based on documentary research in Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines, as well as in the United States and the Netherlands, and on over one hundred interviews with major actors and key observers of the era. The analysis balances an eclectic use of social science perspectives with a humanistic concreteness, and leads to new understanding of leaders like Sukarno and Hatta, Jose P. Laurel and Benigno Aquino, Sr., and Generals Yamashita and MacArthur. As comparative tropical history, it elucidates the contrasting cultural traditions and political psychologies of Indonesia and the Philippines and explains why 1945 was a year of dramatic contrast: "reoccupation" and revolution for the first country, and "liberation" and restoration for the latter. Originally published in 1988. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.







Indonesian Economic Decolonization in Regional and International Perspective


Book Description

This collection of essays provides insights into the complex process of economic decolonization in Indonesia from a variety of perspectives. The emancipation from Dutch colonialism in the economic sphere is linked to the unique features of the new nation-state emerging in newly independent Indonesia. This included a key role in business for the military. A key part was also played by indigenous Indonesian business firms that were shaped by the Japanese occupation and the Indonesian Revolution. The analysis embraces two types of comparisons. Different experiences of economic decolonization across regions are illustrated by events unfolding in the agricultural estate areas of Deli in North Sumatra and Jember in East Java. Here the focus is on confrontations between private Dutch capital and Indonesian labour unions. In addition, the overall experience of Indonesia is offset against similar processes at work in other former European colonies in Asia, in particular neighbouring Malaysia. The international comparison shows how dramatic and difficult economic decolonization was and also how profound its consequences were. With contributions from Tri Chandra Apriyanto, Anne Booth, Jasper van de Kerkhof, J. Thomas Lindblad (editor), Daan Marks, Peter Post (editor), Bambang Purwanto and Thee Kian Wie.