Author Description

Vol. II of the Anthology of Indonesian References covers 1903-1949, which includes the East Indies in WW II and the subsequent fight for independence, declared by the Indonesians in 1945 upon the surrender by Japan and finally acknowledged by the Netherlands in 1949 after 4 years of turmoil. In fact the Japanese occupiers strongly encouraged the Indonesians to throw off the yoke of European control, and turned over much of their war materiel to the rebels for use in this fight. The British had been assigned to disarm and evacuate the Japanese and got involved in the skirmishes between the Indonesians and the Dutch, who assumed that they could resume with their pre-WW II status.