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> Many people from thousands of kilometers away, liberated the Netherlands from Germany... Analogously, Indonesia should be grateful to the Japanese for travel

> Many people from thousands of kilometers away, liberated the Netherlands from Germany... Analogously, Indonesia should be grateful to the Japanese for traveling thousands of kilometers to liberate them from the Dutch Netherlands.

refurb 9y ago
Umm... probably not. Experience of the occupation varied considerably, depending upon where one lived and one's social position. Many who lived in areas considered important to the war effort experienced torture, sex slavery, arbitrary arrest and execution, and other war crimes. Many thousands of people were taken away from Indonesia as forced labourers (romusha) for Japanese military projects, including the Burma-Siam and Saketi-Bayah railways, and suffered or died as a result of ill-treatment and starvation. Between four and 10 million romusha in Java were forced to work by the Japanese military.[22] About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in South East Asia, Only 52,000 were repatriated to Java, meaning that there was a death rate of 80%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_the_Dutch_East_Indies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_the_Dut...
- user982 9y ago
  Agreed. I was mostly being facetious; although Indonesian independence might not have occurred without the effects of the Japanese occupation, the actuality was obviously nothing to be grateful for.
- equalunique 9y ago
  As an Indonesian who was kept in a labor camp by the Japanese, my grandma (aforementioned Grandpa's wife) will attest that the Japanese were absolutely brutal. Her sisters were raped in prison. They starved on one cup of rice per day. In occupied Jakarta, a town square with water fountain in the center was filled with crocodiles, and people who resisted the Japanese were thrown inside it - any one who closed their eyes or turned their head to look away was punished. Japanese occupation was objectively bad, although the Dutch were known to be extremely harsh at times too.

refurb 9y ago

Umm... probably not. Experience of the occupation varied considerably, depending upon where one lived and one's social position. Many who lived in areas considered important to the war effort experienced torture, sex slavery, arbitrary arrest and execution, and other war crimes. Many thousands of people were taken away from Indonesia as forced labourers (romusha) for Japanese military projects, including the Burma-Siam and Saketi-Bayah railways, and suffered or died as a result of ill-treatment and starvation. Between four and 10 million romusha in Java were forced to work by the Japanese military.[22] About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in South East Asia, Only 52,000 were repatriated to Java, meaning that there was a death rate of 80%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_the_Dutch_East_Indies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_the_Dut...

user982 9y ago
Agreed. I was mostly being facetious; although Indonesian independence might not have occurred without the effects of the Japanese occupation, the actuality was obviously nothing to be grateful for.
equalunique 9y ago
As an Indonesian who was kept in a labor camp by the Japanese, my grandma (aforementioned Grandpa's wife) will attest that the Japanese were absolutely brutal. Her sisters were raped in prison. They starved on one cup of rice per day. In occupied Jakarta, a town square with water fountain in the center was filled with crocodiles, and people who resisted the Japanese were thrown inside it - any one who closed their eyes or turned their head to look away was punished. Japanese occupation was objectively bad, although the Dutch were known to be extremely harsh at times too.