Merdeka Rising Read online

  MERDEKA

  RISING

  MERDEKA

  RISING

  Part Two of

  BLACK SUN

  RED MOON

  A NOVEL OF JAVA

  Rory Marron

  SEVENTH CITADEL

  Merdeka Rising: Part Two of Black Sun, Red Moon: A Novel of Java

  Copyright © 2013 by Rory Marron

  Revised (minor corrections): 2017

  The right of Rory Marron to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages and reproduce the cover for a review, without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Published by Seventh Citadel (www.seventhcitadel.com).

  ISBN 978-0-9576305-6-7 (ePub)

  ISBN: 978-0-9576305-4-3 (paperback)

  Cover design from an idea by Rory Marron, developed by John Amy ([email protected]).

  Quotation from the English translation of This Earth of Mankind (Bumi Manusia) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer reproduced with the permission of Max Lane.

  Keris dagger RM Collection. Photographs: Copyright © 2013 Rory Marron.

  Back cover photograph of Borobudur temple by J. Olbertz (c. 1915) with retouching/restoration by Rory Marron.

  Maps by L. Maddocks (1951) for Gale & Polden Ltd. (Some text on map of Surabaya edited for fictional portrayal.) Attempts have been made to identify the rights-holder, who is invited to contact the publisher.)

  For a boy soldier, unknown to me…

  Mehndi Khan

  22575

  Sepoy, 2nd Bn. 1st Punjab Regiment.

  Died 19th November 1945.

  Age 16.

  Son of Shafdar Khan,

  of Mandi Chani, Poonch, Kashmir.

  Headstone inscription,

  Jakarta War Cemetery

  (Menteng Poeloe)

  Names of Characters

  Historical fiction often requires reference to actual people and events to give context. Thus the suggestion of someone other than Lord Louis Mountbatten as the head of South-East Asia Command (SEAC) would be odd, so in my story Mountbatten is given (brief) dialogue with a mixture of both historical and fictional characters. In the same way, Sukarno and Dr Mohammed Hatta, key figures in Indonesian history, are not disguised and are given dialogue. My guideline for changing or disguising characters in ‘supporting roles’ was if there was a danger of taking an historical character beyond a ‘reasonable assumption’ of dialogue. For example, the characters of Dutch colonial and military officers invented here are creative combinations of dozens of officials whose comments and actions are on record. Other changes were made reluctantly. Official files are full of the names of many men whose service and deeds deserve to be better known. Yet attempts to honour (or vilify) them by using their real names in a work of fiction risk their actions being inaccurately depicted. Most of the names used in this story are therefore disguised.

  I also confess to the creation and ‘importation’ of names that are easier for a native speaker of English to read. In the case of Japanese names, many were chosen randomly from friends and acquaintances. Indonesian names were more problematic, since many Javanese and Sumatrans have only one name, often rather long. Consequently, I invented names. In so doing, unintended syllabic combinations might have occurred. Similarly, relatively few Indian and Dutch names are familiar to, or can be read easily by, the non-native speaker. There were many instances of surname duplication among the 80,000 Dutch and Eurasians interned in camps in Java. For this reason I also used names of Dutch acquaintances, names I read in the KLM Airlines in-flight magazine, and also the Amsterdam and Maastricht telephone directories. I also created combinations of given and family names in memoirs of wartime Java. Fairly late on in the writing I stumbled upon a photograph album of a family by the name of van Damme (a not uncommon Dutch surname) living in Surabaya in the 1930s. I decided, however, not to change the names of my characters because of this coincidence.

  Contents

  Maps

  Quotation

  A Synopsis of Black Sun Red Moon

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Book Three

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Book Four

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Origins

  ‘...when my island was blanketed in the darkness of night, her country was lit with sunshine. When her country was embraced by the blackness of night, my island shone brightly under the equatorial sun.’

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  This Earth of Mankind (Bumi Manusia)

  Translated by Max Lane

  A SYNOPSIS OF

  BLACK SUN

  RED MOON

  A NOVEL OF JAVA

  Prologue

  Burma, September 1943: Private Alun MacDonald (‘Mac’) is on duty by the Chindwin River when he is informed by Captain Miller that a patrol is due back from a reconnaissance mission. Mac is nervous about possible Japanese infiltration. Unaware that the soldiers are Gurkhas, he narrowly avoids shooting one of them, Rai. Next day, Mac’s platoon crosses the river with the Gurkhas. Mac sees action but cannot bring himself to finish off a dying Japanese and, as a consequence, one of his comrades is killed.

  Java, 1944: The Van Dam family are sent to internment camps by the Japanese. As they scramble to pack a few possessions, Kate Van Dam watches her father’s Javanese assistant in the municipal engineering department take over their family home (and her father’s job).

  Nijmegen, The Netherlands, late 1944: American war correspondent Meg Graham shelters with a squad from the 81st Airborne Division... They promise to meet at the end of the war….

  Book One

  Kate van Dam is living in near starvation in the overcrowded and filthy Tjandi Camp III, a requisitioned school, in Semarang. Kate and her mother share a converted classroom with 30 women and children. Their is no privacy. Kate’s mother is suffering from malaria and malnutrition. Relations between the inmates are fractious with squabbles over food, work duties and pre-war social status. Disease runs rampant, with many deaths daily from dysentery, malaria and beriberi. Kate has been assigned to the kitchen detail with her friend, Juliette, a French woman in her mid-twenties.

  Like other internees, Kate tends a small vegetable plot. One morning she is doing her washing when, with her friends in tow, she pegs out red, white and blue clothes—the colours of the now banned Dutch flag—on a line and salutes. Too late, Kate realises that a young man is watching her from a window beyond the camp. At first Kate is attracted to him but then realises that he is a Japanese officer. When two guards then enter the garden, she is afraid of a reprimand that will mean a beating. But there is no shout from the officer and the guards walk on, oblivious to the ‘flag’. One of the guards steals the only ripe tomatoes on Kate’s plot.

  Some days later Kate finds a sack containing tinned fish at one corner of her plot. Her first thoughts are that a smuggler has dropped it or that it is a trap set by the guards. She takes a chance and keeps the contents. Nothing happens and three days later she finds another sack containing soap and medicines. For weeks the mysterious gifts keep appearing. Kate begins to think that one of the camp guards is preparing to make her his sex slave. Now dependent on the food and medicines for h
er mother she knows she will have no choice but to accept….

  Lt Kenichi Ota writes his will in anticipation of his certain death when the Allies invade Java. He goes drinking with his friend, Lt Nagumo, who has heard rumours of white women working at the Sakura Club, a brothel for officers, run by the madame, Kiriko. Ota and Nagumo take a short-cut through the camp. Ota is hoping to catch a glimpse of the girl when they come across some pedal carts. While examining the carts they find some boys peering through a fence. Without thinking Ota does the same. It is an open-air shower area and, to his surprise, he sees Kate, who he hears called by her name, by a Frenchwoman (Juliette).

  For Lamban, a youth who has just graduated from his Islamic school, the Japanese invasion is the first step towards freedom (merdeka) for his country. Lamban hopes to travel with his friend, Kerek, to Djakarta, the capital, to work for the independence movement. Yet Kerek is reluctant to leave the village. At a festival, a wayang kulit (shadow puppet) performance about a revolutionary hero enthuses Lamban even more. Lamban is also a student of the silat martial art and takes his final test under, Taruna, a famous sword smith. Later, Taruna leads Lamban through a mystical ceremony before forging him a traditional keris dagger. Soon afterwards Lamban leaves for Djakarta.

  As Kate’s health improves as a result of the gifts she is increasingly keen to know the identity of her benefactor. One night she decides to hide in the vegetable garden. She is dismayed to see Anna, one of her friends, stealing from the plots. As dawn breaks, Kate is about to give up and leave the garden when the young Japanese officer appears on the balcony of his room. She is amazed to see him throw a sack onto her plot. Greatly relieved but nervous, she bows below his window. Ota is left surprised and confused.

  Kate shares some of her extra food with Juliette who, like her, helps in the camp infirmary. The two become much closer and Kate almost confesses to Juliette that the extra supplies come from a Japanese.

  Ota’s platoon capture an Australian airman shot down during a bombing raid, saving the badly injured man from drowning in a rice paddy. He is seized by the kenpei (Military Police). The next day the inmates of Tjandi camp are assembled and Shirai executes the airman in front of them.

  Ota is one of the favourites to win the 16th Army’s annual kendo (fencing) tournament. The reigning champion is Captain Shirai, of the kenpeitai (military police corps). Shirai is feared in the camp for his brutality. He also takes an interest in Dutch girls in the cells.

  The guest of honour at the kendo tournament is General Yamagami, who served with Ota’s commanding officer, Major Kudo, in China. Yamagami warns Kudo not to trust the Javanese militia. Ota defeats Shirai in a very close final bout. While taking a short cut through the internee camp Ota meets Kate alone for the first time. They are interrupted by the sudden appearance of Shirai. Ota is forced to slap Kate in order to deflect Shirai’s suspicions. That night, angry with himself for hurting Kate, Ota gets drunk. The next morning he is assigned to duty over 30 miles away at Ambarawa. He leaves Semarang that day.

  In Djakarta the nationalist leaders Sukarno and Dr Hatta meet with an influential and politically astute Japanese naval officer, Vice Admiral Ishida, in the hope that he can persuade the Japanese army to declare Indonesia independent. Ishida disappoints them, though he has his own plans.

  While journeying to the capital, Lamban intervenes to save the life of another traveller, Sarel, killing two robbers. Sarel explains they were communist agents. Once they reach safety at a village Sarel reveals that he is a leader of a revolutionary group called the ‘Black Buffaloes’. Lamban joins them.

  Ota’s sudden disappearance leaves Kate in despair. Her mother’s health deteriorates quickly. When advertisements appear for ‘hostesses and dance partners’ in Japanese officers’ clubs in return for ‘pay and regular meals’, she faces a dilemma. Kate is a reluctant volunteer. Juliette also accepts. As they leave the camp, Kate sees Ota returning from his posting. Kate and Juliette enjoy a pampered few days until Kiriko, a brothel owner, buys them. Ota asks Nagumo for help in finding Kate. When Nagumo discovers that she will start work at the Sakura, Ota is determined to be Kate’s first ‘client’. He convinces her to return to the camp. Juliette chooses to remain at the Sakura.

  Lamban begins his political education under Sarel, gradually becoming a trusted member of the ‘Black Buffaloes’. Finally, in mid-August 1945, he is chosen to accompany Sarel on an important mission to Djakarta. At the same time, the Japanese garrisons on Java assemble to hear what they expect to be an exhortation from their Emperor to fight valiantly in the battle ahead. Instead they are left stunned as he announces Japan’s surrender. In Djakarta, Sarel and Lamban also hear the momentous news. At Tjandi camp the internees awake to find that their guards have disappeared. When there is confirmation on a hidden radio that the war is over they are ecstatic.

  In Djakarta, Admiral Ishida is destroying incriminating documents when Sukarno and Hatta visit, accusing the Japanese of betrayal. They nationalist leaders leave disappointed but determined to act. Elsewhere in the city, students hold pro-independence rallies and Sarel attempts to turn them into anti-Japanese riots. In the chaos, students kidnap Sukarno and Hatta. Ishida works to secure their release and then encourages them to declare independence from the Netherlands.

  Book Two

  In Ceylon, Lord Mountbatten, head of the Allied South-East Asian Command, is reluctant to take on responsibility for the Netherlands Indies but assumes that co-operation with the Dutch will be smooth. For three years, Charles van Zanten, Governor-General of the Indies, has worked for the return of the Indies to Dutch rule. The sudden end of the war finds the Dutch unprepared. Van Zanten seeks assurances that the British presence in the Indies will be short. Mountbatten confesses that he has few troops available. Van Zanten begins to scheme.

  Meg Graham, in Berlin reporting on the Allied Occupation, gets an assignment to cover the ‘fighting’ in Java. In Singapore she boards a ferry and meets Dr Jarisha. He tells Meg of the problems facing his country, something of its culture and of his dreams for the future. The ferry narrowly evades the attentions of a British warship. Meg discovers that Jarisha is one of the nationalist leaders.

  In Malaya, Mac enjoys watching a surrender ceremony of downcast and dejected Japanese before a hostile Malay crowd. The British soldiers are all looking forward to going home when news comes that they are to be sent as quickly as possible to the Dutch Indies.

  On Java, the Japanese are increasingly short of rations, so Ota and Nagumo join a crocodile hunt. Three Dutchmen leave their internment camp and drive into the eastern port town of Surabaya. They find the displays of the new Indonesian flag and hostile demeanour of the nationalists insulting. Their protests provoke an attack by a mob. All three are murdered.

  The Kudo Battalion is preparing to move out of Semarang to await repatriation when the local nationalists make demands for weapons. Major Kudo refuses to co-operate. Tension rises and the Japanese prepare for trouble.

  At Tjandi camp, frustration builds over the non-appearance of the ‘Americans’. An air-drop of food and medicines leads to arguments and then a fight between the internees and Javanese women. Next day a group of internees tries to leave the camp. A gunman kills three. The women are horrified to realise they are still prisoners. Sounds of gunfire reach the Japanese barracks, so Kudo sends a patrol, led by Ota, to investigate. Ota finds Kate safe and well. The frightened internees, who are expecting an attack from the nationalists, are greatly relieved to see their former gaolers.

  In the Semarang business district some Japanese civilian clerks are packing documents when a gang of Indonesians seizes them. They and nearly two hundred others are taken to a gaol. That night a mob marches on Tjandi camp demanding food. Ota defuses the situation and as the mob disperses, Juliette, disguised as a native, dashes in through the gate. She tells Ota of her escape from the Sakura Club and that Japanese civilians have been rounded up.

  Meanwhile, Mac’s battalion of Seaforth Highla
nders arrives at Djakarta by sea. They are given a cold and suspicious reception. The Seaforths do not yet know that their commander carries secret orders to use surrendered Japanese troops to maintain order if necessary. On the quayside, Mac meets reporter Meg Graham as Van Zanten and other Dutch officials try to land. A hostile, rock-throwing crowd forces the Dutch to retreat. Mac finds it hard to accept that armed Japanese move around the city at will.

  In Semarang the Kudo Battalion races to the gaol but discovers the Indonesians have murdered their prisoners and fled. The Japanese pursue them. Ferocious fighting for control of the town lasts for three days. No prisoners are taken. On the third day, Gurkhas, including Miller and Rai, arrive but are mistaken for Indonesian militia. In the confusion, the Japanese open fire…

  …five Gurkhas went down in the first hail of bullets. Rai was saved by the corner of the office building and the inexperience of the gunner, who aimed slightly too high. Instinctively Rai dived through the nearest window. A split-second later, Major John Miller landed half on top of him.

  Bullets were churning up the street, drilling into the brickwork and window frames. Chunks of masonry and wood showered down on them.