Nov. 10, 1945 solemnizes Indonesians' fearless spirit

Nov. 10, 1945 solemnizes Indonesians' fearless spirit

By K. Basri

JAKARTA (JP): There are lot of heroic stories in Indonesia's
history but the country marks its heroes on Nov. 10, Heroes Day.
The date marks a bloody clash between Indonesian freedom fighters
in Surabaya, East Java and the British-led Allied forces 51 years
ago.

The annual nationwide commemoration is meant to solemnize the
fearless spirit of the Indonesian people, who put aside
differences in age, ethnicity and social levels to fight a fierce
battle against the British-led Allied forces in the East Java
capital.

The Surabaya clash unquestionably showed the Indonesian
people's strong determination to defend the independence they
proclaimed three months earlier.

The clash apparently did not take place only on that day but
the battle on Nov. 10, 1945 was a do or die battle for the
poorly-armed Indonesians.

Of that day, Ktut Tantri, an American woman who witnessed the
clashes in October and November, wrote in her autobiography
Revolt in Paradise: "It was an atrocious deed against a
defenseless city. Hundreds upon hundreds were killed. The streets
ran with blood, women and children lay dead in gutters. Kampongs
were in flames, and the people fled in panic to the relative
safety of the rice fields. But the Indonesians did not
surrender."

Lt. Col. A.J.F. Doulton in his book The Fighting Cock said:
"The Indonesians in Surabaya took no count of their dead; when
one man fell, another came forward, ... The Brens continued to
speak, the piles of dead at the barricades mounted, but more and
more Indonesians came forward trampling on the fallen."

Historical figure Roeslan Abdulgani, who at the time was a
liaison officer between the Surabaya regional government and
representatives of the Allied Army, recalled: "Freedom or death.
That was the slogan of our people. Surrender was alien to them."

But, what actually made the people in Surabaya shoulder arms
and fight to the death against the well-armed British-led forces?

It was an ultimatum dated Nov. 9, 1945 signed by Maj. Gen.
R.C. Mansergh, the commander of allied land forces for East Java,
that ordered all Indonesians in Surabaya to kneel before the
British before 6 a.m. the next day.

What made Mansergh issue the famous Nov. 9 ultimatum as if
Indonesia had been defeated in a war with Britain?

It was because of the death of his predecessor, Brig. Gen.
Mallaby, who was shot on Oct. 30.

According to Roeslan, Mansergh's ultimatum did not frighten
the local people but fired their spirit to defend their homeland
from the occupiers.

"The people rose! I have never seen a mass movement of such a
kind as that. In the kampong where I lived, my neighbors prepared
themselves on the Friday night of the Nov. 9, both spiritually
and physically, to face the danger upon them," Roeslan recalled.

According to Mansergh, the British forces came to East Java to
disarm and concentrate the Japanese Forces, bring relief to
Allied POWs and internees and maintain law and order.

However, the locals sensed their arrival as a new occupation.

The expectation came true shortly after the arrival of some
British ships on the coast off the Tanjung Perak port in Surabaya
on Oct. 24. The ships landed on the next day with a large number
of Gurkha soldiers.

According to Roeslan in one of his articles written in
November 1946, the Surabaya coast guard's request that the
British not land immediately, but await orders was answered with
signaling lamps saying: "We don't take any order from anybody."

Then, an agreement between the British and Indonesian officers
which was reached over the next two days, was violated by the
English, which started the first two-day fighting which began on
Oct. 28.

The battle which went for two days and nights was stopped only
when President Soekarno and Gen. Hawthorn came. A contact bureau
was set up to ensure the best possible cooperation.

It was the bureau's first sitting on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 1945
when Brig. Gen. Mallaby was shot dead in a battle which flared up
at the meeting place of the Internatio Building, which was in
front of the contact bureau.

The so-called Mallaby incident evoked anger on the allied
side. Gen. Mansergh said he would "bring the whole weight of sea,
land and air forces and all the weapons of modern war against the
Indonesians who committed this act."

Over the following days, Roeslan recalled, "a sense of
indignation filled our breasts."

On Nov. 9, a circular letter, later known as the famous
ultimatum, was dropped and distributed from the air.

As the Indonesian people ignored his ultimatum to put up their
hands and surrender their weapons, Mansergh who already had
strong back-up troops held firmly to his words.

Tens of thousands of the well-armed British troops opened fire
on the locals, who were armed only with bamboos and guns.

Surabaya turned into a hell, leaving thousands of casualties
and losses.

The British forces called the Surabaya clash an "inferno".

In the book of reminiscences of the 23rd Division of the
British Army, it is written: "The losses in this inferno were
grievous enough."

Roeslan said: "For us, Surabaya was a 'cauldron' in which we
were 'cooked' -- not half-boiled, but truly cooked in boiling
water, the blaze for which rose high. We were 'cooked' into a new
nation, wherein the strength of our people and of the Army was
welded fast into one; wherein the dynamic energy of our youth was
welded into one with the calculated thinking of our elders; and
wherein all of the people of our nation who at that time were in
Surabaya (the young people of Sumatra, Sunda, Kalimantan,
Sulawesi, Maluku, Nusatenggara and the boys and girls of
Surabaya) were welded fast into one!"