'Shane'

The other day I saw a rerun of the famous movie Shane with Alan Ladd in the leading role on cable TV. For those who have never seen the movie or for those who may have forgotten the details, the story starts with a young cowboy entering a small town terrorized by hoodlums. He falls in love with a young lady and manages to rid the town of bandits. Instead of settling down and enjoying the honor bestowed on him by the citizens, he mounts his horse and rides off with the setting sun as the back ground.

When on leave in Central Java I managed to visit the heroes cemetery in Magelang and Semarang and to my surprise there was not a single Chinese name on the gravestones. Was there not a Chinese battalion fighting the Dutch alongside the other Indonesians, like the Japanese American battalion fighting with the American forces in Germany. Mr. Chen Hsueh Chuang, in his article Chinese descendants wrote "didn't Chinese descendants stand side by side with Indonesians to shed their blood and sacrifice their lives in the independence wars against the Japanese and the Dutch?"

I know of Japanese and Indian volunteers fighting south of Semarang against the British and Dutch forces in 1946. A small Japanese community still exists nowadays in Wonosobo, Central Java, and still proudly recount the struggle. An Indonesian reporter met a taxi driver in Calcutta who spoke fluent Indonesian, who told him that he had volunteered on our side fighting the British.

But where are the Chinese? Did they disappear into oblivion like Shane in the film or were they buried in common Chinese graves and not in heroes cemeteries after they were killed? Was I right when I stated that most Chinese fled the country then or worked for the Dutch? I know about one Chinese paramilitary group called "Poh An Tui," but they were organized and armed by the Dutch army to fight the Indonesian freedom fighters. What group fought on our side? Who can provide me with this information. I am at a loss.

SUMARSONO SASTROWARDOYO

Bogor, West Java