/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-JAPAN: Movie on Wartime Struggle Grates on Indonesians

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jun 5 2001 (IPS) - Producers of a film about Japanese soldiers who helped Indonesians fight Dutch colonisers say it aims to acquaint Japanese with history, but critics say it is another way of deflecting attention from its wartime record.

Although ‘Merdeka’, which means independence in Indonesian, is a fictional account of Japanese soldiers killed in Indonesia while fighting Dutch colonisers, its message is clear — that Japan helped fellow Asians fight western colonisers.

This strikes a sensitive chord because Japan’s occupation of Asian countries in the forties was based on its supposed aim of making an ‘Asia for the Asians’ and freeing western-ruled colonies, like Indonesia and the Philippines, from their foreign rulers.

To no surprise, a storm of protests — including from the Indonesian government — has greeted the film, which debuted on May 12 here. It is directed by Yukio Fuji and is distributed by Toho Cinemas, a leading film company.

According to Toho, the movie revolves arounds 1st Lt Shimakazaki, who is dispatched to fight the Dutch on Java. Shimakazaki gets deeply involved in the Indonesian freedom movement.

“The role of Japanese soldiers in freedom movements across Asia is little known,” says Masako Suzuki, spokesman for Toho. “That is the reason why the director decided to do a movie about Shimazaki.”

It is a historical fact that Japanese soldiers, who had occupied Indonesia in 1942-45, participated in Indonesia’s war of independence against the Dutch, which raged for four years from 1945 to 1949.

Indonesia’s founding president Sukarno declared independence from the Dutch on Aug. 17, 1945, two days after Japan’s surrender in the Second World War. But Dutch and British re-occupation forces advanced into Indonesia, triggering a national revolutionary struggle that led to the realisation of independence in December 1949.

In 1943, Japan military officers recruited and trained young Indonesians in Java to fight the Dutch — but history books say this was to supplement the Japanese military strength. The recruits became part of Pembela Tanah Air (PETA), which translates as Defenders of the Fatherland.

Documents compiled in Japan say between 1,000 to 2,000 Japanese soldiers fought on the Indonesian side during the war against the Dutch after 1949.

But critics say the film is grossly exaggerated in showing that Japanese soldiers’ participation made independence against the Dutch possible.

History books also point to one fact — PETA forces revolted against the Japanese in a Javanese town in Februayr 1945, an event that is viewed as a prelude to Indonesia’s national revolution against any foreign occupation.

Professor Takashi Shiraishi at Kyoto University’s Centre for South-east Asian Studies says: ” I know a number of Indonesian freedom fighters. They would be offended because they believe they obtained independence by themselves.”

‘Merdeka’ opens with the Japanese imperial army landing in Indonesia, then called the Dutch East Indies, in 1942.

In one of the early scenes, an old Indonesian woman approaches Shimazaki with her hands held together in prayer. She tells him she has been waiting for a saviour, referring to a local legend in which “yellow” men come from the east to save Javanese from the rule of “white” men.

At this point, she kneels down and touches the Japanese officer’s shoe. Shimazaki promises the woman that he will oust the Dutch rulers from Indonesia.

This particular scene was met by strong opposition by Indonesian government. In March, the Indonesian embassy in Tokyo demanded that Tokyo Film Production, which shot the movie, cut out the scene.

The Japanese media reported the embassy lodged a protest with the production company, pointing out the scene was untrue.

The president of the production company, Katsuaki Asano, says that the movie, made in Indonesia, is fictional but strives to show the world how some brave Japanese risked their lives to help fellow Asians.

“The Japanese do not know their history which is why they do not have pride,” he says, adding however that he took care not to sentimentalise the movie.

“No doubt there were brutal Japanese officers in the military,” he concedes, explaining this is why the film shows Japanese soldiers slapping locals and a group of Indonesian men beating up a drunk soldier who was chasing a woman.

Still, 82-year-old Masachika Nakajima, who lived in Java until he returned to Japan in 1946, says ‘Merdeka’ is more than just a war movie.

An advisor to Asano, he says the Japanese Imperial Army taught the Indonesian troops to fight against the Dutch. He recalls how he taught them to collect food and supplies during the fight.

For others though, the film is yet another way the Japanese government is skirting the issue of admitting historical facts about its occupation of South-east Asian countries like Indonesia — and what critics call its using of its supposed desire to free western colonies as a pretext for its own expansionist motives more than 50 years ago.

The screening of ‘Merdeka’ also comes on the heels of a controversy around Japan’s approval of textbooks that the countries it occupied in the forties call attempts to cover up the horrors of its wartime atrocities.

“It’s just too much,” Yoko Maeda, a 31-year-old freelance writer here says of ‘Merdeka’. “I wish we could get on with our life by admitting our aggression in Asia.”