Cumberland
Towards the end of September 1945, one and a half months after the war had ended, the first Allied military personnel set foot on Java. The arrival of HMS Cumberland and HMNS Tromp in Tandjong Priok, the port of Batavia, was hardly the way we had anticipated being liberated by our victorious Allies. The tiny force was barely sufficient to take over Tjideng Camp guard duty from the Japanese army who for one and a half months had continued to guard the gate, but now from the threat of Indonesian rebels.
Guards
Elsewhere on Java, Japanese soldiers continued their new task of “protecting us” from former fellow citizens, an utterly bewildering turn of events. Seldom in history has a political weathervane swung so swiftly from one extreme to another. The Korean and Japanese chaps who had spent three and a half years trying to keep us locked up in the camp as enemy aliens, immediately after the armistice was signed, changed their role, and kept us locked up under Allied orders “for our safety”.
The tsunami of Japanese invasion was now replaced by the typhoon winds of political change. Within three and a half years life on Java had morphed from colonial oppression through military tyranny to descend into anarchy.
Photo of Guards taken last week of August, 1945
Photos from NIOD ( Netherlands Institute of War Documentation)
- Trivelli House
This is a typical house on the main street of Tjideng camp.
These images give an impression of our living conditions. Trivelli was the name of the street. Today it is called Jalan Tanah Abang 2.
This is the sort of house we occupied in Tjideng along with another 110 occupants. This was a better type of home, located along the mainstreet through the camp. The picture was taken by Mr Ripassa, a Eurasian photographer who had remained at liberty throughout the war, and after September 2, when the cease fire was signed, visited Tjideng
- Trivelli House 2
This house is probably number 93. Note the potties and makeshift sun shade, probably plundered after the war from the camp wall.
Photos from NIOD ( Netherlands Institute of War Documentation)
- Gedek Destruction
When food became more plentiful after the war we needed firewood and the bamboo wall was an attractive source of this commodity. The plundering operation was soon stopped by the Japanese camp Commandant because the bamboo wall had now become our defense against rioting Indonesians.
Photo from NIOD ( Netherlands Institute of War Documentation)
- Tjideng Camp Gate, 1945
This picture appears on the front cover of the book, Tjideng Reunion. It shows the Tjideng camp gate shortly after the war was declared over ( August 23, 1945) when the first curious visitors from Batavia came to see what lay behind the mysterious Bamboo wall from where so many dead emerged. The author and his mother may well be among the crowd of curious internees looking out onto the much changed outside world.
Photo from NIOD ( Netherlands Institute of War Documentation)
Communal Kitchen at Tjihapit
This drawing of the communal Tjihapit camp kitchen was made by Lieske Stroobach on 4 October 1944.
- Vijf Gulden
The Japanese army arrived with paper money, thoughtfully printed well in advance. (Printed in 1941) Metal was scarce so it was all paper money. In those days a Netherlands Indies half cent coin was probably still in circulation, while the largest denomination of metal coinage was probably the 2 1/2 guilder piece. In between the usual variety of copper and silver coins that you see here. These prewar Dutch currencies remained in circulation until the very end, but throughout the war the Japanese sought to replace them with their own paper money.
- Tien Cent
You can imagine that a one cent bill would very quickly become a tattered rag. Notice the very low serial numbers, and the absence of any indication of a signature from, say, a senior officer of the government. As the war progressed and the Japanese clearly began to lose important positions, the paper money also became less and less acceptable. In the end we were reduced to a barter economy unless you still had prewar Dutch coin or paper money.
- Een Cent
- Tenjalenga
Photo by my father, in central Java.
- Seraju Valley
Photograph made by my father in central Java. (Serajoe street was named after this river.)
