By Kathryn Pentecost ©2013 ‘Communities can be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined’. (Benedict Anderson, 1991:6) On 17 August 1945, after over three hundred years of Dutch colonial rule, (and several years of the British interregnum 1811-1816), Indonesia was proclaimed ‘merdeka’ (independent) by Sukarno and Hatta, and…
By Louise Rouwhof-Krancher. Jan 12, 2013. I was encouraged by my brother Jan A. Krancher who lives in the US, to commit some of my Indies memoires to paper. He is an author in his own right and has compiled and edited 24 stories in 1996 in a book on the Japanese occupation of the…
By Jan A. Krancher, PhD. Jan. 8, 2013 Have you ever been conned? I am sure you have, at least once in your lifetime, as I have, and I won’t tell you how often. But here I am not referring to being “conned” but rather being “coined.” It is the practice that brings about long…
Great-great-great grandfather Johan Daniel Gottfried Schmidgall was born in 1750 in Plattenhardt, Wuerttemberg, Germany. He was a volunteer in the Army of the Duke. The middle of the 18th century, the Dutch India Company (VOC) still owned large possessions in “the East.” Since it was a not a governmental enterprise but a private business, the…
When the Dutch government eventually granted independence to their former colony, the Dutch (Netherland) East Indies in 1949, a large community of some 200,000 Indos were forced to find a new homeland. They were the offspring (descendants) of former Dutch and other European settlers, who often intermarried with women of Indonesian or other mixed ancestry. …
By Jan Krancher Book: Ambushed under the Southern Cross Author: Capt. George W. Duffy Highly decorated Capt. George W. Duffy has authored the book “Ambushed under the Southern Cross . . . The Making of an American Merchant Marine Officer and His Ensuing Saga of Courage and Survival”. Among several of his experiences, he also…
By Jan Krancher, California, USA Overview of the Japanese Imprisonment Experience The Japanese High Command on Java attempted to coerce the Indo-European members of the former Royal Netherlands-Indies Army, Navy and Air Force to enlist in the Japanese army. A goodly number of Indos who refused were summarily executed and many ended up in camps. …
By Jan Krancher The word “diaspora” has been used throughout the web site of The Indo Project. Most readers are undoubtedly acquainted with this Greek term referring to the dispersion or scattering of Jews outside of Palastine after the Babylonian exile or, to put it another way, the area outside of Palastine settled by the Jews. In that ancient…
Excerpt Translated by Jan Krancher, California, USA After WWII, in an effort to re-establish control of its colony from 1947-1949 the Dutch instigated a “Politionele Acties” (police action) by sending troops back to Indonesia. To ease the transition for the troops and prepare them, a guidebook was published titled “Scheepspraet”. It is interesting to note the actual…
BDH: Where were you born ? JK: I was born in the beautiful tourist town of Malang, in East Java, the former Dutch East Indies, prior to the Japanese invasion. After struggle for independence, the country became known as Indonesia and the Dutch were expelled. BDH: How did you emigrate ? JK: As a 17-year…