BandungBergerak.id - After the capitulation of Japan to the Allies on August 15, 1945 followed by the proclamation of Indonesian independence on August 17, 1945, there was a power vacuum in the former Dutch East Indies. This vacuum then triggered chaos and armed clashes to conflict and confrontation between the Indonesian side and the Dutch who came with the British.

This period was known by the Dutch as “de bersiap periode” or tijd van paraat zijn (the period of preparation or alert). There was a wave of violence against the Dutch and their sympathizers, including the Chinese, perpetrated by popular resistance soldier.

Referring to the book entitled Bersiap in Bandoeng - Een onderzoek naar geweld in de period van 17 Augustus 1945 tot 24 Maart 1946 (Bersiap in Bandung - An investigation into acts of violence in the period from August 17, 1945 to March 24, 1946) written by Mary C. van Dalden, the time span of the preparation period in Bandung began from the proclamation of Indonesian independence on August 17, 1945 to March 24, 1946, which became known as the Bandung Lautan Api event.

According to the book Bandung Citra Sebuah Kota by Robert P.G.A. Voskuil et al, there was a wave of violence in October and November 1945 in Java and Sumatra that left around 5,000 people dead. In Bandung, most of the victims during this period of violence were Dutch and Chinese who lived in neighborhoods without guards, or those who lived outside guarded areas.

The resistance of the Indonesian people intensified after the landing of the British army on October 17, 1945. Waves of violence were inflicted on the Dutch and their supporters.

One incident of violence against the Dutch in Bandung during this period was the massacre at the KNIL Bronbeek military compound and the Sorghvliet rest house compound on November 27, 1946. 33 people were killed in the two compounds located in the southwest of Bandung. Not only Dutch but also dozens of indigenous people were killed. Other residents of the two compounds were taken prisoner by soldiers, before being freed by Gurkha soldiers on December 17, 1945.

When the British army, accompanied by a small unit of Dutch soldiers, cleared the Bronbeek complex in February 1946, the perpetrators of the murders and hostage-taking from Sukajadi village.

A wave of terror also struck professor Charles Prosper Wolff Schoemaker. His house at Van Galenweg No. 2 (now Jalan Lamping) was looted and burned down by a gang of robbers. Coincidentally, Wolff Schoemaker’s house was located not too far from the Bronbeek complex. Wolff Shoemaker's status as President Sukarno’s former lecturer at the Technische Hoogeschool Bandung (now ITB) could not prevent his own misfortune. were also arrested. The perpetrators were then brought to justice.

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Pans Schomper’s Experience

The horrors of the preparation period were also written down by Pans Schomper in his book Selamat Tinggal Hindia (The Egg Merchant’s Promise). The title given by Pans Schomper to one of the chapters in his book that tells about the preparation period, namely the Age of
“Preparing” From the Tiger’s Nest to the Crocodile’s Mouth, can more or less describe what happened to Dutch people like himself during the preparation period. After being liberated from the Japanese internment camps, their suffering continued in the preparation period.

One of the heartbreaking events that Pans Schomper wrote about in his book was the massacre of a Dutch family in Papandayanlaan (now Jalan Gatot Subroto), Bandung. Pans, after being released from the Japanese internment camp in Cimahi, was working as a driver for the Military Transport Service (Militaire Transport Dienst).

One day Pans Schomper, along with some of his fellow drivers, was ordered to go to a house in the Indo-European neighborhood of Papandayanlaan. There had reportedly been a robbery and murder on the site. When Pans arrived at the scene, he saw that the door of the house had collapsed. Although it was daytime, the atmosphere was quiet and tense, and there was no sign of any living presence. The smell of blood and human waste wafted through the air.

Inside the house, Pans saw a horrifying sight: dead men, women and children who had died with sharp weapon wounds. Every room in the house was covered in blood. Pans Schomper even found a dead baby on the ironing table with a dagger stabbed into its body.

It was not only Indo-Europeans who were victimized during the preparation period. The indigenous people who were considered accomplices of the Dutch were also subjected to violence perpetrated by their fellow countrymen. Such was the case with Enoch, the personal driver of the L. C. Schomper family, owners of Hotel Schomper and Hotel Du Pavillon in the Naripan area.

Enoch, who had been a loyal driver since Pans Schomper started school, continued to provide assistance to his employer’s family during difficult times, from Japanese incarceration to the chaos of the preparation period. Loyalty that led to tragedy, as Enoch, his wife and child were burned to death in their home in Astanaanyar village by their own countrymen.

Those who were victimized during the preparation period did not remain silent and retaliated. People from eastern Indonesia, some of whom were notorious for being loyal to the Dutch, fought back and retaliated.

Pans Schomper and his friends from eastern Indonesia once had the experience of arresting a native who they found wandering around the Jalan Citarum area. His suspicious movements made Pans Schomper and his friends feel the need to search the young indigenous’ body and found a gun and a paper containing a list of names. When he tried to run away, he was arrested and taken to a large house at the end of Riau Street, which was the headquarters of the youth from eastern Indonesia.

Although Pans Schomper did not know exactly what had happened to the young indigenous man he had captured, he saw that the people who went in and out of the house were covered in blood. He suspected that the young man, who had been arrested with a pistol and a list of names, had been killed with a sharp weapon.

Pans feared that this was a form of retaliation for the violence perpetrated by the natives in the preparation period against the Dutch and their perceived accomplices. Terror for terror.

The “Preparation Period” in the Eyes of an Indigenous Figure

For more information on the preparation period in Bandung from an indigenous’ perspective, see the biography of Ir. H. Ukar Bratakusumah, entitled Dari Jaman Penjajahan Belanda Hingga Jaman Pembangunan. According to Ukar, who at the time was the Technical Director of the Bandung City government, the atmosphere after the proclamation of independence created extraordinary feelings among the people. Emotional, reckless and rebellious attitudes arose that may not have existed before the proclamation of independence.

By quoting the statement of a comrade-in-arms from Minahasa ethnicity who works as a doctor, Ukar Bratakusumah explained what the emotions of the people were like during the independence revolution. In an extraordinary event like a revolution, there will be a change of emotion in 20 percent of the people, which then brings the other 80 percent in the same emotional outburst.

According to Ukar Bratakusumah, besides the crimes committed by a handful of people, at that time there was also suspicion of enemy spies for reasons that did not seem to make sense. Someone who unknowingly wore clothes with elements of the Dutch flag colors, namely red, white and blue, would easily be accused of being a Dutch spy. This period, according to Ukar Bratakusumah in his biography, was known as the “age of preparation”, a time when people would spontaneously shout “Siap-siap! (Get ready!)”.

During preparation period, Ukar Bratakusumah saved a Dutch teenage boy. At that time Ukar lived in Logeweg or now Wastukancana Street, which is close to the Bandung mayor's office where he worked. As told in his biography, Ukar was surprised one night when he returned home to find a sinyo, the term for Dutch boys, sleeping on his porch. He immediately invited the boy into his house. The presence of Dutch people at that time could be disastrous because they were the target of indigenous’ anger.

This Dutch boy was about 16 years old and had just been released from a Japanese internment camp. The first place he went after leaving the camp was to his family home, the family of Doctor Kampman, which was now occupied by the Ukar Bratakusumah family. Sinyo Kampman intended to find the whereabouts of his mother who was taken to the Japanese internment camp in Ambarawa. Meanwhile, his father's whereabouts are unknown.

Ukar then explained that the trip the young man wanted to make was very dangerous because at that time all Dutch people were considered enemies and their safety was at risk. However, Ukar did not hesitate to help the young man on his journey to Ambarawa. Coincidentally, a housemate from Banjar lived in his house who was willing to take Sinyo all the way to Banjar. Ukar later found out that the Dutch boy had managed to meet his mother and had made it safely back to the Netherlands.

Ukar Bratakusumah’s humane actions against the Dutch also occurred before the preparation period, at the beginning of the Japanese colonization. His job as Technical Director of Bandung City under the leadership of mayor, R. Ating Atma di Nata, was to provide various facilities for the Japanese army. His heart was touched when he provided a Japanese detention camp for Dutch women.

Ukar then tried to expand and complete the facilities in the camp even though it would be extremely expensive. That is how Ukar Bratakusumah's spirituality led him to provide a hand up to those who had oppressed his nation in the past.

* Translated from this article by Altaf Hasna Banafsaj.