Posted on 12/09/2020 5:52:21 PM PST by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1947, Dutch troops fighting (vainly) to keep Indonesia under colonial sway perpetrated one of the most notorious massacres of the Indonesian War of Independence.
During a Dutch offensive, Royal Netherlands Army forces fell on the West Java town of Rawagede (today, Balongsari) on December 9, 1947 and demanded to know the whereabouts of an Indonesian rebel they were hunting.
The villagers didn’t know, but the Dutch were convinced that they did —and so they began marching men and boys as young as 13 years old to nearby fields. Squatting and kneeling row upon row, the men were shot one by one. The Rawagede Massacre claimed 431 victims, according to the villagers....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
I never heard about this. Thx for posting.
Following Japan's surrender, the allied commander for the area, Lord Mountbatten, deputized and re-armed Japanese troops under his command to suppress the Indonesians fighting for independence.
The French did the same in Indochina, re-arming the Japanese and using them as a police force against the Viet Minh.
Amazing that European countries thought they could keep those massive populations under colonial rule; once the Japanese showed a “yellow” country could beat “whites” in battle, there was no keeping a lid on them.
Didn’t know this happened.
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