The memories are still fresh on people's minds how Westerling's atrocity caused so many deaths and sufferings in South Sulawesi. Trauma always entails whenever they recall the tragedy. However, debates over the exact number of victims are still going on until today.
Westerling considered the Dutch way of dealing with the Republicans by bringing them to court to be like scolding a naughty child. Instead, he preferred cleansing and killing.
Raymond Pierre Paul Westerling, nicknamed the Turk, was born into a polyglot family. As a child, he kept snakes and entertained himself with bloody detective stories.
Medan was his first assignment. Coming on behalf of the Allies, Westerling carried out a secret mission for the Dutch, ruthlessly killing Indonesian Republican fighters along the way.
The Japanese forced thousands of prisoners of war (POW) and forced laborers (romusha) to march for hundreds of kilometers. Out of more than two thousand POWs, only six from Australia survived at the end of the war because they had escaped the march, while all British prisoners perished.
Silence has come to an end. Former Indonesian ianfu finally voiced their long-suppressed voices, recalling their poignant life stories when they were being forced to become sex slaves of the Japanese army.
A former Japanese soldier disclosed his account of ianfu (sex slaves for the Japanese army) in Indonesia and his regret for his involvement in the Pacific War. This interview was conducted by Koichi Kimura before Mitsuhiro Tanaka passed away in 1991.
The fate of Indonesian ianfu was completely disregarded by the Allies. The court martial held in Jakarta was only intended for the Dutch women forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese army.
Japan established ianjo as 'comfort stations' to fulfill the sexual needs of its soldiers. Still, rapes committed by the Japanese soldiers were prevalent outside of ianjo.
Sukarno's cooperation with Japan inflicted unimaginable suffering. Romusha and ianfu, two dark sides of history that left painful memories behind.
