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strong>Nov. 12, p6

The epic battle that took place in Surabaya on Nov. 10, 1945 was one of the most heroic and violent episodes of the Indonesian Independence War. The Allied Forces, led by the British Army, launched a massive attack, deploying the most-modern weaponry at their disposal, including 24,000 troops, 25 pounders and 3.7 howitzer artillery, five Destroyer warships, 24 Sherman tanks and 24 Thunderbolts and Mosquito bombers to occupy the city.

It was reported that in the first day alone, the Allied Forces dropped about 500 bombs. It was only after three weeks that the Allies Forces could secure the city. As a consequence, the city was devastated while casualties were immense, taking of more than 40,000 lives, mostly civilians.

The Indonesian government declared Nov. 10 National Heroes Day to commemorate this event, with the hope that the new generation could emulate the spirit of those who sacrificed their lives for the love of their country. (By Abdul Wahid, Leiden, The Netherlands)

Your comments:

The comments on this article gives a more realistic view than the article itself. Of course there will be people full of hate and anger when they have been mistreated for years. There are relatively few truly great people like Nelson Mandela who rise above the madness of misdirected emotion and offer reconciliation.

It was certainly illogical for the British to get caught up in the Netherland'€™s desire to hold on to Indonesia at a time when they were pulling out of their own colonies.

Fred Frogley

Indonesians are, mostly, very naive of their own history and most of our own historians are either too afraid to be critical or do not care enough. So I really appreciate an article like this one from one of our historians now, to at least be more critical. There is so much Indonesians need to know and need to learn from their own history so new generations do not repeat the same mistakes.

And it is the task of the historians, to make sure that scientific views and accounts of history are being recorded. Go for it!

Sudarshana Chakra

This is what I got from Wikipedia:

'€œHey British soldiers! As long as the Indonesian bulls, the youth of Indonesia, have red blood that can make a piece of white cloth, red and white, we will never surrender. Friends, fellow fighters, especially the youth of Indonesia, we will fight on; we will expel the colonialists from our Indonesian land that we love [...] Long have we suffered, been exploited and trampled on.

'€œNow is the time for us to seize our independence. Our slogan: freedom or death. God is great... God is great... God is great. Freedom!'€ Bung Tomo'€™s speech, Nov. 9, 1945.

Ahmad Rafie

The problem is about censoring history itself. Why are Bersiap never included in Indonesian history? Why are Pemuda portrayed as heroic war heroes when they were in fact, killing citizens.

The Dutch is not innocent because they were the colonists and I guess they probably censor their own history too.

By censoring this important piece of history, Indonesia is no better than the Dutch.

Michel de Wilde

The entire August-December 1945 new history of Surabaya titled as Surabaya 1945: Sacred Territory was presented to the Governor of East Java Soekarwo, Surabaya mayor and the people of Surabaya on Heroes Day 2011. This 444 page history supersedes all previous histories including the incomplete comments presented above in The Jakarta Post.

For serious historians, the English version includes the translations of every known Bahasa Indonesian version of Surabaya by Veterans themselves, is lodged with the Surabaya governor and mayor.

The Indonesian translation will soon be available. Over the decades outside commentators and a good many Indonesians, too, missed the point entirely about Surabaya'€™s importance, bogging themselves down in unnecessary detail.

Surabayans established the Republic'€™s first free territory at a time when foreign forces controlled all major cities and the Proclamation of Independence was in danger of being simply a proclamation of intent, not a reality. Rosihan Anwar was Indonesia'€™s first '€œwar correspondent'€ and attested that Surabayans had extended Republican free territory deep into East Java by Nov. 12.

For commentators concentrating on miniscule details of the clash between the British and the Arek-Arek Surabaya is to miss the point: what Surabayans were doing in holding out for so long was saving the Republic from oblivion. Their desperate resistance made the British realize that many more '€œSurabayans'€ could soon arise, that the streams of volunteers from other provinces to join in the fight for freedom was genuine, and the cost to London was such that the Dutch had to be pressured into some form of compromise. The '€œcompromise'€ was the next phase, now called the Revolution, the drawn-out series of fights and talks that ended with Indonesia winning sovereignty.

Francis (Frank) Palmos