Policy Brief

June25,1, 2023
2018
Sep

Dr. Ei ichi H AYA SH I is a n
associat e professor at t heDepar tment of Histor y andCulture, Faculty of Literature,
Nishoga k usha Un i ver sit y.

Holdout Imperial Japanese Ar mySoldiers Rest in Peace in Heroes
Cemeteries in Indonesia
Dr. Eiichi Hayashi

He received the JSPS Ikushi
P r i z e for h is res ea rch on“ T he S o c i a l H i s t o r y o f aJapanese Soldier Who StayedB e h i n d - Mo d e r n Ja p a n o f
Sout heast A sia n Histor y-.”His books include Soldier so f the Imper ial Japane se
A r m y a n d t he I n d o ne s i a nWar o f Inde pendence : T he
Li f e o f a Holdout Japane se( Yoshikawakobunkan, 2011),
Japanese Soldiers Who StayedBehind: The Postwar Period forthe 10,000 Who Lived in Asia
(Chuokoron-ShinSha, 2012),
and Groups of Soldiers W ho
Stayed Behind : T heir Lives
After the War and the Gaze ofTheir Homeland (Shinyosha,2023).

What follows is an essay contributed by Associate Professor Eiichi
Hayashi of Nishōgakusha University. It should be noted that theviews expressed herein are entirely those of Professor Hayashihimself.
In June 2023, Their Majesties Emperor and Empress of Japan
made an official visit to Indonesia. During their trip, the couple visited
the National Main Heroes Cemetery in Kalibata and offered flowers
to its white central cenotaph modeled after five bamboo spears. Built
in 1954 in the rich greenery of South Jakarta, this heroes cemeteryis the largest war memorial in Indonesia honoring fallen patriots
who had dedicated their own lives to the cause during the war ofindependence with the Netherlands in the latter half of the 1940s.1
Among those buried in this cemeter y are twenty-eight holdout
Imperial Japanese Army soldiers. One may wonder how these twentyeight Japanese soldiers came to be buried in an Indonesian cemeteryfor national heroes.
Of all the holdout Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in Indonesia,
as many as 903 are identified by name.2 The majority were young,low-rank soldiers who had been mobilized by the Imperial JapaneseArmy to join the occupation of Dutch East India, which lasted for1Disclaimer :The views expressed in thispublication are those of the authorand do not necessarily reflect thepolicy or position of The Japan
Institute of International Affairs or
any other organization with which
the author is affiliated.

K ato Tsuyoshi. “Seijiteki imikukan no henyo katei—Shokuminchi shuto
kara nashonaru kyapitaru e [Transformation process of political semantic
space—From Colonial Capital to National Capital].” Tsubouchi Yoshihiro, ed.
<Sogoteki chiiki kenkyu >wo motomete —Tonan ajia zo wo tegakarini [Seeking<Comprehensive Regional Studies>—Clues to the Image of Southeast Asia].
Kyoto University Press. 1999. p. 223.
2 F ukushi Tomo no Kai, ed. Indoneshia dokuritsu sensō ni sanka shita“Kaeranakatta Nipponhei” issen-mei no koe —Fukushi Tomo no Kai, No.200“Geppo” bassuisyū [Voices of 1,000 Japanese soldiers who participated in theIndonesian War of Independence and did not return home—Fukushi Tomono Kai, No.200 “Monthly Bulletin” excerpts] (privately printed book). 2005. p.
382.

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Policy Brief

about three and a half years from March 1942.3

personnel, his serious character with a strong
sense of responsibility, and his personal status
as a third son of a Hokkaido farming family,
which would not allow him to own his farmland
and become self-sustaining if he returned toJapan.5

Reasons why these Japanese soldiers did not
return home after the end of the war vary fromcoercion to voluntar y decisions. For instance,
Superior Private Miyayama Shigeo decided
to stay on “to die for the cause of Indonesia’sindependence,” while First Class Private
Hirooka Isamu remained because he wasfamiliar with the local state of affairs and wellversed in the vernacular language. PaymasterSer geant Yamanashi Shiger u, Corporals
Fujiyama Hideo and Takasu Shigeo, andLance Corporals Ikegami Naruto and Motobō
Takatoshi, for their par t, admitted that they
had been fooled by groundless rumors. Others
included Corporal Nakamura Tsunegorō, who
had become tired of the military; Lance Corporal
Shida Yasuo, who had struck a superior officer
and feared that he might be tossed in detention;
Provost Sergeant Major Sugiyama Nagamoto
and Provost Sergeants Tanaka Toshio andYamaguchi Shōji, who feared that they might
be executed as war criminals; and Sergeant
Hayakawa Kiyoshi, Corporal Doki Tokiji, FirstClass Private Shimooka Zenji, and Second ClassPrivate Nanri Isamu, who claimed that they
had been abducted and confined by Indonesian
locals.4 Of course, one’s reason to remain in aformer battlefield after a war is not somethingthat can be explained in one word. In the caseof Sergeant Ono Sakari, who decided to remainin Bandung in wester n Java, for instance,compound considerations and reasonings
informed his decision, including: his rejection ofJapan’s unconditional surrender, his suspicion
that he had been overlooked for promotionin the army, his pride as an active militar y345

On the other side of the coin, why did theIndonesian side decide to accept the holdout
Imperial Japanese Army soldiers as its allies in
its fight against the Dutch? Behind this decision
was Indonesia’s desperate need for the arms
and human resources held by the now-defunct
Imperial Japanese Army.
With the declaration of independence on
August 17, 1945, a republic government wasestablished in Indonesia. Nevertheless, in theensuing month, British troops advanced intoIndonesia on behalf of the Allies, causing armed
conflicts in various locations. These conflicts
culminated in a war of independence. During
the earlier stage of the war, the country’s capital
was moved from Jakar ta in western Java to
Yogyakarta in central Java, making central andeastern Java a major battleground.
Under these circumstances, a variety ofmilitant forces sprouted in Indonesia, fromr egular militar y to militias, all of whichattempted to contact the Japanese soldiers
remaining in the country. Sergeant Taira Teizō,
who had remained in Bali, for instance, wasapproached by an Indonesian with an offer of“a two-rank promotion to an officer.” Engineer
Corps Sergeant Higuchi Osamu, being—
unfortunately for him—an expert in explosives,
was abducted in Aceh in northern Sumatra by ince there were also a small number of military officers, military civilians, ethnic Korean or Taiwanese soldiers, andScivilians (albeit few), some researchers prefer to call them “holdout Japanese” instead.
Hayashi Eiichi. Zanryū Nipponhei —Ajia ni ikita 10,000nin no sengo [Holdout Japanese soldiers—postwar days of
10,000 holdout Japanese soldiers who decided to stay behind in Asia]. Chūōkōronsha. 2012. Chapter 2.
Hayashi Eiichi. Zanryū Nipponhei no shinjitsu —Indoneshia dokuritsu sensō wo tatakatta otokotachi no kiroku[Truth about the holdout Japanese soldiers—the records of men who fought the Indonesian independence war].
Sakuhinsha. 2007. Chapter 2.

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Policy Brief

Indonesians and threatened by a military officer
with execution if he refused to collaborate.6

the Dutch governments concluded armisticeagreements twice, both of which were broken
because of militar y aggression by the Dutch
side. Toward the end of 1948, the Republicof Indonesia faced a crisis situation when its
capital city of Yogyakar ta fell to the Dutch
forces and its President Sukar no and Vice
President Hatta were hauled away. To copewith this situation, the Republic of Indonesia
side established a gover nment in exile inSumatra and the Republic’s army led by General
Sudirman launched a guerrilla war against theDutch forces. Backed by international public
opinion, sovereignty was eventually transferredto the Republic through the Hague Agreementin 1949, leading to the restart of the Republicof Indonesia in its present form as a united
republic in August 1950.

Thus, as the motivations of holdout Japanesesoldiers and the ulterior motive on the Indonesianside dovetailed, a large number of Imperial
Japanese Army soldiers decided to stay behind,mainly in western Java and northern Sumatra.
Postwar memoirs and testimonies report thatthose holdout Japanese soldiers repaired andremodeled arms belonging to the Imperial
Japanese Army, conducted military trainings forIndonesian youths, and spearheaded guerilla
warfare, thus contributing to Indonesia’s war ofindependence. There is, however, no primar ysource to back this up, and these rumors havelong remained unverified.
A battlefield diar y kept by Sergeant Ono
Sakari, which the present author unear thedin 2004, revealed some of the realities of theholdout Imperial Japanese Army soldiers during
the Indonesian War of Independence.7 Ono kept
this diar y from December 30, 1945, throughNovember 26, 1948. He recorded his day-to-day
life and experiences in the battlefield with brutalfrankness. Careful reading of his diary reveals
that holdout Japanese soldiers repeatedlyaligned and realigned themselves with the war
effort as the war of independence progressed
and that their roles changed constantly in eachphase of the war.

Sergeant Ono, keeper of the battlefield diary,
was discharged from the Imperial JapaneseA r my i n D e c e mbe r 1 9 4 5 a nd joi ne d t h eIndonesian army. Becoming acquainted withIchiki Tatsuo, an advocate of Pan-Asianism, inYogyakarta, Ono was so mesmerized by Ichiki’s
philosophy that he pledged, “Japan, whichliberated Indonesia from Dutch oppression, is anation of yellow race. We are brothers belonging
to the same Asian race. In order to bring peaceto Asia, I hereto pledge to wholeheartedly fight
together and die together hand in hand withmy Indonesian brothers.”8 Ono co-authored aguerilla warfare manual with Ichiki and devoted
his time and energy to training the Indonesian
regular army. As the battle situation altered, Onofound himself more in the frontline, leading theactual battle. Ono noted in his battlefield diary,“I am now resolutely prepared to deliver tripod

The Indonesian War of Independence, whichstar ted in August 1945 and lasted until theend of 1949, was fought both on battlefields
as well as around diplomatic tables. During
the struggle, the Republic of Indonesia and67I bid.
“Ikita akashi: Indoneshia dokuritsu sensō no nikki, ge—ʻTsutaetaiʼ hikitsugu negai [Proof of his life: Diary of theIndonesian War of Independence, part 2—Taking over their wish to ʻpass onʼ].” General culture page of The Asahi
Shimbun morning edition. November 3, 2005.
8 Ono Sakari (edited and commented by Hayashi Eiichi). Nampō gunsei kankei shiryō 42: Indonesia zanryū Nipponhei
no shakaishi—Rafumatto・Ono Sakari jijoden [Documents related to military administration in the southern
territories #42: social history of the holdout Japanese soldiers in Indonesia—autobiography of Rahmat Sakari Ono].
Ryūkeishosha. 2010. p. 48.

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Sep 25, 2023

Policy Brief

Suropati 18 or PUS18) under the 4th Brigade.10

for machine guns [Type 92 heavy machine
gun used by the Imperial Japanese Army, to beexact] to the rear of the enemy line.”9

PUS18 was headed by Commander Sugiyama
Nagamoto and Deputy Commander Ono Sakari,
under whom Sugiyama, Ono, Yamano Gorō,Hayashi Genji, Sakai Tomio, Maekawa Tatsuji,
Hirooka Isamu, Wakabayashi (first nameunknown), and several Indonesian officers led
their respective subdivisions. It is recorded
in a detailed Indonesian-language repor t on
battles that, in the battle of Banjar Patromanin Februar y 1949, PUS18 took out some fifty
Dutch soldiers, including a captain. Although
one cannot find this incident in the of ficial
Indonesian war histor y, it was doubtlessly aremarkable achievement.11

Being an informal presence, Ono and otherholdout Japanese soldiers found themselves ina predicament during the truce negotiations
with the Dutch and the reorganization andrationalization of the regular army. In order tocope with this deadlock, they formed the Special
Guerrilla Troops (Pasukan Gerilya Istimewaor PGI) exclusively among themselves. PGI,
organized under the auspices of Lieutenant
Colonel R. Soerachmad, commander of the
2nd Brigade, 1st Division of eastern Java, wasjoined by some thirty holdout Japanese soldiers
who were scattered around the eastern Javaarea. Yoshizumi Tomegorō was appointed
PGI’s commander and Ichiki became its deputy
commander. These two were old acquaintances,having migrated to the prewar Dutch East India
to work for the Nichi-Ran Shōgyō Shimbunsha(Japan-Dutch Journal of Commerce) in Batavia
and being closely associated with the human
network around Iwata Ainosuke, co-founderof the Aikokusha, a rightwing nationalistorganization. They were also older than otherholdout Japanese soldiers. During a truce, PGI
attempted to violate the armistice agreement byattacking a frontline base of the Dutch forces.
When Commander Yoshizumi died of illness,
however, internal feuding erupted, leading tothe breakup of the group. After Ichiki, who
succeeded Yoshizumi, was killed in battle, PGI
was reorganized as a troop (Pasukan Untung

These contributions to the war of independenceby the holdout Japanese soldiers were wellrecognized to the extent that, among them,Sugiyama, Ono, Yamano, Sakai, Maekawa,and Hirooka were distinguished with guerilla
medals and local veteran’s certificates as well
as soldier’s pensions by the Indonesian Army.
They were also honored with official militar yfunerals and burial in the heroes cemeteries.12
Today, Yamano and Maekawa rest in peace in
the National Main Heroes Cemetery in Kalibata,while Sugiyama, Ono, Sakai, and Wakabayashi
were buried in local heroes cemeteries.13
The Reiwa Emperor and Empress’s visit
to the heroes cemeter y in Kalibata was, thus,significant in the sense that it shed light on thishistory. Coincidentally, Emperor Emeritus also910

Ibid. p. 105.
 ayashi Eiichi. Tōbu Jawa no Nipponjin butai—Indoneshia zanryu nihonhei wo hikiita sannin no otoko [TroopsH
made of Japanese soldiers in East Java—Three Men who led the holdout Japanese soldiers in Indonesia]. Sakuhinsha.
2009. Chapters 4, 5.
11 I bid. Zanryū Nipponhei no shinjitsu [Truth about the holdout Japanese soldiers]. Chapter 6. “Ikita akashi:Indoneshia dokuritsu sensō no nikki, jō—Kesshi no hibi, kokumei ni [Proof of his life: Diary of the Indonesian
War of Independence, part 1—Clear record of the desperate days].” General culture page of The Asahi Shimbun
morning edition. November 2, 2005.
12 Until these holdout Japanese soldiers obtained Indonesian nationality in the early 1960s, they remained stateless.
13 Among the members of Fukushi Tomo no Kai (Yayasan Warga Persahabatan), a benevolent society organizedin 1979 by the holdout Japanese soldiers, many of those who did not reside in the capital city were buried inordinary cemeteries instead of heroes cemeteries.

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Policy Brief

chose the National Main Heroes Cemeter yin Kalibata as a destination during his firstoverseas visit after his abdication, and he had
met bereaved families of the holdout Japanesesoldiers in Vietnam during his pre-abdication
Imperial Memorial Visit. During the of ficial
visit this time, the Emperor and Empress Reiwa
chose to receive the children and grandchildrenof the holdout Imperial Japanese Army soldiersin Indonesia for the first time as emperor andempress. It is sincerely hoped that, through thepassing of the torch in the form of memorial
visits from the Heisei to Reiwa Emperors/
Empresses, friendship and goodwill relations
between Japan and Southeast Asian countries
will be deepened further.

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