On 17 August 1945, shortly after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and with Japan's defeat an increasing certainty, President Sukarno proclaimed the independence of the Indonesian state. During the ongoing revolution against returning Dutch forces, Europeans were detained (although the Dutch head pastors remained). These detentions, and post-revolution politics which decimated the European population in independent Indonesia, ensured that the congregation remained dominated by the Javanese and other indigenous peoples.