SUPRIYADI
(Supriyadi is an Indonesian national hero who rose a revolt on 1945 against the occupying of Japanese in Indonesia)
Supriyadi was born in what is now Trenggalek, Dutch East Indies, on 13 April 1923. He attended junior high school, then a school to prepare him for government bureaucracy in Magelang. However, the Japanese invaded Indonesia before he graduated. He then switched to high school and underwent youth training (Seimendoyo) in Tangerang, West Java. In October 1943, the Japanese established a militia, PETA(Indonesian: Pembela Tanah Air, lit. 'Defenders of the Homeland') to assist Japanese forces against the Allies. Supriyadi joined PETA, and after training was posted to Blitar. He was tasked with overseeing the work of the Romusha forced laborers. The plight of these workers inspired him to rebel against the Japanese. When Supriyadi join with PETA, he was given the rank of shodancho or platoon commander.
Indonesia's huge population was not the only resources that the imperial Japan coveted. Indonesia was a country with the largest territory and richest natural resources, valuable for imperial Japan which was in the middle of fierce struggle of World War II. Japan's policy in Indonesia, therefore, were very economic-oriented as well. Japan used Java as its operation base for the entire South East Asia, thus Java was one of the most oppressed places in Indonesia during the occupation. The Javanese farmers were forced to plant rice and sell it only to the Japanese organization at a very low price. In consequence, the farmers had nothing much to eat no matter how great the harvest was. They also could not buy some foods in the market because of shortage of supply, since all farmers had to sell their rice to the Japanese organization only, and lack of money, for the farmers received very small amount of money in exchange for their harvest. At the end of 1944, more than 2.4 million Javanese died because of starvation. Nobody was an exception in the Japanese cruelty. Almost every man and woman in their productive age were recruited to join rōmusha(the Japanese word for Indonesian forced labourers). Many of them died helpless due to continuous working, illness without any proper food or medication. Looking at the miserable condition of their people, the PETA battalion personnel started to lose hope for an independent Indonesia with a bright future. They felt that neither the Dutch nor the Japanese had any right to keep Indonesian people suffering. In summary, the three main reasons of Supriyadi to revolt were “the plight of civilians and rōmusha, Japanese arrogance, and the need for real independence.”
Supriyadi, who was less than 22 years old at the time, started to gather some trusted members, and held secret meetings to plan the action starting in September 1944, which continued until the sixth meeting in 13 February 1945. In their last meeting, the rebels decided to attack the city divided into four groups. When nationalist leader Sukarno visited his parents in Blitar, PETA officers told him that they had begun to plan a rebellion and asked for Sukarno's opinion. He told them to consider the consequences, but Supriyadi, leader of the rebels, was convinced the uprising would succeed. In their last meeting, the rebels decided to attack the city divided into four groups. At the following day, the rebels attacked two buildings that usually were used by the Japanese military forces, aiming to kill every single Japanese they would meet. However, the attack was completely predicted by the Japanese military forces, thus all the buildings were abandoned before the attack began. After their attack failed, each group of the rebels quickly left the city to find other groups of the rebels, and range again against Japan. However, there were two main problems faced by the rebels to carry out their plans. First, Japan used other Indonesian personnel under the Japanese command to threaten the rebels. This was quite successful. The rebels did not want to kill other Indonesian PETA soldiers who were forced by the Japanese army to confront their revolt. Second, the Japanese military forces succeeded in isolating the Blitar battalion completely. The separation of the military command structure of PETA worked effectively, thus not many groups of Indonesian militaries even in the same region, would hear about the news in Blitar. All rebels were scattered, and many of them were persuaded to go back to Blitar, or chose to surrender to the Japanese. A few of the groups successfully killed some of the Japanese, but all of them were shot back and killed. Finally, fifty-five captured rebels were being sent to the military court after several sessions of interrogation, and six among them were sentenced to death, while Supriyadi, who disappeared without a trace now live in. Although the revolt was by no means successful, it left some significant influence to both Japan and Indonesia. 1945 PETA revolt in Blitar was an important event that indicating the changes of Indonesia's feeling toward Japan. In general, the revolt was the most serious attack on Japanese military forces during its occupation in Indonesia which opened the new revolutionary period for Indonesia and played a vital role in Indonesian independence by transmitting “the revolutionary energy”.
On 19 August 1945, in a government decree issued by the newly-independent Indonesia, Supriyadi was named Minister for Public Security in the Presidential Cabinet. However, he failed to appear, and was replaced on 20 October by acting minister Muhammad Soeljoadikusuma. To this day his fate remains unknown. If he was alive during his appointment, he would have been aged 22 and became the youngest ever minister in the nation's history.
Supriyadi was officially declared a National Hero on 9 August 1975, thus legally declaring him dead as it is a posthumous title.
All narration copied by:
en.wikipedia/supriyadi
en.wikipedia/1945_PETA_Revolt_in_Blitar
Picture:
en.wikipedia/supriyadi
