Jakarta, The Indonesia post – Today, exactly 75 years ago, the text of the proclamation of the Republic of Indonesia was written. The manuscript was written around 02.00 am 17 August 1945. After writing, the historical manuscript was typed, and only finished before dawn. All these incidents occurred in one location. In a house on Meiji Dori Street, which has now changed its name to Jalan Imam Bonjol No.1, Central Jakarta. Which has now changed its function to a museum of proclamation.
The historic house is the home of a Japanese naval officer. You must know his name, Laksama Tadashi Maeda. If it is written in kanji something like this;前 田 精, you can definitely read it too!
Maeda is a Japanese. He was born in Kagoshima, March 3, 1898 and died December 13, 1977. His wife Nishinura Fumiko, also Japanese. Maeda was a high-ranking officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Dutch East Indies during the Pacific War. During the Indonesian occupation under Japan, he served as the Liaison Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army Navy and Army. Another source said that he had been in Indonesia since 1930. As Japanese intelligence.
According to Shigetada Nishijima’s notes, which were gathered by Waseda University in Tokyo, Admiral Maeda had formed the Jakarta Kaigun Bukanfu. Already recruiting members. 77 people from the military and civilians, 13 of whom were women. The aim was to seek mass support through nationalist figures for the victory of the Greater East Asian War.
Admiral Maeda’s house was built in 1927. Designed by the architect, Johan Frederik Lodewijk Blankenberg. Built as the official residence of the British Royal Consulate. During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, the house was converted into the residence of Admiral Tadashi Maeda from 1942 to 1945. Several years later, the house returned to its original function as the home of the British Ambassador.
Why is that house called the house of the proclamation? Isn’t it a Japanese house? Who was colonizing the archipelago at that time?
On the evening of 16 August, Sukarno and Hatta returned to Jakarta from ‘exile’ at Rengas Dengklok. They intended to verify Japan’s defeat from the allies.
Together with Achmad Soebarjo, the two of them drove to the house of Admiral Tadashi Maeda. At that time, Maeda proposed that Sukarno, Hatta, and Achmad Soebarjo meet with Major General Moichiro Yamamoto, chief of staff of the 16th Army Army who was the head of the Japanese military government in the Dutch East Indies or what was known as Gunseikan.
However, Yamamoto did not want to meet Sukarno-Hatta, who was directly escorted by Admiral Maeda. Instead, he ordered Major General Otoshi Nishimura, Head of the General Affairs Department of the Japanese Military Government, to welcome the founding fathers.
At that time Nishimura said that conditions had changed, the promise of independence that Japan had promised could no longer be realized. The words immediately ‘burn’ the heart. Piercing the heart. Bung Karno and Bung Hatta were determined to achieve the independence they had dreamed of. Without any help, let alone a gift from Japan.
In the book Flashback of the Revolution by Abu Bakar Loebis, it is stated that it was Achmad Soebardjo who picked up Soekarno-Hatta from Rengasdengklok after convincing Sukarni to bring the two leaders to Jakarta.
It was Soebarjo who invited Soekarno-Hatta to return to Admiral Meida’s house after meeting Nishimura. Soebarjo chose Meida’s house who was the Japanese navy because of his immunity rights over the Japanese Army. The aim was that the Japanese army could not interfere with the proclaiming of independence that Soekarno-Hatta was trying to make.
In addition, Achmad Soebardjo has a close relationship with Laksamana Maeda. This closeness made Maeda more lenient with Indonesia’s desire for independence.
Soebardjo was known to be active in the Jong Java organization and the Indonesian Student Association while in the Netherlands.
During the movement, he was the representative of Indonesia with Moh. Hatta in the first “League Against Imperialism and Oppression” in Brussels and Germany.
When he returned to Indonesia, Soebardjo was an active member of the Indonesian Independence Preparatory Investigation Agency (BPUPKI), and later the Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence (PPKI).
Admiral Maeda was familiar with a number of Indonesian Students when he became Attache at The Hague and Berlin in 1930. This was where his communication was established with Ahmad Soebardjo and Hatta.
After becoming an attaché in The Hague and Berlin, Maeda moved to Indonesia, as Head of Liaison for the Kaigun (Japanese Navy). At that time, he employed Ahmad Soebardjo, whom he had known for a long time in the Netherlands.
Upon arrival at the house of Admiral Meida, Soekarno-Hatta, Soebardjo immediately went to work. They immediately formulated the text of the proclamation of independence. In Admiral Maeda’s dining room. That very night.
Bung Hatta and Achmad Soebardjo conveyed their thoughts orally. Bung Karno acted as the writer of the draft of the proclamation script. The process of drafting this script was also witnessed by the young group represented by Sukarni, Sudiro, and BM Diah. Meanwhile, from the Japanese side there were S. Miyoshi and S. Nishijima.
Quoted from the official website of the Indonesian Museum, Soekarno then read the manuscript to the audience in one of the rooms which is now the Room for the Signing of the Proclamation Manuscript.
The young men outside asked for the text of the proclamation to be harsh. However, S. Nishijima did not allow it. The goal is so that unwanted things do not happen. And even worse, it provoked the anger of the Japanese soldiers.
Some of the words that were asked to be corrected were “surrender”, “cleared up”, submitted “, or” seized “. Finally,” transfer of power “was considered more subtle.
Then the manuscript was typed in the Proclamation Text Typing Room by Sayuti Melik. Initially there were a few obstacles. At Admiral Maeda’s house there is no typewriter with alphabet letters. There are only kanji typewriters. Finally, Maeda’s assistant borrowed a typewriter from the German Consulate.
After the text of the proclamation has been typed, it is immediately brought back to the room for the approval or signing of the proclamation text. In this room, the text of the proclamation was signed by Soekarno and Hatta on behalf of the Indonesian nation.
This incident took place before dawn, Friday, August 17, 1945 to coincide with the holy month of Ramadan.
After the proclamation script was signed, the drafting team discussed the place to read the proclamation text. And because of security considerations, Soekarno announced that the reading of the proclamation text would be held in the front yard of his residence, Jalan Pengangsaan Timur no.56, at 10.00 WIB. This location is now immortalized as the Proklamasi Park.
In several versions of history it is stated that at the time of the formulation of the text for the proclamation, Maeda was at home. He rested upstairs. He asked his aide, Shigetada Nishijima, to guard the incident. As well as ordering the head of the household to prepare food and drinks for the figures downstairs.
Although he was not directly involved in the formulation of the proclamation text, Admiral Maeda had to bear the consequences of his actions in inviting national figures to formulate the text for the proclamation at his residence. When the British arrived in September 1945, Maeda and his staff, Shigetada Nishijima, were arrested and put in the Glodok prison and the Salemba prison.
In a book entitled, Bung Karno’s Special Story, Nishijima tells his story in prison with Maeda.
He was forced to admit by the Dutch that he labeled the Republic of Indonesia a Japanese creation. Because on the date of the text of the proclamation written ’05 based on the Japanese year, it is 2905 not ’45.
Nishijima admitted that he had been tortured to the point of urinating blood. But he still didn’t confess.
After being repatriated to Japan, Maeda resigned from the Japanese navy. He chose to be an ordinary citizen, without retirement benefits.
On 17 August 1977, Maeda was invited by the Indonesian government to receive the honor mark of the Nararya Merit Star.
“Everything is like a turn in history. This house is like a stop that has been passed in our history. So before other stops we pass, this is one of the stops where our independence is formulated,” concluded Bonnie, a historian and editor in chief of the Historia magazine. quoted from BBC News Indonesia. (ojn/bbs))
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