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5: Bastille
<< 4: Death || 6: Paralysis >>
We had a cell which bordered a street and a big square, and we could hear care
passing-by and the shouts of salesmen, but above all we could smell the delicious Satl'h
(kebabs) being grilled over charcoals. On Java a lot of food is cooked and sold along the
streets, at markets and on squares. The food was sold in banana leaf folded to make the
shape of a bowl.
One day loudspeakers were put on the square and we could hear that a large crowd was
assembling. We heard it announce that Sukarno was coming to speak to them. Sukarno was an
Indonesian whom the Japanese used to lead the mixed population of Java. The crowd was
getting more and more agitated, care were hooting, cyclists were ringing their belle and
suddenly a voice was thundering over the-microphone: Sukarno had arrived. Then we listened
to the speech Sukarno delivered in Malayan. He was trying to stimulate hatred towards
"all whites." The words I remember most clearly were; "The time of the
whites is over? Now our time has arrived! We must wipe out the whites, whether they are
Dutch, English, American etc. does not matter. If they belong to the white race of any
nation, we should finish with them. We do not need rifles to do this or any arms. We can
use simple methods like cutting off their heads. They'll soon bleed to death that way. Or
one can put bamboo-hairs in their food ... etc." Sukarno went on and on describing
many different ways to eliminate "the whites." Of course, the crowd got
agitated, till they began to hammer with their fiats on the walls of the prison, knowing
that it was full of "whites." We all thought of the Bastille and we were
petrified. How was I going to die, I wondered, having my hands cut off, my face slashed or
a knife in my throat? The excitement outside our prison grew and grow like an approaching
storm. We had the feeling that the walls of Bantjeuj were going to crumble down from all
the fists hammering on them, and that we would be lynched by the crowd. Suddenly we heard
a new sound; tanks were arriving. Japanese voices were telling the crown, "to
disperse" and we realized the amazing fact that this time we had in fact been saved
by the Japanese who were afraid of a massacre and the opinion of the world
"outside", e.g. in America. Imagine the headline news in foreign papers;
"Dutch massacred in prison by mob. Japanese incapable of controlling the
tragedy". We heard care driving away, voices fading in the distance and at long last
silence, the stillness after a storm. We all laid down to sleep exhausted from the fearful
nightmare we had lived through.
<< 4: Death || 6: Paralysis >>
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