Resonance of Violence : Bersiap and the Dynamics of Violence in the First Phase of the Indonesian Revolution, 1945-1946

Onno Sinke

ISBN 10: 9463720898 / ISBN 13: 9789463720892

Published by Taylor & Francis, 2025

About this Item

nach der Bestellung gedruckt Neuware - Printed after ordering - Examines the extreme violence that erupted across Indonesia following the August 17, 1945 declaration of independence, when the battle cry Bersiap! (stand by) marked the start of the Indonesian national revolution and a period of violence.

Seller Inventory # 9789463720892

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Resonance of Violence : Bersiap and the Dynamics of Violence in the First Phase of the Indonesian Revolution, 1945-1946
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9463720898
• ISBN 13: 9789463720892
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 234W x 156H x 16D millimeters 234 millimeters width by 156 millimeters height by 16 millimeters depth
• Weight: 465 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In early 2022, the issue of whether or not to remove the word ‘bersiap’ from an exhibition at Rijksmuseum Amsterdam prompted parliamentary questions, the initiation of legal proceedings against the museum, and an unusually fierce public debate about a word that had hitherto only been known to the Dutch Indies community. This book provides background and depth to this debate. In the first months following the declaration of independence, the battle-cry of ‘bersiap!’ resounded in countless cities and villages in Indonesia. The call to make ready for the young nation’s struggle for freedom marked the start of the Indonesian Revolution, ushering in a period of extreme violence. Resonance of Violence outlines the dynamics of the extreme violence, in which Indonesian combat groups took up arms against Indo-Europeans, Moluccans, Dutch and Chinese, as well as Japanese civilians and disarmed Japanese and British (Indian) soldiers. The book also emphatically situates this terrifying period within the broader context of intra-Indonesian violence and the violence used by the Japanese, British and Dutch side against Indonesian non-combatants. It covers not only Java and Sumatra, but also the islands beyond, as well as the difficult task of establishing casualty numbers and the ‘rediscovery’ of the bersiap period in the 1980s.

About the Author

Esther Captain is a historian and works as a senior researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (kitlv) in Leiden. She is endowed professor of Intergenerational Impact of Colonialism and Slavery at Utrecht University. She is currently involved in a research programme on the role of the House of Orange-Nassau in Dutch colonial history.

Onno Sinke is a historian and works as a researcher for the Netherlands Institute for Military History in The Hague. During the research for this book he was seconded to the kitlv/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies in Leiden.