5.6 The Bombing of Malang (interview)
Description
Whereas the Indonesian military were generally poorly armed during the war of independence, the Dutch army deployed tanks, ships and planes. This so-called ‘technical violence’ could cause considerable damage to the enemy. However, while these weapons had serious firepower, they were not very accurate. As a result, it was not uncommon for bombardments and artillery fire to lead to numerous civilian casualties. Unsurprisingly, this form of warfare sowed fear among civilians. Mrs S.M., a Chinese-Indonesian woman, was only four when she experienced the Dutch bombing of the city of Malang, where she lived with her family. She talks about this childhood memory, which illustrates the impact of the Dutch bombardments during the war.
Anonymized interview with Mrs S.M. CIHC Oral History Collection 21-1, 2013.
Refugees making their way to the British lines during the Battle of Surabaya. East Java, 1945. Photographer unknown. KITLV 44717.
Transcription
SM: “The street had to be evacuated. They had warned us that a Dutch plane would be bombing the street.”
I: “Why would they do that?”
SM: “I don’t know. Then I had to poo. Everyone was waiting for me outside the door. My mother told me all this later. My mother helped me. Then I’d just finished so my mother and I ran to the front door where everyone was already in the street waiting. Then the whole building was bombed to the ground, right behind me.”
I: “So the bomb fell on your house?”
SM: “Yes, I got such a fright. I clung to my mother’s legs, but she was heavily pregnant with my brother. I can remember in fragments that there were a lot of people lying in the street with their stomachs ripped open, blood, a broken leg and intestines. That was a bombardment like you see in films. A bomb doesn’t have eyes. They don’t just bomb the buildings; they were bombing the people too. So they could claim that Indonesia still belongs to the Netherlands. We walked to the borrowed house and then the next day my brother was born. In Jalan Dempo. We could borrow that house because the people who lived there had already fled.”
Anonymized interview with Mrs S.M. CIHC Oral History Collection 21-1, 2013.
Refugees making their way to the British lines during the Battle of Surabaya. East Java, 1945. Photographer unknown. KITLV 44717.
Transcription
SM: “The street had to be evacuated. They had warned us that a Dutch plane would be bombing the street.”
I: “Why would they do that?”
SM: “I don’t know. Then I had to poo. Everyone was waiting for me outside the door. My mother told me all this later. My mother helped me. Then I’d just finished so my mother and I ran to the front door where everyone was already in the street waiting. Then the whole building was bombed to the ground, right behind me.”
I: “So the bomb fell on your house?”
SM: “Yes, I got such a fright. I clung to my mother’s legs, but she was heavily pregnant with my brother. I can remember in fragments that there were a lot of people lying in the street with their stomachs ripped open, blood, a broken leg and intestines. That was a bombardment like you see in films. A bomb doesn’t have eyes. They don’t just bomb the buildings; they were bombing the people too. So they could claim that Indonesia still belongs to the Netherlands. We walked to the borrowed house and then the next day my brother was born. In Jalan Dempo. We could borrow that house because the people who lived there had already fled.”