Daily Life

The images traditionally associated with war are of fierce battles, bombardments and troops marching. While the Indonesian war of independence was very much that kind of a war, after a while people resumed their daily lives and focused on the future, albeit an uncertain one. That applied to both Indonesian and Dutch soldiers and civilians. They went to work or school, held parties, fell in love and got married. They did their shopping in the pasar (markets) and prayed in the mosque, temple or church. Christmas, Saint Nicholas and Ramadan continued to be celebrated.

Even so, the war was never far away. The need to maintain morale was a constant throughout the war. However, as this selection makes clear, the approach

taken differed. People varied too in their views on the future of Indonesia. While the Netherlands tried to maintain some kind of colonial or postcolonial relationship any way it could, a new era started for Indonesia that was geared to independence.

The focus in this theme is on everyday life during the war. The selection shows what this meant in practice for freedom fighters, schoolchildren, government officials, nurses and soldiers, and how they experienced the war when away from the fighting. These sources show that war and life are two sides of the same coin, certainly in 1945–1949.