SUPRIYADI

SUPRIYADI

(Supriyadi is an Indonesian national hero who rose a revolt on 1945 against
the occupying of Japanese in Indonesia)

Supriyadi was born in what is now Trenggalek, Dutch East Indies, on 13
April 1923. He attended junior high school, then a school to prepare him
for government bureaucracy in Magelang. However, the Japanese invaded
Indonesia before he graduated. He then switched to high school and
underwent youth training (Seimendoyo) in Tangerang, West Java. In October
1943, the Japanese established a militia, PETA(Indonesian: Pembela Tanah
Air, lit. 'Defenders of the Homeland') to assist Japanese forces against
the Allies. Supriyadi joined PETA, and after training was posted to Blitar.
He was tasked with overseeing the work of the Romusha forced laborers. The
plight of these workers inspired him to rebel against the Japanese. When
Supriyadi join with PETA, he was given the rank of shodancho or platoon
commander.

Indonesia's huge population was not the only resources that the imperial
Japan coveted. Indonesia was a country with the largest territory and
richest natural resources, valuable for imperial Japan which was in the
middle of fierce struggle of World War II. Japan's policy in Indonesia,
therefore, were very economic-oriented as well. Japan used Java as its
operation base for the entire South East Asia, thus Java was one of the
most oppressed places in Indonesia during the occupation. The Javanese
farmers were forced to plant rice and sell it only to the Japanese
organization at a very low price. In consequence, the farmers had nothing
much to eat no matter how great the harvest was. They also could not buy
some foods in the market because of shortage of supply, since all farmers
had to sell their rice to the Japanese organization only, and lack of
money, for the farmers received very small amount of money in exchange for
their harvest. At the end of 1944, more than 2.4 million Javanese died
because of starvation. Nobody was an exception in the Japanese cruelty.
Almost every man and woman in their productive age were recruited to join
rōmusha(the Japanese word for Indonesian forced labourers). Many of them
died helpless due to continuous working, illness without any proper food or
medication. Looking at the miserable condition of their people, the PETA
battalion personnel started to lose hope for an independent Indonesia with
a bright future. They felt that neither the Dutch nor the Japanese had any
right to keep Indonesian people suffering. In summary, the three main
reasons of Supriyadi to revolt were "the plight of civilians and rōmusha,
Japanese arrogance, and the need for real independence."

Supriyadi, who was less than 22 years old at the time, started to gather
some trusted members, and held secret meetings to plan the action starting
in September 1944, which continued until the sixth meeting in 13 February
1945. In their last meeting, the rebels decided to attack the city divided
into four groups. When nationalist leader Sukarno visited his parents in
Blitar, PETA officers told him that they had begun to plan a rebellion and
asked for Sukarno's opinion. He told them to consider the consequences, but
Supriyadi, leader of the rebels, was convinced the uprising would succeed.
In their last meeting, the rebels decided to attack the city divided into
four groups. At the following day, the rebels attacked two buildings that
usually were used by the Japanese military forces, aiming to kill every
single Japanese they would meet. However, the attack was completely
predicted by the Japanese military forces, thus all the buildings were
abandoned before the attack began. After their attack failed, each group of
the rebels quickly left the city to find other groups of the rebels, and
range again against Japan. However, there were two main problems faced by
the rebels to carry out their plans. First, Japan used other Indonesian
personnel under the Japanese command to threaten the rebels. This was quite
successful. The rebels did not want to kill other Indonesian PETA soldiers
who were forced by the Japanese army to confront their revolt. Second, the
Japanese military forces succeeded in isolating the Blitar battalion
completely. The separation of the military command structure of PETA worked
effectively, thus not many groups of Indonesian militaries even in the same
region, would hear about the news in Blitar. All rebels were scattered, and
many of them were persuaded to go back to Blitar, or chose to surrender to
the Japanese. A few of the groups successfully killed some of the Japanese,
but all of them were shot back and killed. Finally, fifty-five captured
rebels were being sent to the military court after several sessions of
interrogation, and six among them were sentenced to death, while Supriyadi,
who disappeared without a trace now live in. Although the revolt was by no
means successful, it left some significant influence to both Japan and
Indonesia. 1945 PETA revolt in Blitar was an important event that
indicating the changes of Indonesia's feeling toward Japan. In general, the
revolt was the most serious attack on Japanese military forces during its
occupation in Indonesia which opened the new revolutionary period for
Indonesia and played a vital role in Indonesian independence by
transmitting "the revolutionary energy".

On 19 August 1945, in a government decree issued by the newly-independent
Indonesia, Supriyadi was named Minister for Public Security in the
Presidential Cabinet. However, he failed to appear, and was replaced on 20
October by acting minister Muhammad Soeljoadikusuma. To this day his fate
remains unknown. If he was alive during his appointment, he would have been
aged 22 and became the youngest ever minister in the nation's history.

Supriyadi was officially declared a National Hero on 9 August 1975, thus
legally declaring him dead as it is a posthumous title.

All narration copied by:
en.wikipedia/supriyadi
en.wikipedia/1945_PETA_Revolt_in_Blitar

Picture:
en.wikipedia/supriyadi

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