Asia Timoer Raja (Japanese Daitóa, “Greater East Asia”) was the principal propaganda idea of the Japanese occupation of Atjèh during the period September 1942 – September 1944, through which the Masubuchi-kikan of Masubuchi sought to inspire the Atjèhnese population with “enthusiasm for the realization of the Pan-Asian idea of a ‘Greater East Asia’ … under the leadership of Japan, in whose common sphere of prosperity (lingkoengan kemakmoeran bersama-sama) the peoples of Indonesia would also be admitted.” Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan treats Asia Timoer Raja as the first of the two great propaganda phases of the occupation — the period in which the Japanese still expected an early final victory, and the entire effort of the administration was subordinated to the realisation of that victory.
The propaganda apparatus
Under Masubuchi’s direction, the information service (senden-han) conducted “an intensive campaign … to inspire the population with enthusiasm” for the Greater East Asia idea. Newspaper, film, theatre, and radio were the principal means. The Atjèh Shimbun, first issued on 3 June 1942, “with its pernicious anti-Western content,” was the chief print organ, and a touring theatre of the senden-han staged anti-Dutch plays — including a version of the Tjoet Nja’ Diën story — to drive the idea home. “Continuously, propagandists of the senden-han traveled through the country, for the dissemination of the Asia Timoer Raja- and the anti-Western ideas.” The propaganda was, however, “accompanied by fierce and sophisticated anti-Western propaganda, according to the well-known system of totalitarian powers.”
Religious institutionalisation
The most lasting institutional expression of the Asia Timoer Raja idea in Atjèh was the Maibkatra — the Madjelis agama Islam oentoek bantoean kemakmoeran Asia Timoer Raja di Atjèh (“Islamic Council for the Welfare of Greater East Asia in Atjèh”) — installed by Resident lino on 10 March 1943. Its task, in lino’s installation speech, was “providing support — to the extent that it does not conflict with the Islamic religion — in the promotion of the welfare of Greater East Asia.” The labour-mobilisation decrees of 8 April 1944 similarly created the Atjèh-shii-kéa-hókó-dan — “Perkoempoelan pekerdja² oentoek oemoem didalam Atjèh-shii dalam hal membina Asia Timoer Raja” — for the equitable distribution of forced labour.
The shift to Indonesia Merdéka
By the second half of 1943 the propaganda was already beginning to slide: the Maibkatra article on “the love of and defense of the fatherland” in the Atjèh Shimbun of 16 October 1943 placed “the love for the Acehnese fatherland, the ‘land of the reuntjóng’” above the duties toward the Greater East Asia Association. After Prime Minister Koiso’s declaration of 7 September 1944 promising future East Indies independence, “the Indonesia Merdéka-idea in propaganda took the place of the Asia Timoer Raja-idea.” Piekaar notes that “however little the Asia Timoer Raja-idea may have taken root … the anti-Dutch propaganda, on the other hand, found fertile soil in the hearts of the Atjèhnese population, which was so receptive to hatred of the Dutch.”
See Also
Source
Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Glossary and Chapter VII §§ 1–3.