Fujiwara-kikan — literally “the Fujiwara organisation,” deriving its name from its founder Major Fujiwara — was the Japanese intelligence organisation, also known as the F-organisatie or F-movement, that supported anti-Dutch elements in Atjèh in the months before the Japanese invasion of Atjèh and that, in Piekaar’s analysis, gave the insurgent movement of 1942 “its dangerous character” by uniting the Poesa, the sultan’s party, and dissident oelèëbalang elements in a single fifth-column apparatus activated on the day of the landings. The kikan was formed from Indonesians living in Malaya after the fall of Penang on 19 December 1941, and was succeeded — but never entirely replaced — by the Masubuchi-kikan after the establishment of the Japanese military administration.
Foundation on the ruins of Penang
“We already noted (p. 77),” Piekaar writes, “that this movement, the Fujiwara-kikan (lit. the Fujiwara organization), derived its name from its founder and that it was formed by the Japanese during their advance in Malacca from the Indonesians residing there. Already after the fall of Penang on 19 December 1941, the construction of this organization could be begun. For on Penang, the lively trade relations, which had been maintained with the Overwal since time immemorial, were concentrated.” The free port of Penang — the same entrepôt whose commercial dominance the Dutch had long tried to challenge through the development of Sabang — gave the Japanese the commercial and personal networks through which the F-organisatie’s Atjèhnese agents could be recruited and supplied.
Methods and instructions
The F-organisatie’s agents were to follow a precise set of instructions brought from Malacca. “First of all, the population had to be turned against the Dutch, with the old historical opposition and the scorched earth policy as propaganda weapons. Furthermore, the Indonesian soldiers had to be induced by bribery, threats and similar means to refrain from resistance, while in the same manner the demolition squads had to be influenced. Finally, resistance had to be broken by sabotage and the dissemination of false rumors. The Japanese for their part promised that Aceh would not be bombed.” The agents themselves — the F-propagandists — were typically “descendants of the Prophet,” the sajét’s, whose “high esteem … in Acehnese society undoubtedly made them exceptionally suitable as propagandists for a religiously tinted movement.”
The 1942 activation
The F-organisatie “has, in cooperation with other organizations, mainly carried out its work in Great Aceh and on the North Coast. On Sabang, on the West Coast and in the East Coast department it, with the possible exception of the visit of a single propagandist, only made its entrance with the Japanese troops, who provided an F-band to everyone who was helpful to them.” Its principal agents — Said Aboe Bakar, Said Doellah, Said Ali, Nja’ Nèh, Isma’el Mangki, Isma’el Potéh, Atjé’, Alioeddin, Said Dachlan and Said Oesman — entered with the first Japanese troops at Meulabóh and thereupon “assembled the governing commissions” that displaced the loyal Dutch oelèëbalang’s. The intercepted letters found on Said Doellah — addressed to “the same group of persons” who would form the membership of the new commissions — revealed the extent of the pre-invasion network. The lists of F-people later published in the Atjèh Shimbun of 15–25 December 1943 “contain not only the names of the actual F-people, but more generally the names of all who in any way had supported the Japanese troops in their advance.”
The transition to M-organisatie
When, after the invasion, the Masubuchi-kikan emerged as the formal military-administration successor, the F-organisatie did not disappear: Masubuchi “constantly maintained the bond” with its members “through meetings and commemorative meals,” and enjoyed among them the honorary title “bapak Atjèh.” On 3 July 1945, with the Allies approaching, Masubuchi formally “took upon himself the task of creating a new 5th column organization … named by its founder ‘Masubuchi-kikan’.” “The old F-organization,” Piekaar records, “would resume its task as M-organization” — the F-organisatie’s pre-invasion apparatus becoming the institutional foundation of the planned anti-Allied insurgency behind the invasion beaches.
Sources
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, Chapter III § 1, Chapter VI.
See Also
- Fujiwara
- Masubuchi
- Masubuchi-kikan
- F-organisatie
- Said Aboe Bakar
- Said Doellah
- fall of Penang
- Penang
- Atjèh Shimbun
- 19 December 1941
- 1942
- M-organisatie
- Fujiwara-kikan
- Poesa
- Fall of Penang
- Japanese invasion of Atjèh
- 1941
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 VI, Chapter VII §§ 1–4.
Fujiwara-kikan — literally “the Fujiwara organisation,” deriving its name from its founder Major Fujiwara — was the Japanese intelligence organisation, also known as the F-organisatie or F-movement, that supported anti-Dutch elements in Atjèh in the months before the Japanese invasion of Atjèh and that, in Piekaar’s analysis, gave the insurgent movement of 1942 “its dangerous character” by uniting the Poesa, the sultan’s party, and dissident oelèëbalang elements in a single fifth-column apparatus activated on the day of the landings. The kikan was formed from Indonesians living in Malaya after the fall of Penang on 19 December 1941, and was succeeded — but never entirely replaced — by the Masubuchi-kikan after the establishment of the Japanese military administration.
Foundation on the ruins of Penang
“We already noted (p. 77),” Piekaar writes, “that this movement, the Fujiwara-kikan (lit. the Fujiwara organization), derived its name from its founder and that it was formed by the Japanese during their advance in Malacca from the Indonesians residing there. Already after the fall of Penang on 19 December 1941, the construction of this organization could be begun. For on Penang, the lively trade relations, which had been maintained with the Overwal since time immemorial, were concentrated.” The free port of Penang — the same entrepôt whose commercial dominance the Dutch had long tried to challenge through the development of Sabang — gave the Japanese the commercial and personal networks through which the F-organisatie’s Atjèhnese agents could be recruited and supplied.
Methods and instructions
The F-organisatie’s agents were to follow a precise set of instructions brought from Malacca. “First of all, the population had to be turned against the Dutch, with the old historical opposition and the scorched earth policy as propaganda weapons. Furthermore, the Indonesian soldiers had to be induced by bribery, threats and similar means to refrain from resistance, while in the same manner the demolition squads had to be influenced. Finally, resistance had to be broken by sabotage and the dissemination of false rumors. The Japanese for their part promised that Aceh would not be bombed.” The agents themselves — the F-propagandists — were typically “descendants of the Prophet,” the sajét’s, whose “high esteem … in Acehnese society undoubtedly made them exceptionally suitable as propagandists for a religiously tinted movement.”
The 1942 activation
The F-organisatie “has, in cooperation with other organizations, mainly carried out its work in Great Aceh and on the North Coast. On Sabang, on the West Coast and in the East Coast department it, with the possible exception of the visit of a single propagandist, only made its entrance with the Japanese troops, who provided an F-band to everyone who was helpful to them.” Its principal agents — Said Aboe Bakar, Said Doellah, Said Ali, Nja’ Nèh, Isma’el Mangki, Isma’el Potéh, Atjé’, Alioeddin, Said Dachlan and Said Oesman — entered with the first Japanese troops at Meulabóh and thereupon “assembled the governing commissions” that displaced the loyal Dutch oelèëbalang’s. The intercepted letters found on Said Doellah — addressed to “the same group of persons” who would form the membership of the new commissions — revealed the extent of the pre-invasion network. The lists of F-people later published in the Atjèh Shimbun of 15–25 December 1943 “contain not only the names of the actual F-people, but more generally the names of all who in any way had supported the Japanese troops in their advance.”
The transition to M-organisatie
When, after the invasion, the Masubuchi-kikan emerged as the formal military-administration successor, the F-organisatie did not disappear: Masubuchi “constantly maintained the bond” with its members “through meetings and commemorative meals,” and enjoyed among them the honorary title “bapak Atjèh.” On 3 July 1945, with the Allies approaching, Masubuchi formally “took upon himself the task of creating a new 5th column organization … named by its founder ‘Masubuchi-kikan’.” “The old F-organization,” Piekaar records, “would resume its task as M-organization” — the F-organisatie’s pre-invasion apparatus becoming the institutional foundation of the planned anti-Allied insurgency behind the invasion beaches.
See Also
- Fujiwara
- Masubuchi
- Masubuchi-kikan
- F-organisatie
- Said Aboe Bakar
- Said Doellah
- fall of Penang
- Penang
- Atjèh Shimbun
- 19 December 1941
- 1942
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 VI, Chapter VII §§ 1–4.