Masubuchi-kikan — the M-organisatie, or Japanese military-administration organisation for Atjèh under Major (later Lieutenant-General) Masubuchi — was the formal successor to the Fujiwara-kikan that, from the establishment of Japanese authority in March 1942 until the Japanese capitulation of 15 August 1945, served as the institutional core of the occupation’s political apparatus in the residency. Named for its head in the standard Japanese practice of naming administrative kikan (機関, “agency” or “organisation”) after their commanders, the Masubuchi-kikan was both an instrument of the gunseibu (military administration) and a personal apparatus through which Masubuchi — “bapak Atjèh” to his followers — played, in Piekaar’s words, “the game of Acehnese politics in a truly masterful manner.”
Origins in the F-organisatie
The Masubuchi-kikan’s genealogy runs directly through the Fujiwara-kikan. Piekaar notes that “in the Japanese Masubuchi, whom we shall get to know better in the second part of this work, this organization found for Aceh an extremely capable leader” — Masubuchi had been the organiser of the F-movement before the invasion, and after 12 March 1942 he transformed the fifth-column network into the apparatus of occupation. As chief of police and hishokan (private secretary) to Resident lino, head of the Resident’s Information Service (Atjèh-senden-han), and from 16 January 1943 head of the department of general affairs, Masubuchi accumulated the offices through which the kikan could coordinate propaganda, intelligence, and political surveillance.
The structure of the occupation
Under Masubuchi’s direction, the F-organisatie’s fifth-column network was regularised into the administrative apparatus of the occupation. The governing commissions established by Said Aboe Bakar and the other F-propagandists were dissolved and replaced by a monarchical Indonesian administration under the gun-chó / son-chó system, with Masubuchi retaining personal control of the information service, the Atjèh Shimbun editorship (until he relinquished it to S. Sagawa in early 1943), and the police. “Of middle age, already for years before the war — e.g. as a planter on Sumatra’s East Coast — in the Netherlands Indies, Masubuchi was in the Resident’s staff the specialist in Indonesian affairs. He possessed an intuitive knowledge of the psyche of the Indonesian in general and of the Atjèhinese in particular.” His principal institutional creations — the Maibkatra of 10 March 1943, the people’s army of 22 November 1943, the Atjèh Council of 17 November 1943 — were the apparatus through which the kikan governed.
Asia Timoer Raja and Indonesia Merdéka
The propaganda shift from the Asia Timoer Raja idea (September 1942 – September 1944) to the Indonesia Merdéka idea (September 1944 – August 1945) was conducted under Masubuchi’s continued direction. “With great foresight, he knew how to keep the various groups in Acehnese society in balance, which, as the cards became increasingly unfavorable for Japan, meant by no means a simple task.” The kikan’s grip extended through the kempeitai — which arrested and executed Teukoe Moehamad Hasan in 1944 — and through the systematic absorption of the Poesa oelama’s into the Maibkatra and the Atjèh Council. “How great his popularity, particularly among his followers from the former F-organization, with whom he constantly maintained the bond through meetings and commemorative meals, may be evident from the telling honorary title ‘bapak Atjèh.’”
Reactivation in 1945
On 3 July 1945, with the Allies approaching, “Masubuchi, on 3 July 1945 released from the leadership of the economic affairs department, took upon himself the task of creating a new 5th column organization, which shortly — in the event of an Allied invasion — would have to carry out its destructive work behind the Allied lines. Said Aboe Bakar, Teukoe Panglima Pólém Moehamad Ali, Teungkoe Moehamad Daoed Beureu-éh and Teukoe Moehamad Amin took a leading part in the new organization, named by its founder ‘Masubuchi-kikan.’ The old F-organization would resume its task as M-organization.” After the capitulation, Masubuchi was ordered arrested by the Allied commander in Medan on 21 October 1945, but, Piekaar records, “by committing ‘hara-kiri’ he managed to escape trial as a war criminal.”
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 and Chapter VII §§ 1, 3–4. 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 Chapters V–VII.
Masubuchi was the Japanese officer — initially a major, later promoted to lieutenant-general — who, as head of the Masubuchi-kikan (the Japanese military administration organisation for Atjèh), was the principal architect of the Japanese occupation of the residency from March 1942 until the reorganisation of the occupation apparatus in the later years of the war. Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan treats Masubuchi as “an extremely capable leader” of the Japanese political apparatus in Atjèh, whose combination of military authority, political intelligence, and personal capability gave the occupation its initial character.
See Also
- Masubuchi
- Fujiwara
- Fujiwara-kikan
- Maibkatra
- PETA
- Atjèh Council
- lino
- Atjèh Shimbun
- Said Aboe Bakar
- Teukoe Panglima Pólém Moehamad Ali
- 1942
- 1945
- F-organisatie
- Masubuchi-kikan
- Japanese invasion of Atjèh
- [M-organisatie]
- [Masubuchi-kikan]
- [F-organisatie]
- [Fujiwara-kikan]
- [Maibkatra]
- [Asia Timoer Raja]
- [Indonesia Merdéka]
- [Said Aboe Bakar]
- [Atjèh Shimbun]
- [1942]
- [1943]
- [1944]
- [1945]
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 Chapters V–VII, Chapter XI.
Masubuchi-kikan — the M-organisatie, or Japanese military-administration organisation for Atjèh under Major (later Lieutenant-General) Masubuchi — was the formal successor to the Fujiwara-kikan that, from the establishment of Japanese authority in March 1942 until the Japanese capitulation of 15 August 1945, served as the institutional core of the occupation’s political apparatus in the residency. Named for its head in the standard Japanese practice of naming administrative kikan (機関, “agency” or “organisation”) after their commanders, the Masubuchi-kikan was both an instrument of the gunseibu (military administration) and a personal apparatus through which Masubuchi — “bapak Atjèh” to his followers — played, in Piekaar’s words, “the game of Acehnese politics in a truly masterful manner.”
Origins in the F-organisatie
The Masubuchi-kikan’s genealogy runs directly through the Fujiwara-kikan. Piekaar notes that “in the Japanese Masubuchi, whom we shall get to know better in the second part of this work, this organization found for Aceh an extremely capable leader” — Masubuchi had been the organiser of the F-movement before the invasion, and after 12 March 1942 he transformed the fifth-column network into the apparatus of occupation. As chief of police and hishokan (private secretary) to Resident lino, head of the Resident’s Information Service (Atjèh-senden-han), and from 16 January 1943 head of the department of general affairs, Masubuchi accumulated the offices through which the kikan could coordinate propaganda, intelligence, and political surveillance.
The structure of the occupation
Under Masubuchi’s direction, the F-organisatie’s fifth-column network was regularised into the administrative apparatus of the occupation. The governing commissions established by Said Aboe Bakar and the other F-propagandists were dissolved and replaced by a monarchical Indonesian administration under the gun-chó / son-chó system, with Masubuchi retaining personal control of the information service, the Atjèh Shimbun editorship (until he relinquished it to S. Sagawa in early 1943), and the police. “Of middle age, already for years before the war — e.g. as a planter on Sumatra’s East Coast — in the Netherlands Indies, Masubuchi was in the Resident’s staff the specialist in Indonesian affairs. He possessed an intuitive knowledge of the psyche of the Indonesian in general and of the Atjèhinese in particular.” His principal institutional creations — the Maibkatra of 10 March 1943, the people’s army of 22 November 1943, the Atjèh Council of 17 November 1943 — were the apparatus through which the kikan governed.
Asia Timoer Raja and Indonesia Merdéka
The propaganda shift from the Asia Timoer Raja idea (September 1942 – September 1944) to the Indonesia Merdéka idea (September 1944 – August 1945) was conducted under Masubuchi’s continued direction. “With great foresight, he knew how to keep the various groups in Acehnese society in balance, which, as the cards became increasingly unfavorable for Japan, meant by no means a simple task.” The kikan’s grip extended through the kempeitai — which arrested and executed Teukoe Moehamad Hasan in 1944 — and through the systematic absorption of the Poesa oelama’s into the Maibkatra and the Atjèh Council. “How great his popularity, particularly among his followers from the former F-organization, with whom he constantly maintained the bond through meetings and commemorative meals, may be evident from the telling honorary title ‘bapak Atjèh.’”
Reactivation in 1945
On 3 July 1945, with the Allies approaching, “Masubuchi, on 3 July 1945 released from the leadership of the economic affairs department, took upon himself the task of creating a new 5th column organization, which shortly — in the event of an Allied invasion — would have to carry out its destructive work behind the Allied lines. Said Aboe Bakar, Teukoe Panglima Pólém Moehamad Ali, Teungkoe Moehamad Daoed Beureu-éh and Teukoe Moehamad Amin took a leading part in the new organization, named by its founder ‘Masubuchi-kikan.’ The old F-organization would resume its task as M-organization.” After the capitulation, Masubuchi was ordered arrested by the Allied commander in Medan on 21 October 1945, but, Piekaar records, “by committing ‘hara-kiri’ he managed to escape trial as a war criminal.”
See Also
- Masubuchi
- Fujiwara
- Fujiwara-kikan
- Maibkatra
- PETA
- Atjèh Council
- lino
- Atjèh Shimbun
- Said Aboe Bakar
- Teukoe Panglima Pólém Moehamad Ali
- 1942
- 1945
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 Chapters V–VII, Chapter XI.