Dr. A. J. Piekaar was a Dutch colonial administrator who served in Atjèh before and during the Second World War, and the author of Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (“Atjèh and the War with Japan”), first published in Dutch in 1949 by N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve in ‘s-Gravenhage and Bandung, and later translated into English. The work — a detailed historical account of the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Aceh region of northern Sumatra during the Second World War — was compiled from Piekaar’s own service in Aceh, from reports drawn up at the request of Resident J. Pauw during the first year of internment, from the archive of the administrative office in Sabang and issues of the Atjèh Shimbun, and from material collected by Piekaar and his colleagues during internment and after.
Author and administrator
Piekaar’s position as both a serving colonial administrator and a historian of the events he describes gave the work its distinctive character: a participant-observer’s account, written “mainly from memory and under the fresh impression of my service period in Aceh,” and presented to the reader with the explicit acknowledgment that “this book cannot be complete and that on many points it will require supplementation and possibly also revision.” The book’s Foreword, dated Batavia, November 1949, expresses Piekaar’s hope that “it can still contribute to a better understanding of the tremendous reversal in social relations, which the period of Japanese occupation in Indonesia has brought about,” while noting that the transformation in Atjèh had its own “exceptional” character.
Sources and method
The first part of Piekaar’s study — dealing with the events during and immediately preceding the Japanese invasion — is based mainly on the reports of the events in the various administrative districts, compiled by the administrative officials then active in Aceh at the request of Resident Pauw. The second part — dealing with the occupation years — is based on data found in the archive of the administrative office in Sabang and in the Atjèh Shimbun, the newspaper published in Koetaradja during the Japanese occupation, written in the Malay language. Piekaar also drew on the preliminary report on Aceh during the occupation period, begun by the later Resident of Riouw Dr. J. J. C. H. van Waardenburg and himself during their stay in Sabang shortly after the Japanese capitulation.
Helpers and collaborators
Piekaar’s acknowledgments single out Mr. H. T. Damsté — who “constantly supported me with advice and assistance and was kind enough to read through the manuscript and provide it with notes” — and Mr. O. K. L. Peiger, whose “special insight into Acehnese relations and conditions is evident in this work.” The transcription of the Japanese words used in the second part was prepared by Dr. F. Vos, lecturer in Japanese and Korean at the State University of Leiden. The cartographic material was prepared under the direction of Mr. F. J. Ormerling by the Geographical Institute of the Topographical Service in Batavia.
The Hikajat Pedjoet Moehamat epigraph
Piekaar’s Foreword famously opens the work with a quotation from Teungkoe Lam Roekam’s heroic poem the Hikajat Pedjoet Moehamat, in which the poet characterises the conditions of mid-eighteenth-century Atjèh with the words “Nana di geub, na di geutanjë, sabel nanggrë, doea radja” — “what is with us, not with others, two rulers on one territory.” Piekaar applies the verse to the period of his own study, characterised as “a struggle for power between the ‘oelèëbalangs’, the bearers of the secular authority of the ‘adat’ and the ‘ulamas’, the bearers of the spiritual authority of the ‘hoekóm’ (religious law).”
See Also
- [Atjèh and the War with Japan (1949)]
- [Pauw]
- [H. T. Damsté]
- [J. J. C. H. van Waardenburg]
- [Atjèh Shimbun]
- [Sabang]
- [Koetaradja]
- [1949]
- [Oelèëbalang]
- [Oelama]
- [Adat]
- [Hoekóm]
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), Foreword and Translator’s Note.
Dr. A. J. Piekaar was a Dutch colonial administrator who served in Atjèh before and during the Second World War, and the author of Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (“Atjèh and the War with Japan”), first published in Dutch in 1949 by N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve in ‘s-Gravenhage and Bandung, and later translated into English. The work — a detailed historical account of the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Aceh region of northern Sumatra during the Second World War — was compiled from Piekaar’s own service in Aceh, from reports drawn up at the request of Resident J. Pauw during the first year of internment, from the archive of the administrative office in Sabang and issues of the Atjèh Shimbun, and from material collected by Piekaar and his colleagues during internment and after.
Author and administrator
Piekaar’s position as both a serving colonial administrator and a historian of the events he describes gave the work its distinctive character: a participant-observer’s account, written “mainly from memory and under the fresh impression of my service period in Aceh,” and presented to the reader with the explicit acknowledgment that “this book cannot be complete and that on many points it will require supplementation and possibly also revision.” The book’s Foreword, dated Batavia, November 1949, expresses Piekaar’s hope that “it can still contribute to a better understanding of the tremendous reversal in social relations, which the period of Japanese occupation in Indonesia has brought about,” while noting that the transformation in Atjèh had its own “exceptional” character.
Sources and method
The first part of Piekaar’s study — dealing with the events during and immediately preceding the Japanese invasion — is based mainly on the reports of the events in the various administrative districts, compiled by the administrative officials then active in Aceh at the request of Resident Pauw. The second part — dealing with the occupation years — is based on data found in the archive of the administrative office in Sabang and in the Atjèh Shimbun, the newspaper published in Koetaradja during the Japanese occupation, written in the Malay language. Piekaar also drew on the preliminary report on Aceh during the occupation period, begun by the later Resident of Riouw Dr. J. J. C. H. van Waardenburg and himself during their stay in Sabang shortly after the Japanese capitulation.
Helpers and collaborators
Piekaar’s acknowledgments single out Mr. H. T. Damsté — who “constantly supported me with advice and assistance and was kind enough to read through the manuscript and provide it with notes” — and Mr. O. K. L. Peiger, whose “special insight into Acehnese relations and conditions is evident in this work.” The transcription of the Japanese words used in the second part was prepared by Dr. F. Vos, lecturer in Japanese and Korean at the State University of Leiden. The cartographic material was prepared under the direction of Mr. F. J. Ormerling by the Geographical Institute of the Topographical Service in Batavia.
The Hikajat Pedjoet Moehamat epigraph
Piekaar’s Foreword famously opens the work with a quotation from Teungkoe Lam Roekam’s heroic poem the Hikajat Pedjoet Moehamat, in which the poet characterises the conditions of mid-eighteenth-century Atjèh with the words “Nana di geub, na di geutanjë, sabel nanggrë, doea radja” — “what is with us, not with others, two rulers on one territory.” Piekaar applies the verse to the period of his own study, characterised as “a struggle for power between the ‘oelèëbalangs’, the bearers of the secular authority of the ‘adat’ and the ‘ulamas’, the bearers of the spiritual authority of the ‘hoekóm’ (religious law).”
See Also
- [Atjèh and the War with Japan (1949)]
- [Pauw]
- [H. T. Damsté]
- [J. J. C. H. van Waardenburg]
- [Atjèh Shimbun]
- [Sabang]
- [Koetaradja]
- [1949]
- [Oelèëbalang]
- [Oelama]
- [Adat]
- [Hoekóm]
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), Foreword and Translator’s Note.