The Bulu prison massacre was an incident that took place in Bulu prison,

Semarang Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. ...

Central Java Central Java ( id, Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in t ...

, occurring late in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in which over one hundred Japanese

POW A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...

s were killed by

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n forces.

Background

In 1942, the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies, occupying it for the next three and a half years. In September 1944, with the war going badly, the Japanese promised independence, but the following the

bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...

, the Japanese surrendered. Under the terms of the surrender, the Japanese forces still in the archipelago were responsible for maintaining order prior to the arrival of allied forces under British Admiral Earl

Louis Mountbatten Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) was a British naval officer, colonial administrator and close relative of the British royal family. Mountbatten, who was of German ...

, the

Supreme Allied Commander Supreme Allied Commander is the title held by the most senior commander within certain multinational military alliances. It originated as a term used by the Allies during World War I, and is currently used only within NATO for Supreme Allied Comm ...

, South East Asia Command. Two days after the surrender, on 17 August 1945, Indonesian nationalist leader

Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of ...

proclaimed independence for Indonesia. The Allies learned of this three weeks later from the commander of the Japanese forces, and because there were still at least 70,000 Allied prisoners of war in Indonesia, RAPWI (Recovery of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees) was sent on a mission by the Allies to "try to contact the responsible Japanese authorities, alleviate conditions in the prison camps and arrange the evacuation of the prisoners and internees." However, Indonesian nationalists, known as ''pemuda'' (youths), demanded the Japanese hand over all arms and ammunition. RAPWI "strongly objected to such actions and demanded that the Japanese continue to protect the llied POWcamps". However, many officers, including Major General Nakamura Junji, ignored RAPWI's request and turned over their weapons. However, not all Japanese officers, such as Major Kido Shinichirou, agreed to surrender their weapons. Instead, on 15 October, he ordered his men to take control of the city of

Massacre

In response to Kido's military actions, Indonesian nationalists locked around 80 Japanese Army workers in a small cell in Bulu Jail without food or water. A day later, those still alive were shot dead, along with another 130 Japanese detained at the same prison, whose bodies were mutilated. Some dying prisoners wrote final messages on the cell walls in their own blood. When the Japanese forces reached and took control of the prison and discovered the massacre, they were infuriated and began to kill Indonesians in revenge. They were joined in this by Japanese civilians, who were given weapons seized from the Indonesians. All together, the Japanese killed over two thousand Indonesians as revenge for the Bulu Prison Massacre, while a further 500 Indonesians also died. The killing stopped when British Gurkha troops arrived on 19 October and after an initial misunderstanding and exchange of fire, the Japanese agreed to cooperate with them.

Notes

References

* * * {{coord missing, Indonesia Massacres in 1945 Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies Military history of Japan during World War II Massacres in Indonesia 1945 in Japan History of Central Java 1945 in Indonesia 1945 murders in Indonesia Semarang World War II prisoner of war massacres