JAPANESE STILL IN CONTROL

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 306, 25 September 1945, Page 7

JAPANESE STILL IN CONTROL

Unreal Atmosphere In Java

IRKSOME POLITENESS (Official War Correspondent R.N.Z.N.) BATAVIA, September 23.

The atmosphere in Batavia today is exactly what one imagines Alice must have found when she stepped through the looking glass. The life of the city, and indeed of the whole rich island of Java, seems to go in reverse. Java is still under Japanese military administration and all Allied official visitors are treated by the present lords of the country with a correctness that is so persistent, so meticulous, that it rapidly becomes most irritating. Acting on the theory that they still coutrol Java, the Japanese undertake with great seriousness the task of protecting the visitors from the population. At the airport, arrivals are met by Japanese officers, who arrange transport into town. The car is driven by a native and alongside the native is a member of the Kempei military police, fully armed. It is forbidden to move in a car without a Kempei getting into the car. It is quite a process. The Kempei bustles about, opening doors, hissing, bowing and saluting. The salutes must be punctiliously returned , and the Japanese have a passion for saluting. The presence of the Kempei is meant to be reassuring, but is in fact the reverse, as the only sufferers in the sporadic violence which has occurred in the last week has been the'Japanese themselves. Numbers have been lynched by Indonesians. A British uniform, particularly an Australian, is a passport to any part of the town, and, though it does not evoke any enthusiasm, is a guarantee against unpleasantness. All visitors are accommodated at palatial Hotel Des hides, before the war the most luxurious hotel of the east. At the hotel, the visitor is the guest of the Emperor of Japan, against whose account are debited all chits signed for food, accommodation, laundry and interminable drinks of iced coffee. Guests at meals, which incidentally are on quite a lavish scale, include British, Americans and Dutch of all ranks and all services, many citizens of BataVia of all races, former internees, and, most surprising, Japanese in a variety of uniforms. The Japanese display a toothy geniality and work so hard at the role of hosts that they are quite likely to join one’s table for a meal. Hints earlier that the food and service at the hotel were not quite up to standard electrified this new kind of Japanese and the hotel now displays much of its pre-war pretentiousness. Its accommodation is being used to billet British troops, for the Kempei headquarters and for convalescent women internees. Batavians still drop in in the evenings to gossip and drink iced coffee. One guest who found a room difficult to get was a bedraggled figure in patched clothing and bare feet, who brought his luggage wrapped in a bandana. He was most diffident in his approach to the hotel authorities, but said he thought he had some right as he was the last surviving owner of the hotel. Transport Problem.

As everywhere else, the Japanese have left in Batavia an acute transport problem. They handed over some cars, but mostly in a sad state of repair, and in numbers too small to be much help. But Japanese officers drive about in most expensive makes of Continental, English and American cars.

The Japanese all over the island are busy interning themselves. To relieve their life behind the wire, they are collecting furniture, fittings and ornaments from the wealthier Javanese homes. To supervise the military administration, Japanese officers fly about ill Japanese aircraft all over the Indies still in their hands.

While the Japanese and the guests are living in the comforts of the Hotel des Indes, tens of thousands of prisoners of war ami internees are living on rice and hard tack in camps guarded by Japanese soldiers. The prisoners are allowed out only by permission of the Japanese commanders, but the Japanese are showing the prisoners every consideration as far as their resources allow.

The Indonesian population appears quite tinenthiisinstie about the Allied liberation, ns far as it has gone, but. is obviously glad at the prospect of getting rid of the Japanese. Their main preoccupation at present seems to be with the national movement which, since the beginning of the century has been .demanding independence. The Nationalists received encouragement from the Japanese ami were even given their independence with much flourish but remained unimpressed. Their leaders claim that they have the support of 70.000,000 Indonesians.

No visitor can escape the impression that the present calm is unreal. After the formal surrender some time next month and after the Allied occupation has ended, Java seems likely to resume lite with surprising vigour.