Gendered strategies and the Japanese interlude in Indonesia (1942-1945)

The Japanese occupation of Indonesia (1942-1945) considerably corroded the existing social order and challenged gender, race and class divisions. This paper investigates the personal connections between Dutch and Japanese nationals at the time. Guided by national perspectives, these personal connections have often been presented in the well-known dichotomies of ‘victim’ versus ‘culprit’ or ‘collaborator’ versus ‘patriot’. This has hampered the understanding of the complicated life on the ground in which people adapted to the constantly changing circumstances and acted as the situation of the moment required. In this paper I present the relationship between a Dutch-Belgian woman Marie-Therèse Brandenburg van Oltsende and a Japanese man Minoru Sakata. Minoru worked for the Japanese Propaganda Office on Java; Marie-Therèse was one of the few white women who were not interned by the Japanese military. In analyzing their wartime and postwar connections and reconstructing their larger social network I aim to unpack some of the straightforward stories behind Japanese-Dutch relations under the Japanese occupation of colonial Indonesia. Their relationship makes it clear how alliances between Japanese and Dutch came into being and how both partners made use of the union. Marie-Therèse skillfully used gendered strategies to navigate the Japanese interlude. I argue that Dutch women can not only be seen as victims, but that they deliberately planned and executed their wartime actions to suit their own objectives. At the same time the material shows that the connections were mutually beneficial, not only on a personal level but also in a broader context.