Indonesian Islam Under the Japanese Occupation, 1942-45

Wo T HEN DUTCH RULE in the Indies ended in March i942, it would have been difficult to foretell that after a brief span of only forty months Indonesian nationalism would triumph in the proclamation of an Indonesian Republic. It would perhaps have been almost equally difficult to anticipate that two of the new Republic's most important political parties would be basing themselves on Islam. Both these developments are, to a large extent at least, ultimately bound up with Japanese rule in the Indonesian archipelago between March I942 and August i945. While a fair amount of attention in recent years has been paid to the history of the Indonesian nationalist movement both before and during the Japanese occupation,' the Islamic aspect of these developments so far appears to have been comparatively neglected.2 Yet the present strategic and indeed unique position which the major Islamic party, the Masjumi, occupies in Indonesian political life, makes imperative a study of Islamic developments under Japanese rule in Indonesia. The penetration of Islam in the Indonesian islands, in particular in Sumatra and Java, commenced long before the Dutch East India Company arrived on the scene.3 By the i8th century the majority of Indonesians in those two islands had been converted to the Muslim faith, although the victory of the