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War Crimes in Japan-Occupied Indonesia: A Case of Murder by Medicine
Shortly after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the Dutch East Indies, now known as Indonesia. A deceitful campaign promoting Asian brotherhood recruited and coerced young Indonesian men to support the Japanese occupation with the sinister outcome that several million of them were worked to death or summarily killed as expendable slave laborers, or romusha , as they were called.
While many romusha disappeared from the record, nine hundred were known victims of a brutal and immoral medical experiment perpetuated by an increasingly desperate Imperial Japan. In anticipation of a land assault, the Japanese needed a means to protect their troops from tetanus, and they used these nine hundred men as human guinea pigs to test an insufficiently vetted vaccine. Within days, all nine hundred suffered the protracted, agonizing death of acute tetanus.
With the Allied forces poised for victory, the Japanese needed a scapegoat for this well-documented incident if they were to avoid war-crimes prosecution. They brutally tortured Achmad Mochtar, a native Indonesian and renowned scientist, along with his colleagues at the Eijkman Institute in Batavia (now Jakarta), until Mochtar signed a confession to the murders in exchange for the liberty of his fellow scientists. The Japanese beheaded Mochtar weeks before the war ended. War Crimes in Japan-Occupied Indonesia unravels the deceit of the Japanese Army, the reasons for the mass murder of the romusha, and Mochtar’s heroic role in these tragic events. The end result finds justice for Mochtar and reveals the true extent of one of the least recognized war crimes of World War II.
While many romusha disappeared from the record, nine hundred were known victims of a brutal and immoral medical experiment perpetuated by an increasingly desperate Imperial Japan. In anticipation of a land assault, the Japanese needed a means to protect their troops from tetanus, and they used these nine hundred men as human guinea pigs to test an insufficiently vetted vaccine. Within days, all nine hundred suffered the protracted, agonizing death of acute tetanus.
With the Allied forces poised for victory, the Japanese needed a scapegoat for this well-documented incident if they were to avoid war-crimes prosecution. They brutally tortured Achmad Mochtar, a native Indonesian and renowned scientist, along with his colleagues at the Eijkman Institute in Batavia (now Jakarta), until Mochtar signed a confession to the murders in exchange for the liberty of his fellow scientists. The Japanese beheaded Mochtar weeks before the war ended. War Crimes in Japan-Occupied Indonesia unravels the deceit of the Japanese Army, the reasons for the mass murder of the romusha, and Mochtar’s heroic role in these tragic events. The end result finds justice for Mochtar and reveals the true extent of one of the least recognized war crimes of World War II.
- GenresSocietyHistoryNonfiction
328 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 5, 2026
Buku ini adalah pengingat akan segala dilema yg kita hadapi sbg manusia—akan kemampuan kita utk mengubah hidup org lain, menjadi baik atau buruk. 📙
Prof. Dr. Achmad Mochtar— Direktur Lembaga Eijkman menjadi sosok kambing hitam utk eksperimen gagal yg mengancam reputasi penguasa baru Indonesia, Jepang. Klişe nya, bila org2 berseragam Angkatan Darat Jepang gagal mencari kambing hitam, maka mereka akan menghadapi pengadilan perang. ⚖️
Kita juga di perkenalkan dg “Unit 731” Jepang; yaitu jaringan luas riset biologis militer, termasuk kegiatan utk kemajuan ilmu kedokteran (obat, vaksin, ilmu kedokteran pencegahan, dan higiene) serta pengembangan senjata biologis. Unit ini bekerja dibawah komando Ishii diseluruh wilayah penduduk Jepang, yaitu Tiongkok, Taiwan, Filipina, Singapura dan Indonesia yg dilakukan secara biadap dan sadis. Tentu para pemain Unit 731 dijamin kekebalan hukum oleh Pemerintah AS setelah data eksperimen tersebut di beli dg uang yg cukup besar. I mean WTF!!!🤬
Fakta bahwa rómusha—kuli/buruh kasar ternyata didukung oleh sosok Sukarno dg alasan bahwa kemenangan Jepang adalah kemenangan Indonesia juga—dengan menukul mundur dan mengalahkan penjajah kulit putih. Tentu keputusan ini dlm konteks sempit dpt dilihat sbg oportunitis dan tdk berperasaan, perhitungan yg secara umum merupakan “karakteristis dari politik berisiko tinggi”.
Dibuku ini juga sangat diterangkan bahwasannya Jepang memperoleh tenaga kerja berlimpah guna mendukung tujuan militernya plus membutuhkan manusia sbg kelinci percobaan, dan Sukarno mendapatkan dukungan Jepang dalam posisinya sbg pemimpin, disamping simpanan janji Kaisar utk memberikan kemerdekaan. 😮💨 Cukup disayangkan ketika beliau bersikeras menegaskan sosok Mochtar dan seluruh staf Lembaga Eijkman bersalah dlm pembunuhan rōmusha di Klender. Sedangkan Pak Mochtar adalah ekspresi tertinggi dari sikap tdk mementingkan diri sendiri sbg respons atas keegoisan paling ekstrem. 🧬🔬🥼
Prof. Dr. Achmad Mochtar— Direktur Lembaga Eijkman menjadi sosok kambing hitam utk eksperimen gagal yg mengancam reputasi penguasa baru Indonesia, Jepang. Klişe nya, bila org2 berseragam Angkatan Darat Jepang gagal mencari kambing hitam, maka mereka akan menghadapi pengadilan perang. ⚖️
Kita juga di perkenalkan dg “Unit 731” Jepang; yaitu jaringan luas riset biologis militer, termasuk kegiatan utk kemajuan ilmu kedokteran (obat, vaksin, ilmu kedokteran pencegahan, dan higiene) serta pengembangan senjata biologis. Unit ini bekerja dibawah komando Ishii diseluruh wilayah penduduk Jepang, yaitu Tiongkok, Taiwan, Filipina, Singapura dan Indonesia yg dilakukan secara biadap dan sadis. Tentu para pemain Unit 731 dijamin kekebalan hukum oleh Pemerintah AS setelah data eksperimen tersebut di beli dg uang yg cukup besar. I mean WTF!!!🤬
Fakta bahwa rómusha—kuli/buruh kasar ternyata didukung oleh sosok Sukarno dg alasan bahwa kemenangan Jepang adalah kemenangan Indonesia juga—dengan menukul mundur dan mengalahkan penjajah kulit putih. Tentu keputusan ini dlm konteks sempit dpt dilihat sbg oportunitis dan tdk berperasaan, perhitungan yg secara umum merupakan “karakteristis dari politik berisiko tinggi”.
Dibuku ini juga sangat diterangkan bahwasannya Jepang memperoleh tenaga kerja berlimpah guna mendukung tujuan militernya plus membutuhkan manusia sbg kelinci percobaan, dan Sukarno mendapatkan dukungan Jepang dalam posisinya sbg pemimpin, disamping simpanan janji Kaisar utk memberikan kemerdekaan. 😮💨 Cukup disayangkan ketika beliau bersikeras menegaskan sosok Mochtar dan seluruh staf Lembaga Eijkman bersalah dlm pembunuhan rōmusha di Klender. Sedangkan Pak Mochtar adalah ekspresi tertinggi dari sikap tdk mementingkan diri sendiri sbg respons atas keegoisan paling ekstrem. 🧬🔬🥼
October 20, 2015
A book with the wrong title
If you want to know about the war crimes in Indonesia do not waste your time and money on this book. It does devote many pages to a group of prisoners who were killed by bad tetanus serum, but the author cannot determine if this was an accidental or deliberate act.
Also mentioned is the well-known fact that numbers of Indonesians were transported throughout the Pacific to work on building projects resulting it their death.
The remainder of the book is filler material ranging from the fall of Singapore to lists of scientists who worked in a laboratory on Java. There is a long history about the lab from its inception. The author continuously reminds you throughout the book that one scientist was beheaded by the Japanese.
At almost $19 this book is way overpriced. The only reader I can imagine it would interest would be a chemistry professor. It is dry as a college textbook.
I have gotten many excellent war books from Amazon but this was a definite rip off.
If you want to know about the war crimes in Indonesia do not waste your time and money on this book. It does devote many pages to a group of prisoners who were killed by bad tetanus serum, but the author cannot determine if this was an accidental or deliberate act.
Also mentioned is the well-known fact that numbers of Indonesians were transported throughout the Pacific to work on building projects resulting it their death.
The remainder of the book is filler material ranging from the fall of Singapore to lists of scientists who worked in a laboratory on Java. There is a long history about the lab from its inception. The author continuously reminds you throughout the book that one scientist was beheaded by the Japanese.
At almost $19 this book is way overpriced. The only reader I can imagine it would interest would be a chemistry professor. It is dry as a college textbook.
I have gotten many excellent war books from Amazon but this was a definite rip off.
January 1, 2021
** Books 132 - 2020 **
4 dari 5 bintang!
Isinya menarik namun banyak pengulangan di bab-bab akhirnya sehingga terkesan membosankan namun isi buku ini membuka mata saya tentang kejadian suram di Indonesia jaman penjajahan jepang
Terimakasih Komunitas Bambu!
4 dari 5 bintang!
Isinya menarik namun banyak pengulangan di bab-bab akhirnya sehingga terkesan membosankan namun isi buku ini membuka mata saya tentang kejadian suram di Indonesia jaman penjajahan jepang
Terimakasih Komunitas Bambu!
June 19, 2024
The best researcher of the 20th century had to die at the hands of a frantic Japan on the verge of defeat in the war. Sukarno, who should have been able to save Mochtar from execution-either stupid or a liar-followed the Japanese narrative.
January 22, 2025
Familiar ngga dengan nama Achmad Mochtar? kalau ngga, berarti kita sama. Aku baru tau setelah baca buku ini. Beliau adalah salah satu pendiri Lembaga Eijkman sekaligus dokter ternama lulusan STOVIA (cikal bakal FKUI). Kematiannya tragis, dipengg4l kepala dan (konon) mayatnya digilas dengan mesin giling oleh tentara jepang di Ancol.
KENAPA? karena beliau dijadikan tumbal cuci tangan atas kematian 900 romusha di Klender akibat vaksin tetanus tahun 1944. Sejarah yang tidak pernah diajarkan di sekolah. Holocaust yang senyap dan lenyap. Banyak dokter yang meninggal dengan penyiksaan super sadis hanya karena mereka intelek.
Buku ini PADAT. Infonya seperti ditumplek jadi satu. Banyaknya repetisi dan tidak runut bikin bingung bacanya, tapi tetap aku baca sampai akhir~
KENAPA? karena beliau dijadikan tumbal cuci tangan atas kematian 900 romusha di Klender akibat vaksin tetanus tahun 1944. Sejarah yang tidak pernah diajarkan di sekolah. Holocaust yang senyap dan lenyap. Banyak dokter yang meninggal dengan penyiksaan super sadis hanya karena mereka intelek.
Buku ini PADAT. Infonya seperti ditumplek jadi satu. Banyaknya repetisi dan tidak runut bikin bingung bacanya, tapi tetap aku baca sampai akhir~
August 1, 2021
This is really an eye opening.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews