Trauma and the Last Dutch War in Indonesia, 1945–1949

Abstract

Throughout the 1940s, The Netherlands were at war, and thrice humiliated and defeated. In 1940, Nazi Germany crushed the Dutch army and started a five-years’ occupation. In 1942, Japan took control of the Dutch East Indies. And in spite of years of brutal warfare alongside protracted negotiations after the Japanese capitulation and the declaration of independence in 1945, the Dutch had to accept the independence of Indonesia in 1949. None of this had been seriously anticipated in the 1930s, and neither was the first round of postcolonial migrations to the Netherlands that accompanied “the loss of the Indies.” All of this caused serious trauma, both at the collective and the individual level, both during these years and decades after. This contribution discusses and questions postcolonial trauma narratives among “repatriates,” Dutch veterans and in Dutch politics and society at large, as well as evidence of a transgenerational transfer of trauma.