Memoar Oei Hiem Hwie: Dari Pulau Buru Sampai Medayu Agung, by Oei Hiem Hwie

Abstract

[...]when the Japanese ordered cessation of jewelries in order to finance their government, Hwie’s father hid his mother’s jewelry in a wall in order to avoid ‘strengthening fascist power in Indonesia and China’. Hwie provides detailed descriptions of his experiences in each of these detention camps: the people he met, the food, the activities, conversations, visits from his mother, survival attempts on Buru, and his friendship with the famous author Pramoedya Ananta Toer on that island. The last part of his memoir recorded his struggle as an ex-political prisoner, starting from his work as a salesman, then as a private secretary of a well-known businessman, and later his success in establishing a public library called Medayu Agung in Surabaya. [...]Hwie’s memoir provides detailed stories of violence in 1965–1966, especially on killings and detentions.