Independent Photographer
In 1942-1944, the people of West Kalimantan experienced a human tragedy during the Japanese occupation. Thousands of people were brutally executed. This dark history is fading into memory. The children of the victims are now elderly or dead. The younger generation no longer knows exactly.
The arrests of citizens that led to executions by the Japanese army are thought to have occurred in October 1943, until Japan finally announced it in the Borneo Sinbun newspaper on July 1, 1944.
The number of victims of executions by Japanese soldiers is still confusing. Tsuneo Izeki, a Japanese citizen who was a translator when the Japanese interrogated some of the victims, wrote his story in the book “Nishi Buroneo Jumin Gyakusastsu Jiken: Kensho Pontianak Jiken (Verification of the Massacre of West Kalimantan Citizens: Pontianak Incident)” published in 1987. Izeki stated that the victims were 1,486 people. This number is far different from the official data from the West Kalimantan government that the number of victims was 21,037.
Data on the number of victims in the book “Tandjungpura Berjuang” published by Semdan XII / Tandjungpura in 1970, it is written that the total number of 1,000 people from 9 points of mass graves in Mandor. Sungai Durian contained 270 people, Ketapang contained 150 people, behind KMK, Pontianak contained 13 people, the big tangsi contained 6 people, behind the Pontianak Church contained 14 people. Then according to the news along Pasir Panjang beach, no less than 250 people were killed by the Japanese and thrown into the sea.
Until now, the narrative has developed that the victims came from intellectuals and aristocrats. On the contrary, Yusri Darmadi, a researcher at the West Kalimantan Cultural Value Preservation Center (BPNB), said that based on the data on victims issued by the West Kalimantan government, the victims were also many traders, laborers, and others. “It is suspected that the Japanese Navy soldiers at that time killed thousands of people in West Kalimantan, because they were inspired by the Holocaust carried out by the Nazis. They want to make Kalimantan a permanent colony. Controlling timber and mining in Kalimantan,” said Yusri, August 8, 2022.
publication in https://projectmultatuli.org/tragedi-mandor-berdarah-korban-kekejaman-jepang-yang-makin-pudar-dalam-ingatan/