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Authors: Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Tags: Romance, Historical
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shadow puppet plays when a god calls out from the heavenly ether above.
The reality, however, was that the colonial newspapers and magazines were savagely and angrily opposed to the new legal reality. They did not want the position of the Japanese equal to that of the Europeans.
And Jean Marais said that those accustomed to enjoying the suffering of the Asian peoples will, of course, never be ready to lose even a small part of the respect that they consider their right, as well as a gift to them from God.
Then there were others who wrote rudely—in auction and advertising papers naturally. Japan, they said, the biggest exporter of prostitutes and cooks in the world, with its new status will be able to ruin the world with its pleasures and its delicious food, bankrupting good families, bringing the disaster of moral collapse, creating chaos in Indies European society. The cities will fill up with red-light areas, with slant-eyed, kimono-wearing misses whose behavior will offend the hearts of civilized European ladies. Will granting equal status to the Japanese mean the acceptance of prostitution? Before it is too late and things have gone too far, would it not be better for this Indies State Decision No. 202 to be reconsidered?
Just imagine, growled my old landlord Telinga, what would become of the world if Europeans had to accept equality with colored peoples, peoples who can in no way be properly considered equals? All sit on the same level? Perhaps it could happen. Stand at the same level? No! All this while our heads have been bowed in obedience to the knives and scissors of Japanese barbers, our stomachs have been caressed by their restaurants, and perhaps even our fertility and potency have been thieved by their prostitutes…as if there aren’t enough half-breed Indos in the Indies already!
A fellow graduate angrily gave his ideas on the whole matter. He was well known as a regular patron of the
Japanese Gardens.
“If things keep on like this, one day that slant-eyed dwarf, with legs shortened by too much sitting cross-legged, will be found everywhere—sitting in our offices where we ourselves should be sitting. How shameful! Would we have to bow first? Sadly, I feelthis will happen. But I will refuse to look at even a Chinese officer! Even if they have hundreds of sacks of money!”
Another friend, the son of a former consul to Japan, had something different again to say. It was, perhaps, a rather imperfect repetition of something his father or mother once said: “Japan? But they have been of great service to us, the Dutch. In the battles and wars to conquer the Indies, didn’t a great many die for the
Dutch East Indies Company, the VOC
? When we had to defend Batavia from the attacks of Mataram?… Even so, it doesn’t seem quite right.”
And Maarten Nijman wrote: “Indeed the concern, unease, and disagreement with this decision to give equal status to Japanese has succeeded in casting a shadow over the hearts of all you colonial gentlemen. There are grounds for your fear, but there is also something strange about it. The great Roman Empire never entertained such feelings, not even towards those peoples it had defeated and then colonized. And in this matter, the Netherlands never defeated and colonized the Japanese. Relations between Japan and the Netherlands have always been without blemish since the beginning of the seventeenth century. Yes, there was a fight in 1863–1864, but that was only with one particular lord of the central government of the Dai Nippon Empire. And in the end that gave birth to the Shimoneski Convention of 1864, which improved Dutch-Japanese relations even further. So it is indeed strange that you colonial gentlemen feel so worried and unhappy over this!
“You gentlemen have defeated the peoples of the Indies, so you have the right to expect their respect. You have the right to demand anything whatsoever from them: a right that the law of history, where victory in war
The reality, however, was that the colonial newspapers and magazines were savagely and angrily opposed to the new legal reality. They did not want the position of the Japanese equal to that of the Europeans.
And Jean Marais said that those accustomed to enjoying the suffering of the Asian peoples will, of course, never be ready to lose even a small part of the respect that they consider their right, as well as a gift to them from God.
Then there were others who wrote rudely—in auction and advertising papers naturally. Japan, they said, the biggest exporter of prostitutes and cooks in the world, with its new status will be able to ruin the world with its pleasures and its delicious food, bankrupting good families, bringing the disaster of moral collapse, creating chaos in Indies European society. The cities will fill up with red-light areas, with slant-eyed, kimono-wearing misses whose behavior will offend the hearts of civilized European ladies. Will granting equal status to the Japanese mean the acceptance of prostitution? Before it is too late and things have gone too far, would it not be better for this Indies State Decision No. 202 to be reconsidered?
Just imagine, growled my old landlord Telinga, what would become of the world if Europeans had to accept equality with colored peoples, peoples who can in no way be properly considered equals? All sit on the same level? Perhaps it could happen. Stand at the same level? No! All this while our heads have been bowed in obedience to the knives and scissors of Japanese barbers, our stomachs have been caressed by their restaurants, and perhaps even our fertility and potency have been thieved by their prostitutes…as if there aren’t enough half-breed Indos in the Indies already!
A fellow graduate angrily gave his ideas on the whole matter. He was well known as a regular patron of the
Japanese Gardens.
“If things keep on like this, one day that slant-eyed dwarf, with legs shortened by too much sitting cross-legged, will be found everywhere—sitting in our offices where we ourselves should be sitting. How shameful! Would we have to bow first? Sadly, I feelthis will happen. But I will refuse to look at even a Chinese officer! Even if they have hundreds of sacks of money!”
Another friend, the son of a former consul to Japan, had something different again to say. It was, perhaps, a rather imperfect repetition of something his father or mother once said: “Japan? But they have been of great service to us, the Dutch. In the battles and wars to conquer the Indies, didn’t a great many die for the
Dutch East Indies Company, the VOC
? When we had to defend Batavia from the attacks of Mataram?… Even so, it doesn’t seem quite right.”
And Maarten Nijman wrote: “Indeed the concern, unease, and disagreement with this decision to give equal status to Japanese has succeeded in casting a shadow over the hearts of all you colonial gentlemen. There are grounds for your fear, but there is also something strange about it. The great Roman Empire never entertained such feelings, not even towards those peoples it had defeated and then colonized. And in this matter, the Netherlands never defeated and colonized the Japanese. Relations between Japan and the Netherlands have always been without blemish since the beginning of the seventeenth century. Yes, there was a fight in 1863–1864, but that was only with one particular lord of the central government of the Dai Nippon Empire. And in the end that gave birth to the Shimoneski Convention of 1864, which improved Dutch-Japanese relations even further. So it is indeed strange that you colonial gentlemen feel so worried and unhappy over this!
“You gentlemen have defeated the peoples of the Indies, so you have the right to expect their respect. You have the right to demand anything whatsoever from them: a right that the law of history, where victory in war
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