Can Money Buy Historical Memory?
Indonesia is revising terms in its national history textbooks, changing the label for Japanese rule during World War II from "military occupation" to "colonization." This shift has sparked debate and is seen as an effort to re-examine Japan's image, which has long been shaped through economic and diplomatic ties, including massive amounts of official development assistance (ODA).
Amid the controversy, Japan's Defense Minister gifted a miniature of the battleship Mikasa to President Prabowo. That symbol of Imperial Japan's military drew flak from netizens questioning the historical sensitivity. Historians see Japan's narrative of historical reconciliation in Asia as inseparable from diplomacy and development aid.
Older generations in Indonesia still remember the Japanese occupation, like the romusha forced labor that claimed so many lives, plus the widespread famine from food mobilization policies and wartime conditions. That suffering has turned into family memories passed down across generations, and no amount of investment or infrastructure projects decades later can erase it.
This terminology revision drives home the point that Indonesia's independence was born from a fight against historical injustice. Economic cooperation with Japan remains important, but taking investments doesn't mean handing over historical memory. There are parts of history that future generations just have to keep remembering.
https://www.gelora.co/2026/09/