Framing the opponent negatively is a key aspect of any war. The opponent is demonized in order to legitimize the struggle and motivate the ranks. By ‘framing’ we mean the way something or someone is presented. This can refer to the rhetoric or the visual imagery and the associations it evokes. This image is the focus of this theme: how was ‘the Other’ presented and what message was being conveyed?

On the Dutch side, every effort was made to paint the Republic of Indonesia as a continuation of Japanese fascism. This served to undermine its legitimacy. Indonesian combatants were generally dismissed as ‘extremists’ or ‘terrorists’, which indirectly helped to justify a merciless response. The Republic of Indonesia in turn framed the struggle in terms of the international right to selfdetermination. Its propaganda was aimed in part at calling on the international community to support the Republic in its fight for independence and thus take a stand against the Dutch colonial reflex. To lend force to this message, the visual imagery demonized the Dutch, who were portrayed as cruel, rapacious imperialists.

2.1 Under the Red and White Flag

For a long time, the Republic of Indonesia was framed in the Netherlands as a creation of Japanese fascism. It was claimed that the Republic did not enjoy support among the Indonesian people and that independence had been proclaimed by a small group of fanatics who were collaborating with the Japanese. That is why Sukarno was described as the ‘Indonesian Mussert’, after the man who founded a Nazi party in the Netherlands in the 1930s.

The East Indies Emergency foundation (Stichting ‘Indië in Nood’) was fiercely opposed to Indonesian independence. The continued use of the name ‘Indië’ (East Indies) rather than ‘Indonesia’ in the foundation's name also says a lot. The foundation deployed propaganda to call for the restoration of Dutch authority as soon as possible. The Japanese dragon and Indonesian fighter, united under the Indonesian flag, attack an Indonesian woman with her baby, illustrating the explosion of violence – symbolized by the volcano – that would overwhelm Indonesia unless the Netherlands took action. As the text at the top says, “Terror and poverty under the Red and White flag”. Only under the Dutch flag would there be order and prosperity (“Orde en Welvaart”), as portrayed by the peaceful scene with hardworking people in the paddy field.