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    The World War II in the Pacific ended after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The Empire of Japan surrendered to the allies aboard USS Missouri in 1945. It inspired the East Indies (Indonesian) nationalists to proclaim independence, which the Japanese had promised. Soon the leaders of the Indonesian nationalist movement insisted that Soekarno, a son of a school teacher, and Hatta, a Sumatran economist, proclaimed Indonesian independence on August 17th, 1945. They were also appointed as the president and the vice president of the new nation.

    After the Japanese fled from the East Indies, the Dutch came back to re-occupy the territory. The Dutch realized that the East Indies was very important to the Dutch economy. Armed with Japanese weapons, the nationalists declared war against the Dutch. However, with their modern weapons, the Dutch made significant headway in Sumatra and Java.

    The Dutch aggression came under much criticism from the United Nations. They proposed negotiations between the Dutch and the Indonesian nationalist movement and both sides agreed to negotiate. Eventually, a conference of 120 delegates was held in The Hague (Dutch: Den Haag) in 1949. The Indonesian nationalist delegates were led by Mohammad Hatta. After ten weeks of meeting, both sides reached an agreement, in which The Dutch recognised the sovereignty of the United States of Indonesia, with Queen Juliana as the titular head of the Indonesian-Dutch union.

(Adapted from: http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendishfindependence-indonesia with permission 6/11/2016)

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