Quick questions on Indonesian Proclamation of Independence 17 August 1945: HSC Modern History National Study

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima (6 August) and Nagasaki (9 August), combined with the Soviet declaration of war on 8 August, broke Japanese resistance. Emperor Hirohito accepted the Potsdam terms on 14 August 1945; the formal surrender would be signed on 2 September.

The pemuda ("young men") were the radical generation produced by the occupation, schooled in Japanese mass politics and PETA training. The underground centres around Sukarni, Wikana, Chairul Saleh and Adam Malik demanded an immediate proclamation, disconnected from any Japanese sponsorship.

Before dawn on 16 August 1945, pemuda activists led by Sukarni and Singgih kidnapped Sukarno (with Fatmawati and the eight-month-old Guntur Sukarnoputra) and Hatta and drove them to Rengasdengklok, a PETA garrison town in Karawang regency, around 80 kilometres east of Jakarta. The pemuda intended to keep them away from Japanese influence and pressure them to proclaim.

That night, 16 to 17 August 1945, Sukarno, Hatta and Soebardjo gathered at the residence of Rear Admiral Tadashi Maeda at Jalan Imam Bonjol 1 in Menteng, Jakarta. Maeda, a sympathetic Japanese navy liaison officer, provided diplomatic cover; Japanese army authorities would not enter a navy residence.

At 10:00 a.m. on 17 August 1945 at Sukarno's house at 56 Jalan Pegangsaan Timur, Jakarta, Sukarno read the proclamation before a small crowd of around 500 supporters. Hatta stood beside him. Fatmawati's hand-sewn merah-putih (red and white) flag was raised by Latif Hendraningrat and Suhud as the crowd sang "Indonesia Raya."

PPKI met on 18 August 1945 and adopted three foundational acts in a single day.

Benedict Anderson (Java in a Time of Revolution, 1972) treats Rengasdengklok as the moment the pemuda generation pushed the older nationalists into immediate action. The Republic was as much the pemuda's as Sukarno's.

It was a one-day kidnapping; the proclamation was always going to happen. Rengasdengklok mattered because it dated the proclamation to 17 August rather than late August.

The proclamation is signed by both Sukarno and Hatta. The Republic's "founding fathers" are a pair, and Hatta's amendment to remove the Jakarta Charter's seven words was the most consequential editorial intervention of 18 August.

UUD 1945 was adopted on 18 August 1945, not on the day of the proclamation.

The Dutch did not accept it. The Indonesian National Revolution of 1945 to 1949 was about making 17 August 1945 a fact rather than a claim.