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.

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

Set Benedict Anderson against M.C. Ricklefs. For Anderson the proclamation is a revolution from below: without the pemuda's Rengasdengklok coup the cautious Sukarno would have waited for a Japanese-sanctioned date, and the Republic owes its independent birth to the youth.