The Malay Archipelago lies astride the equator, its islands forming a barrier between Pacific and Indian Oceans, while at the same time providing a series of stepping stones between Asia and Australia. Its insular character has offered easy access to foreign influences, but at the same time has favored cultural differentiation.

One of the most striking features of the human geography of Indonesia is the lack of demographic balance. The overcrowded islands of Java and Madura are surrounded by the sparsely inhabited Tanah Sabrang. According to the census of 1930, Java comprised 68.7 per cent of the population but only 6.9 per cent of the area, while Tanah Sabrang accounted for 93.1 per cent of the area but for only 31.3 per cent of the total population. Whereas the over-all average population density of Indonesia was 31.9 persons per square kilometer, that of Java was 316.1 and that of Tanah Sabrang 10.7.

The peoples of Indonesia differ widely in culture. All stages of social JL development are represented among them, from the nomad life of the Orang Laut, who wander in their praus upon the sea, and the Orang Kubu, who were, until recently, nomads of the forests in South Sumatra, up to the high forms of social and cultural attainment on the island of Bali, where the arts of the dance, of music, of sculpture, of temple architecture have reached a high peak and people live their lives in a harmoniously organized social order.

Every educational system, whether extant or planned, is an inseparable part of the social structure of the country in which it is, or it is to be, applied. Education is dependent much more than is generally realized upon prevalent political, economic and cultural trends and in turn, reflects these trends. This means that while it is possible to describe an educational system as an isolated cultural phase, it is not possible to understand it properly apart from the total social context. It must be seen and evaluated as a part of a whole.

There has been much speculation as to the degree to which the Indonesian revolt reflects Japanese war-time propaganda. There has been much less mention in this connection of the one and a quarter million Chinese residents in the Indies. Yet, ten years ago many Netherlands colonial officials regarded this community as a fecund source of discontent. They were not altogether inconsistent when they complained, on the one hand, of Chinese “imperialism” and, on the other, of Chinese communism. Evidence of the former they saw, more especially, in the activities of the Chinese Bureau for Overseas Affairs in Nanking. These activities were intended, of course, to strengthen the loyalty of nationals abroad and to give them that protection of the motherland which they had been lacking for centuries. But it was inevitable that they should reflect, and to some extent feed, the resentment over the discriminations experienced by these nationals in every part of the Nan Yang (South Seas). The pamphlets distributed in the 'thirties by the Bureau harped on the “unequal treatment” of Chinese abroad, on the cruelty of many of the immigration laws–including those of the Indies. They did not go in for theoretical discussions and did not advocate socialism. Neither did the textbooks used in many Chinese schools or the subsidized Chinese newspapers, though some of the Shanghai-trained teachers may have been communists.

Once more the interest of the world is focused upon Indonesia, and the recent uprisings there are of increasing concern to all who have known this country.

During the war our sympathy was with the Indonesians who were under the domination of Japan, and a sigh of relief was felt when the Japanese armies in southeastern Asia started to surrender. For this was a day of delivery! This was a day of freedom—and the echoes of the Atlantic Charter promising freedom to all peoples of the world were still resounding in our ears! The victorious Allies would be received with open arms and would be given a hearty welcome!

As in the world at large, so in the Netherlands Indies, labor law as such is a relatively modern development. Within the last score of years the legislative arm of the Indies government has attempted to satisfy the labor demands of an ever-expanding agricultural, commercial and industrial economy, protecting at the same time the conflicting interests of the diverse elements of the population. The result has been a growth from simple contract law to a complexity of provisions respecting labor relations that were only beginning to be fashioned into a unified whole at the time of the Japanese invasion. The future labor law will undoubtedly be built upon this foundation. Hence an exposition of the recent past should prove the best approach to postwar needs in the field of labor.

The possibility of expanding the sea-fisheries of Indonesia is a question of much greater importance to the future of the region than might be supposed from western experience, as will be shown by the following considerations:

The population of the East Indies is already very great in proportion to the amount of fertile land potentially available, and is increasing rapidly. The average diet on Java now contains a very low proportion of certain of the essential food-substances called amino-acids, which are most abundant in proteins of animal origin. It is possible that sub-critical deficiencies of these amino-acids, sufficient to reduce general vitality and well-being, are already widespread in the region. These amino-acids are the ones least abundant in the produce of crop-plants which yield the highest returns of energy-foods. Expanded production of these special protein-components from the Indonesian land-surface would therefore necessarily be accomplished at the expense of the potential production of food-calories.

Our coverage of wartime broadcasts emitted by Radio Tokyo and its satellite stations, while unavoidably incomplete, nevertheless offers clear clues to the Japanese blueprint for Indonesia. The essence of propaganda is to hammer away at a few points, and we may infer from these what the Japanese intended to do, regardless of what they actually accomplished. Despite certain conflicts in regard to timing, priorities and, above all, overall direction, this program seems to have represented the combined goals of Japan's military and big business elements. Although most of the desiderata were the same as those set for the rest of what Japan termed the Southern Regions, Japanese propaganda to and about Indonesia exhibited certain variations from the norm. As the richest, most populous, most distant from Japan, and most thoroughly Muslim area in Southeastern Asia, Indonesia necessarily called for special handling. Its political division by the Japanese into three administrative areas under separate army and navy commanders was a further complicating factor.

Nationalism is an explosive topic at any time, but it is peculiarly explosive at this moment when the restraints of war have been lifted, when peace settlements are in prospect, and when national movements everywhere are again in full flower. The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of nationalism in as uncontroversial and non-political a manner as the subject itself allows, and to compare its development in Southeast Asia with similar movements in other parts of the world. What is involved is an objective sociological investigation, and not an effort to arrive at value judgments which would answer such questions as whether this or that nationalist movement is good or evil or whether particular nationalist demands should be granted or opposed.

This special issue on the Netherlands Indies has been prepared with the collaboration of the Southeast Asia Institute (formerly East Indies Institute of America), 15 West 77th Street, New York City, which enlisted the cooperation of its membership to write all the articles on the Netherlands Indies, as indicated in the introduction to the issue.

Attention is drawn to the Institute's recent change of name, which was made by a majority decision of the membership and which makes it clear that the Institute's area of research and study comprises the East Indies, the Philippines, Malaya, Burma, Siam and Indo-China.