As this work has brought to the fore, Indonesia's War of Independence (1945–49) was long in the making and was not only “made in Japan”. As rationalised by Indonesian Marxists especially, its roots or “lineages” went back to the zaman penjajahan Belanda, or era of high Dutch colonialism, not excepting distant social memories of the earlier VOC invasion of the archipelago and the struggles of disparate peoples to preserve their autonomy. Nevertheless, it was the more recent past that weighed most heavily, such as the thwarted dreams of the nationalists, communists and organized Muslims, culminating in the repressions that both preceded and followed the failed 1926–27 rebellions, including the zaman pergolakan jang maha hebat, or the age of great upheaval of the Japanese occupation, to evoke Dr Amir's slogan. As demonstrated in an opening chapter, Dutch surveillance and incarceration such as took place in Boven Digul not only affected the cream of the native elite but also imposed a high degree of trauma on the collective body politic. We should not be surprised then that at the moment of Merdeka in August 1945—however conflicted it was—there would be no turning back from this shared experience under colonialism as an extraordinary closure of ranks from among the political class, and even the masses, would spearhead Indonesia's postwar struggle for independence.