All the open spaces around the great naval airfield at Surabaya, Java, are set with bamboo stakes, about waist high, their tops whittled razor-sharp. A visiting journalist recently asked what they were for. The commander of the base explained that they were designed as an unpleasant reception for parachutists, and added: "When Holland first fell and we were very excited we put poison on the tips of all these stakes."
The sharp stakes of Surabaya were just one sign last week of the alertness of The Netherlands East Indies. The islands had new cause to be wary. Another Japanese negotiator was on his way to Batavia ostensibly to talk oil—but the Dutch knew that selling oil to Japan might be a very minor part of the conversations. They recalled what happened to French Indo-China.
Until last week Japanese-Dutch negotiations on the Indies were as different from Japanese-French "negotiations" on Indo-China as black and white. The Japanese just walked into Indo-China in the face of French blustering. In The Netherlands Indies they got nowhere in the face of determined Dutch geniality.
First the Japanese proposed sending as negotiator General Kuniaki Koiso, who, after a previous visit to the Indies, had publicly made some abusive remarks about the Dutch. The Dutch said he would not be acceptable. The Japanese sent instead a Cabinet Minister, Ichizo Kobayashi of Commerce and Industry. To receive him fittingly, Queen Wilhelmina cabled from London raising Hubertus J. Van Mook. Director of the Department of Economic Affairs, to the rank of Cabinet Minister of the Dutch Government-in-Exile.
When the Japanese mission docked at Batavia, tiny Envoy Kobayashi and his 23 aides were greeted by a guard of honor who, it happened, were: 1) the force assigned to rounding up all Japanese in case of hostilities; 2) the tallest men in the Indies. (On his return to Japan, Mr. Kobayashi told the press: "I was amazed at the tallness of the people. I do not even compare in height with a child.") Members of the Japanese mission smilingly pointed at the bristling shore fortifications, barbed wire and blockhouses. Oh yes, said the Dutch, with perfectly straight faces, in such unsettled times as these it was quite natural that The Netherlands Indies should be worried about the imperialist ambitions of French Indo-China.
The Governor General invited the Japanese to a reception. The Japanese accepted, planning to attend in native costume or uniform. The Dutch sent word that those who attend receptions of the Governor General always go in formal European dress. Immediately, each tailor shop in town received orders for five or six small tail coats. At the reception, Colonel Itsuo Ishimoto of the mission drank more Bols gin than was good for him, became attracted by the long curved creese of a Javanese prince. The creese is more than a sword to the Javanese; it is a sacred symbol, and if it is drawn rashly and without preliminary invocations, Javanese believe that misfortune overtakes the rash drawer. Colonel Ishimoto, without asking permission, drew out the creese and waved it about. A few days later he went to Bandung, collapsed with pernicious anemia, and died. Javanese natives were impressed.