Central Java is a province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in the south, East Java in the east, and the Java Sea in the north. It has a total area of 33,750.37 km2, with a population of 36,516,035 at the 2020 Census making it the third-most populous province in both Java and Indonesia after West Java and East Java. The official population estimate in mid-2023 was 37,608,336 The province also includes a number of offshore islands, including the island of Nusakambangan in the south, and the Karimun Jawa Islands in the Java Sea.
Prince Diponegoro, also known as Dipanegara, was a Javanese prince who opposed the Dutch colonial rule. The eldest son of the Yogyakarta Sultan Hamengkubuwono III, he played an important role in the Java War between 1825 and 1830. After his defeat and capture, he was exiled to Makassar, where he died at 69 years old.
Semarang is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. The city has been named as the cleanest tourist destination in Southeast Asia by the ASEAN Clean Tourist City Standard (ACTCS) for 2020–2022.
Herman Thomas Karsten was a Dutch engineer who gave major contributions to architecture and town planning in Indonesia during Dutch colonial rule. Most significantly he integrated the practice of colonial urban environment with native elements; a radical approach to spatial planning for Indonesia at the time. He introduced a neighborhood plan for all ethnic groups in Semarang, built public markets in Yogyakarta and Surakarta, and a city square in the capital Batavia. Between 1915 and 1941 he was given responsibility for planning 12 out of 19 municipalities in Java, 3 out of 9 towns in Sumatra and a town in Kalimantan. He received official recognition from both the government through his appointment to the colony's major Town Planning Committee and by the academic community with his appointment to the position of Lecturer for Town Planning at the School of Engineering at Bandung. He died in an internment camp near Bandung in 1945 during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies.
Sewu is an eighth-century Mahayana Buddhist temple located 800 metres north of Prambanan in Central Java, Indonesia. The word for a Hindu or Buddhist temple in Indonesian is "candi", hence the common name is "Candi Sewu". Candi Sewu is the second largest Buddhist temple complex in Indonesia; Borobudur is the largest. Sewu predates near the "Loro Jonggrang" temple at Prambanan. Although the complex consists of 249 temples, this Javanese name translates to 'a thousand temples,' which originated from popular local folklore. Archaeologists believe the original name for the temple compound to be Manjusrigrha.
During World War II, the Netherlands was the scene of five years of continuous air warfare between the Allied and the Nazis as the Netherlands lies en route from England to Germany and was designated and built up as the foremost line of Nazi air defence of Germany. Also, in 1944 there was heavy land fighting during the largest Allied airborne attack of the WWII in the south and east of the country in 1944–45. Thousands of airmen, soldiers and others of many nations were killed, and their war graves in some 4,000 locations are in the care of the Dutch War Cemetery Organisation.
In Dutch historiography, Bersiap refers to the violent and chaotic beginning of the Indonesian National Revolution following the end of World War II in Asia. In Indonesia, the term Berdaulat ("Sovereign") is also used for this transitional period. It began after Sukarno's proclamation of Indonesian Independence on 17 August 1945 and culminated during the power vacuum between the withdrawal of Japanese occupational forces and the gradual buildup of a British military presence, before the official handover to a Dutch military presence in March 1946.
The Indies Monument is a memorial in The Hague in memory of all Dutch citizens and soldiers killed during World War II as a result of the Japanese occupation (1942–1945) of the former Dutch East Indies. It is dedicated to all who died in battle, in prison camps or during forced labor. As stated in the mission statement of the 15 August 1945 Commemoration Foundation, it is also:
A place where you can pass on to your children the part of your childhood spent in the Dutch East Indies
Grebbeberg War Cemetery is a Second World War military war grave cemetery, located on the Grebbeberg, a hill 2 km (1.2 mi) east of Rhenen the Netherlands. The cemetery contains 799 military personnel and one civilian who died during the invasion of the Netherlands by the Germans in May 1940. More than 400 of those interred in the cemetery fell during the Battle of the Grebbeberg.
Albertus Soegijapranata, SJ, better known by his birth name Soegija, was a Jesuit priest who became the Apostolic Vicar of Semarang and later its archbishop. He was the first native Indonesian bishop and known for his pro-nationalistic stance, often expressed as "100% Catholic 100% Indonesian".
Giri Tunggal Heroes' Cemetery is a cemetery in Semarang, Central Java. It contains the graves of military personnel and other persons deemed heroes by the Indonesian government, including the National Hero Albertus Soegijapranata. As of 2011 it has 1,843 interments.
Sulaiman Effendi Kusumah Atmaja was an Indonesian judge and national hero who served as the first chief justice of the Supreme Court of Indonesia from August 1945 until August 1952. He was born to a noble ethnic-Sundanese family in Purwakarta, and obtained a law diploma from the Rechtschool in 1913. In 1919, he worked as a court clerk in Bandung, before leaving that job to continue his legal education at Leiden University. After graduating from Leiden in 1922, he returned to the East Indies, and became a judge in Batavia and later Indramayu.
During the colonial period many significant examples of Dutch architecture were built in Semarang, Indonesia.
Menteng Pulo War Cemetery, also Dutch Field of Honor Menteng Pulo, is a war cemetery at Jl. Menteng Pulo RT. 3 RW. 12, Menteng Dalam, Tebet, Jakarta in Indonesia. It is one of two Dutch war cemeteries in Jakarta, the other one is Ancol War Cemetery at Ancol. Menteng Pulo War Cemetery was built to accommodate the victims of the war from the Japanese occupation during World War II. At present it is maintained by the Netherlands War Graves Foundation, which is an organization that manages all Dutch war cemeteries in the world.
The Belgian Military Field of Honour 1914–1918, is a burial site located at the Oostergaarde Cemetery of the Dutch city Harderwijk in Gelderland. Originally, thirty-six soldiers were buried at the site. Nowadays, 349 Belgian soldiers from the First World War are commemorated. These include 124 individuals whose names feature on a monument because their remains could not be retrieved anymore. The cemetery was inaugurated on 28 September 1963 by the Belgian ambassador. The gravestones are similar to the ones used by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and are varying from the official Belgian gravestones. The burial site is administered by the Dutch Oorlogsgravenstichting.
Kembang Kuning War Cemetery, also Dutch Field of Honor Kembang Kuning, is a war cemetery in Surabaya, East Java in Indonesia.
Kalibanteng War Cemetery, also Dutch Field of Honor Kalibanteng, is a war cemetery in the vicinity of the airport of Semarang, Central Java, in Indonesia. It is one of two Dutch war cemeteries in Semarang, the other being Candi War Cemetery.
Pandu War Cemetery, also Dutch Field of Honor Pandu, is a war cemetery in Bandung, West Java, in Indonesia.
Leuwigajah War Cemetery, also Dutch Field of Honor Leuwigajah, is a war cemetery just outside of Cimahi, West Java, in Indonesia.
Ancol War Cemetery, also Dutch Field of Honor Ancol, is a war cemetery in Ancol, Jakarta, in Indonesia. It is one of two Dutch war cemeteries in Jakarta, the other being Menteng Pulo War Cemetery in Tebet. The cemetery was inaugurated on 14 September 1946. More than 2,000 victims of the Pacific War are buried here, including 1,328 members of the resistance against the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies.
