In the Netherlands Japanese P.M. Kaifu expressed “sincere contrition” for the “unbearable sufferings and sorrow” the Japanese army inflicted on Dutch nationals in what is now Indonesia.

- For Americans, the day Pearl Harbor went up in smoke was Dec. 7. For Japanese, on the other side of the International Date Line, it was Dec. 8. A small point, perhaps, but one with symbolic dimensions. It illustrates how the two giants focus differently on their shared…

Indonesia annexed West Irian last week. Between intimidation and persuasion, the Indonesians managed to win a unanimous vote in favor of annexation.

Indonesia, once a bastion of noisy self-righteous anticolonialism, last week formally took over a remote, primitive piece of real estate that can hardly be considered anything but a colony. By means of a blatantly rigged referendum, the Indonesians annexed West Irian, the western half of the rugged South Pacific island…

The once bitter enemies, Netherlands and Indonesia have recently begun exchanging public compliments, friendly trade delegations and full resumption of diplomatic relations.

Trade, as well as politics, makes strange bedfellows: Spain and Castro’s Cuba, Britain and Red China, Israel and West Germany. One of the strangest tie-ups these days is between The Netherlands and its former colony, Indonesia, which severed diplomatic relations in 1960 and seemed headed for a full-scale war. The…

The trade-minded Dutch, who are more interested in new profits than in salvaging old concessions, were eager to do business again with Indonesia.

His reception was pointedly restrained, but the dapper, dusky VIP who debarked at the Amsterdam air port last week could hardly expect brass bands. Dr. Subandrio, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Premier, was the highest-ranking official from Djakarta to set foot in The Netherlands since the Dutch bitterly granted his…

After five years of glaring at their old colonial masters, the hard-pressed Indonesians are showing some willingness to do business with the Dutch. Frits Philips made an agreement.

∙ After five years of glaring at their old colonial masters, the hard-pressed Indonesians are showing some willingness to do business with the Dutch. Philips Lamp President Frits Philips, 58, whose giant corporation wrote off Indonesian factories worth $5,300,000 after President Sukarno kicked the Dutch out, is just back from…

U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy was in Indonesia persuading them to settle peacefully its bitter dispute with The Netherlands about sovereignty over West New Guinea.

Planning their itineraries for world tours, U.S. officials are fond of omitting Indonesia, the touchy, swarming island nation whose government professes neutralism while practicing anti-Americanism.

To this rule, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy was no exception— and last week he and his wife Ethel flew into Indonesia only at the…

Indonesia’s Defense Minister was promised 450 million in military aid from Moscow. The Dutch are reluctant to abandon W.N. Guinea until the Papuans are ready for self-government.

Three weeks ago, Indonesia’s Defense Minister Abdul Haris Nasution set off for Moscow on what he called his “West Irian mission.” Last week he returned to Djakarta in triumph. His trophy was a promise of $450 million in military aid and equipment, enough to double the fighting potential of Indonesia’s…

Although Indonesia celebrated its 15th year of independance, men were in the streets to protest. For the 4,000 Dutch who remain threatenings continue.

Nothing ever works quite the way it should in Indonesia. Scarcely had the red and white flags been put up to celebrate the nation’s 15th independence day last week when workmen were back in the streets of Djakarta. Their task: to take down 12-ft.-high poster portraits of Guinea’s President…

A historic report on Sukarno and Rep. Of Indonesia. In 1949, worn down by Indonesian resistance and world opinion, the Dutch gave up, giving nationalists their independence.

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On the tide of nationalism that swept the world after World War II, no young nation swam more proudly than Indonesia. Its 3,000 islands were rich with oil, bauxite, rubber, tin; its 85,000,000 citizens made it the world’s biggest Moslem nation, sixth in population among all the nations…

The Netherlands Ambassador announced that his government was dismayed by the outspoken anti-colonialism of some of Dulles’ public statements he made in Indonesia.

In Washington a mixed lot of bouquets and brickbats showered down on Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, just home from a 19-day swing through Asia. President Eisenhower greeted the Secretary’s return with a press conference pat on the back: “These trips, of course, are onerous burdens on an…

In the U.N. colonialism cut sharply across friendships, alliances and cold-war loyalties when Indonesia demanded debate on its proposal to eject the Dutch from W. New Guinea.

In its graceful glass and marble palace by New York’s East River, the ninth U.N. General Assembly opened last week with outward smoothness and inner doubts. Only one Big Four Foreign Minister, John Foster Dulles of the U.S., was on hand, and many delegates muttered that the U.N. was being…

In The Hague, Dutch and Indonesian delegates signed a protocol to end the political union. The Dutch took satisfaction in the fact that the economic links were left intact.

Of the empires that crumbled at the shock of nationalism after World War II, few fell apart so abruptly as The Netherlands’. Just three days after Japan’s surrender, Indonesia declared its independence and proclaimed the end of The Hague’s richest and biggest colony, The Netherlands East Indies. By late 1949,…

Old Dutch commando force leader Raymond Westerling was jailed in Singapore. U.S.I. officials demanded he be sent to Jakarta, to be tried for “crimes perpetrated by him in Indonesia.”

In Istanbul some 30 years ago, a baby was born to a Dutch antique dealer named Westerling and his Greek wife. Frére Adolphe, who afterwards taught young Raymond Westerling in Istanbul’s French Catholic St. Joseph school, recalled that he was “a mild, well-mannered, moon-faced little boy.” Raymond’s later development was…

In Amsterdam Juliana ended 340 years of Dutch rule in Indonesia. In Indonesia people removed any rememberance of Dutch colonialism.

In Amsterdam’s Royal Palace one morning last week, 335 frock-coated Dutch and Indonesian officials gathered around a green baize table to hear Juliana, Queen of The Netherlands, end 340 years of Dutch rule in Indonesia. Juliana entered the palace hall followed by her husband, Prince Bernhard. From her crimson-upholstered…

Electors of one of each 16 states that make up the new federated republic of the United States of Indonesia casted their votes for the U.S.I.’s first President Soekarno, the only candidate.

The ceremonies at Jogjakarta went off with the fine precision of a Javanese ritual dance. The electors took their places around a U-shaped table, behind signs lettered in the republican colors of red and white; each stood for one of the 16 states that make up the new federated republic…