Petrus Akihary

Akihary (1908-2000) served in the KNIL from the age of 18. Upon enlisting in 1926, he was given service number 20574.

During the Japanese occupation (1942-1945), Akihary was forced to work on the infamous Burma Railway (now in Myanmar), which meant hard labour in brutal conditions. The railway is said to have claimed more lives than it has railway sleepers.

For a long time after the Japanese surrender in 1945, Akihary’s wife Jacoba and their five children did not know if he had survived. After being reunited with his family, he resumed his military life in the service of the KNIL. Akihary was transferred to Sabang on North Sumatra, where he rose to the rank of sergeant major instructor.

In 1949, Akihary was responsible for guarding prisoners of war from Aceh, mostly young men who fought on the side of the republic. He treated his prisoners so humanely that, when he came under threat from republican forces, they intervened on his behalf as a show of respect.

On 12 April 1951, Akihary and his family boarded a ship called the Great Bear. On arriving in the Netherlands, he was involuntarily discharged from the military after 25 years of loyal service to the Dutch flag and the Dutch crown. He and his family were housed in a former concentration camp in Vught, which had been renamed the Lunetten residential camp.

A similar fate befell some 12,500 Moluccans in the first half of 1951, including over 3,500 ex-KNIL soldiers and their families. Their stay in the Netherlands was supposed to be temporary, but has now lasted more than 70 years.

Martha Anthony-Akihary is the eldest daughter of Peter Akihary. In her video portrait, she talks about her father and the meaning of the revolution for him.

View her video portrait