The East movie

[Bruce MacMillan]

Having rented stuff to movie productions the set dec isn't too concerned with authenticity. They expect the general audience to focus on the plot, not count buttons.

I do think that reenactors could step it up a notch to accurately portray the theatre of operation. It amuses me to see a jeep loaded down with every imaginable bit of kit making it look like a mobile warehouse.

For myself I have stopped reenacting a Canadian WW2 signaller as I now look more like dad's army.
Maybe I should depict a French civilian wandering around with my B2 spy set.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

“De Oost” (the East) is a Dutch movie about the Dutch trying to take back control over the Netherlands East Indies, which had claimed independence as Indonesia right after WW2.

It follows the undertakings of a young Dutch lad who was conscripted to fight what turned out to be a dirty war. The Dutch soldiers were told they were going to liberate the Indonesian people from oppressors. They all had lived (and fought) through WW2 living under the German oppression themselves, so believe they were doing a noble thing. In reality the Dutch government and business corporations did not want to loose the rich pickings they had enjoyed the centuries before WW2 broke out. The soldiers had to fight a dirty war which to this day, sadly, divides people. It is the same story of many wars: regular soldiers and citizens suffering under the rulings class’ hunger for power and wealth.

See a trailer here: https://youtu.be/PwGiADNEUtk

[Lang]

It is a good movie. Plenty of free download sites.
If you are ever in Jakarta one of the best war museums I have ever seen. Dozens of large dioramas describing the whole independence conflict.

Some interesting points are:

The allies left the Japanese in "policing" control for several months after surrender until they could get troops there.

A large number of regular Japanese soldiers signed up as advisers to both sides.

To Australia's ever lasting shame we sent many troops and air force to fight for the Dutch to regain their colony. The Indonesians won the PR war as well as the military one and international news papers of the time paint the Dutch as rapacious colonists being assisted by other colonial nations (as illustrated in the movie). International support faded away very quickly in the face of the untenable moral position.

Still, the soldiers were there like always to do or die and should be remembered like all soldiers of all nations who just did their duty to their goverment's bidding.