Ancol War Cemetery

Ancol War Cemetery, also Dutch Field of Honor Ancol (Dutch: Nederlands Ereveld Ancol, Indonesian: Makam Kehormatan Belanda di 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.

After the surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945 – during the period of temporary British military administration of the Dutch East Indies – the Dutch Temporaire Krijgsraden (English: Provisional Courts-Martial) launched investigations into Japanese war crimes in the Indonesian archipelago, in particular those committed by the Kempeitai. It would be several months before investigators looked into Ancol (spelled Antjol before the 1972 orthography reform), a swampy area that had been used as a field of execution and mass grave by the Japanese occupiers. When personnel of the Graves Service of the Royal Netherlands Army first visited the site in June 1946, a rudimentary cement gravestone topped by a wooden cross stood on a neglected piece of land. On the stone was a simple inscription in Japanese, translating to "cemetery – deceased". In preparation of the trials against the staff of the Kempeitai headquarters in Batavia, some of the accused were transferred from prison to Ancol and interrogated on-site by a special committee. The extracted statements remained limited to summary information: between 400 and 600 executed prisoners had allegedly been buried near the cement stone. In a stroke of luck, the elderly and deaf-mute guardian of an old Chinese temple was able to provide important information and pointed out the locations of many executions. On his instructions, excavations were carried out in the presence of the investigators. Single and communal graves were found throughout the area. In the following months, the extent of the burial ground was established. The site was cleared and the remains carefully collected and identified as much as possible. The ground was then le

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