The Independence Proclamation and the Story of a German Typewriter
On August 16, 1945, the commander of Japan's military base in Batavia (now Jakarta), Admiral Tadashi Maeda, invited Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta to his residence, located on what is now Jalan Imam Bonjol No. 1, Central Jakarta. He urged the two nationalists to proclaim independence, and quickly.
Sukarno and Hatta drafted the text of the proclamation that evening, and by the following morning, it was ready to be typed. Maeda's typewriter, however, could only press Japanese kanji script.
June 2, 2015
On August 16, 1945, the commander of Japan's military base in Batavia (now Jakarta), Admiral Tadashi Maeda, invited Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta to his residence, located on what is now Jalan Imam Bonjol No. 1, Central Jakarta. He urged the two nationalists to proclaim independence, and quickly.
Sukarno and Hatta drafted the text of the proclamation that evening, and by the following morning, it was ready to be typed. Maeda's typewriter, however, coul
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