What was it that drove those Indonesian youths in Surabaya to push their way through into the Hotel Yamato where the Dutch flag was flying, then climb to the upper gallery, pull the flag down from the flagpole, rip off its section of blue, and then raise the remaining colors, red and white-all in the tense atmosphere a few days before the battle of November 10, 1945?

What did that flag mean to them?

On that day, outside the hotel, the world was