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the typewriter

The borrowed typewriter that typed Indonesia's independence

Indonesia's proclamation was typed on a typewriter borrowed from the German navy.

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The real story

On the night of 16–17 August 1945, after Japan's surrender, independence leaders met at the house of Japanese Admiral Tadashi Maeda in Jakarta. Soekarno wrote the draft by hand, with Mohammad Hatta and Achmad Soebardjo. The house only had a typewriter with Japanese characters, so Maeda's aide fetched a Latin-alphabet machine from the office of a German naval officer.

Sayuti Melik typed it, adjusting a few words, and Soekarno and Hatta signed. The handwritten draft was tossed aside, and journalist B.M. Diah kept it. At 10 that morning Soekarno read the text at Jalan Pegangsaan Timur 56, and the red-and-white flag sewn by Fatmawati was raised. The typewriter was returned afterwards, and some historians think the one in today's museum is not the original.

What the narrator says

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The facts we checked

  • On the night of 16–17 August 1945, the proclamation text was drafted at Admiral Maeda's house in Jakarta
  • Sayuti Melik typed Soekarno's handwritten draft, with small edits, on a typewriter borrowed from a German navy office
  • The proclamation was read on the morning of 17 August 1945, at Jalan Pegangsaan Timur 56, Jakarta

Sources

We checked every number and date on screen before the video was made.

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