Japanese Occupation and Post-World War II
After his arrival in Jakarta, Zoetmulder was offered a post in the Linguistics Department of the University of Indonesia. However, his strong desire to further his study of Javanese drove him to choose to reside in Yogyakarta. He then taught at the AMS, and counted among his students Prof. Dr. Koentjaraningrat, Dr. Sukmono and Dr. S. Supomo.
When Japanese forces entered Indonesia in 1942, Zoetmulder was interned as a citizen of the Netherlands. He was fortunate to be allowed to bring his books and pens as a prisoner. When he was transferred to the Cimahi prison he was able to smuggle the book of Adiparwa, edited by Dr. H. H. Juynboll, and a Javanese dictionary written by Gericke-Roorda. Zoetmulder attempted to study the linguistics of old Javanese through this book. His study of old Javanese grammar was eventually published in Dutch in 1954 ("De Taal van het Adiparwa") and in Indonesian in 1950 ("Bahasa Parwa") with the help of I. R. Pedjawijatna. This book eventually was adopted as the basic textbook for the study of old Javanese.
During the Indonesian National Revolution he was nearly killed by an Indonesian freedom fighter due to his Dutch complexion while he was at the Kemetiran Residence, Yogyakarta. Fortunately, a Javanese man defended him and claimed that he was a "holy man."
Read more about this topic: Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder
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