From the Translator

The Phantom World of Digul: Policing as Politics in Colonial Indonesia, 1926–1941 by Takashi Shiraishi is a major contribution to the field of Indonesian modern history. It offers a deep investigation on colonial surveillance over anti-colonial movement of the late 1920s–1942. It follows Shiraishi’s earlier work, An Age in Motion: Popular Radicalism in Java, 1912-1926 (1990).

Shiraishi has taught at the University of Tokyo (1979-1987), Cornell University (1987-98), Kyoto University (1996-2005), and National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo (2005-2009). He served as Executive Member, Council for Science and Technology Policy, Cabinet Office (2009-2012), President, GRIPS (2011-2017), President, Institute of Developing Economies-JETRO (2007-2018) and Ritsumeikan University Professor (2017). He currently serves as Chancellor, Prefectural University of Kumamoto (since 2018). He received the Royal Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2007, and he was designated to the Order of Cultural Merit in 2016. The Republic of Indonesia conferred the Bintang Jasa Utama (Star of Service 1st Class) on him in 2017.

The Phantom World of Digul is translated into Indonesian by Jafar Suryomenggolo and is published by INSISTPress (Yogyakarta), with a foreword by Hilmar Farid. The translation brings the book closer to Indonesian readers, especially the young generation, who are enthusiastic about history.

The Phantom World of Digul has received excellent reviews, including by Vincent Houben for South East Asia Research, and by Lin Hongxuan for Asian Politics and Policy.

For more information about the Indonesian translation, please see the publisher’s webpage.

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