Harrison Forman Diary, Bali, September 1950

Harrison Forman, photographer and journalist, wrote this diary from Indonesia almost a year after Bali claimed its independence from the Dutch and became part of the Republic of Indonesia in 1950. There are five parts to this diary. Forman begins the first part with a conversation with his driver about Western influence on the Indonesian culture, especially in clothing style. Forman makes observations about the once idyllic nature of Bali being disrupted by violence caused by young extremists. Some Indonesians believe the violence might be influenced by the Tentara Nasional Indonesia (the Indonesian Armed Forces or TNI) launching a campaign of retaliation against Dutch and Japanese collaborators. Forman speaks with a TNI commanding officer about their efforts to persuade people not to take the law into their own hands. The second part of the diary begins with an interview with Dr. Jajaval Osathanondh, Dean of the medical school. They talk about the number of students and the amount of money spent on books and journals. Forman speaks with the Minister of Education, Dr. Bahder Djohan about the importance of primary education, the lack of teachers, the campaign against illiteracy, and their ability to compensate teachers. Dr. Djohan mentions the local library, outfitted with books from the United States Information Service (the USIS becomes the United States Information Agency in 1953). Forman writes about gold-runners, pilots who transport gold by air, how the gold is shipped from Johannesburg, South Africa, and where it's routed and rerouted to markets in China, Mexico, and San Salvador. He talks about the POAS (possibly the Pacific Overseas Airline (Siam)), gold shipping business, number of employees and planes, miles flown per month and where. In part 4, Forman interviews a University president about the lack of qualified professors and low pay. Finally, in part five, Forman is in Bandung, interviewing a guerilla leader who compares the oppression of the Indonesian people by the Dutch to that of the Chinese people's oppression by Chiang Kai-shek, former Chairman of the Nationalist government of China. He also asserts that though the Indonesians "violently oppose" Mao Zedong, Chairman of the People's Republic of China, they want to learn how he achieved China's liberation.The diaries are part of the Harrison Forman Papers 1931-1974 housed at the Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. UWM Libraries received the dairies on a loan from the Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Oregon Libraries and digitized them to accompany the digital collection of Forman's photographs. The diaries were digitized to provide research materials for the Forman's negatives scanned as part of the NEH grant project "Saving and Sharing the AGS Library's Historic Nitrate Negative Images.