Tomegorō Yoshizumi

was a Japanese spy and journalist who defected to Indonesia during the National Revolution. Born in Tōhoku region during the late stages of the Meiji period, in his early twenties he joined the Japanese expatriate community in the Dutch East Indies. Yoshizumi recruited locals for the Japanese spy ring in Java and Sulawesi, while also taking up employment for local Japanese newspapers. He was a noted follower of Japanese nationalism, and reportedly endorsed a "new order in East Asia". Although a civilian, he was inducted into the Imperial Japanese Navy, earning an officer's rank.

Deported from Java following the start of World War II, Yoshizumi returned illegally and was arrested in 1941, when Japan declared war on the Netherlands. He spent time in an Australian internment camp, but was released during a prisoner exchange in August 1942, and returned to the East Indies, which were by then under Japanese occupation. Although serving as head of the Japanese intelligence board Kaigun Bukanfu, by 1945 he embraced Indonesian nationalism and Marxism. He ensured that Sukarno and Muhammad Hatta signed their names to the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, which he also helped write. Yoshizumi then joined Tan Malaka's network of anti-Dutch guerrillas, taking part as a soldier in the clashes of East Java. These activities inaugurated his participation in the National Revolution, which ended with his death from lung disease in 1948.

Biography Yoshizumi was born in Oizumi-mura, Nishitagawa District, Yamagata, on 9 February 1911. He studied in Tsuruoka. He first went to the Dutch East Indies in 1932, where he worked at a brothel to recruit native Javanese officials as Japanese agents. He later founded Tōindo Nippō, a newspaper which combined Nichiran Shōgyō Shinbun and Jawa Nippō, in order to unite Japanese people in the Dutch East Indies. He was detained in January 1942 and sent to a detainee camp in Loveday, South Australia. During his stay there, the East Indies were conquered by Japan and placed under a military regime. Yoshizumi was finally repatriated in August, following a prisoner exchange. Later, he would help to compose the text of the proclamation itself. He was buried at the Taman Makam Pahlawan of that city.

Yoshizumi's story was recounted in a book by historian Wenri Wanhar, titled Jejak intel Jepang: kisah pembelotan Tomegoro Yoshizumi ("Japanese Spy Saga: the Story of Tomegoro Yoshizumi's Desertion"). Following his death, during a 1958 visit to Japan, Sukarno delivered a letter to Shigetada Nishijima as a tribute for Yoshizumi and Ichiki Tatsuo (another Japanese who defected to Indonesia). A small monument was then erected at Seisho-ji temple of Minato, Tokyo, with the following inscription: Inscription at Soekarno-hi, Seisho-ji templeKepada sdr. Ichiki Tatsuo dan sdr. Yoshizumi Tomegoro.

Kemerdekaan bukanlah milik suatu bangsa saja, tetapi milik semua manusia.

Tokyo, 15 Februari 1958.

Soekarno.

(original)To brothers Ichiki Tatsuo and Yoshizumi Tomegoro.

Independence does not belong to just one nation, but it belongs to all mankind.

Tokyo, 15 February 1958

Soekarno.

(translated)