Queen Shining in the Southern Islands: Hide Miwa—The Life of a Stateless Woman

2021/08/30

This is the life story of Hide Miwa, a Japanese woman born in the Meiji era who married a White Russian who had fled to Japan due to the revolution in his homeland (1917), and immigrated around 1920 to Java, a tropical island then under Dutch rule. She established a plantation in a foreign land and lived peacefully while raising nine children, but was suddenly thrust into the turbulent waters of international politics by the outbreak of the "Greater East Asia" War and the subsequent occupation by the Japanese military. The entire family cooperated with their "homeland," Japan, but after the Japanese military was defeated and withdrew, she bore the full brunt of the blame from the returning Dutch. Hide and her husband were prosecuted for allegedly harassing Dutch people under Japanese rule, found guilty, and imprisoned.

I first learned of Hide Miwa's existence after accidentally discovering a Dutch document mentioning these events in a corner of an archive, and I became fascinated by this unknown woman. Although more than 20 years had passed since Hide's death, I was fortunate enough to meet Lily, the only one of her nine children who remained in Indonesia. From there, I spent 15 years tracking down and interviewing other descendants scattered across the globe. As I groped my way through unraveling her life, I found surprising romance, conflict, and a full spectrum of human emotions.

After being released from the Dutch prison, Hide briefly returned to a peaceful life, but living in Indonesia—which had achieved independence by ousting the Dutch—was uncomfortable. Under the Sukarno administration's fervent nationalism aimed at decolonization, radical policies such as the nationalization of foreign assets were implemented, affecting the lives of "outsiders" like Hide and her family. Having divorced her White Russian husband and become stateless, Hide entered into a sham marriage with a young Dutch man to move to the Netherlands. However, she felt out of place there as well and decided to emigrate to the United States. While living abroad, she was constantly confronted with the question, "Who am I, really?" In her final years, she decided to return to Indonesia, where she had spent her most radiant days, and ended her tumultuous 86-year life there. It was the life of a pioneering woman who faced hardships and lived out a form of globalism, unconstrained by the boundaries of "nations."

Queen Shining in the Southern Islands: Hide Miwa—The Life of a Stateless Woman

Aiko Kurasawa

Iwanami Shoten

252 pages, 2,750 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.