12 Facts About Ichiki Tatsuo

Ichiki Tatsuo was a Japanese journalist who defected to Indonesia and participated in the Indonesian National Revolution.

Ichiki Tatsuo was born in a small town named Taraki in Kumamoto Prefecture of Southern Kyushu in 1906.

Ichiki Tatsuo was the third of six children and while the family were poor, was a descendant of medieval feudal lords.

Ichiki Tatsuo's parents divorced during his childhood and Tatsuo's mother adopted Catholicism, with Tatsuo being baptized at age 5 and receiving the baptismal name Sebastian.

Ichiki Tatsuo grew up during the transition from the more democratic Taisho era to the totalitarian early Showa era.

In 1927, at the age of 21, Ichiki Tatsuo left his middle school and began training as a photographer in Oita Prefecture.

Ichiki Tatsuo then found employment as a bus conductor, but before long left the job and stayed with Iti, a local woman whose family lived in the nearby town of Sumedang.

Ichiki Tatsuo became an adviser to the education department for the volunteer army PETA, during which Agus Salim gave him the nickname Abdul Rachman for Tatsuo's pro-Indonesian leanings.

Ichiki Tatsuo later visited another officer and noted that he would not be returning to Japan, asking the officer to inform Tatsuo's wife.

Ichiki Tatsuo was active in East Java, namely to intercept Dutch troops in the road between Malang and Lumajang.

Ichiki Tatsuo was killed on the front lines, in the village of Arjosari to the southeast of Malang, during the surprise offensive Operation Kraai conducted by the Dutch on 9 January 1949.

Ichiki Tatsuo was shot in the forehead: according to testimonies from his comrades, Tatsuo had charged towards the Dutch soldiers in what appeared to be an attempt to motivate the guerilla fighters.