The politics of redress : War damage compensation and restitution in Indonesia and the Philippines, 1940-1957

This book focuses on the aftermath of World War II in Asia as described in a sobering and insightful history of two types of redress: compensation for material war damage and restitution of looted property. Japanese Army units and citizens stole goods while shelling and bombardment by all sides destroyed factories, offices and residential neighbourhoods. How were these cases of material damage and loss to be rectified, and who was to rectify them? What financial means and legal precedents were there to fall back on at a time of decolonization, independence struggle, and shifting alliances on the brink of the Cold War? The politics of redress makes an important contribution to the study of law and society in Southeast Asia. It lays bare the complex web of interconnections between politics, law and economy from a comparative historical perspective. Peter Keppy (1965) is an anthropologist and historian who received his Ph.D. from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is a senior researcher at the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) and has published on the history of Southeast Asia and Indonesia in particular. Translated by Mischa Hoyinck and Robert Chesal. The translation of this book was funded by the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research).