Below is the CHOICE Review The Encyclopedia of Indonesia in the Pacific War, ed. by Peter Post et al. Brill/Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, 2010. 684p bibl index afp (Handbook of oriental studies=Handbuch der Orientalistik. Section 3, Southeast Asia, 19); ISBN 9789004168664, $215.00. Reviewed in 2010jun CHOICE.This volume brings together a fascinating collection of scholarly articles and primary sources, complemented by a truly wonderful, eye-opening, and extensive selection of photographs, describing the history of WW II as it was experienced in Indonesia (or the Netherlands East Indies, as it was still called at the time).

It was compiled under the direction of general editor Post (Netherlands Institute for War Documentation) and an editorial team comprising William Frederick (Ohio University), Iris Heidebrink (National Archives, The Hague), and Shigeru Sato (University of Newcastle). The volume features articles on the period provided by many highly respected scholars active in Indonesian studies, including Adrian Vickers, Robert Cribb, Taufik Abdullah, Mestika Zed, and Erwiza Erman, along with a lexicon of peoples, events, and institutions. Although perhaps not a true encyclopedia in the sense of its mixture of articles and factual entries, this volume covers such an incredible range of material that readers actually can develop an almost encyclopedic understanding of the Japanese occupation period.An additional section looks into the war's tangled aftermath for the Japanese occupiers, Dutch colonizers, and Indonesian people. Primary sources are included in translation, with many interesting selections available from a variety of perspectives. Since the Japanese period has not been much explored in English-language scholarship on Indonesia, this book is a significant contribution for academic audiences and for others interested in learning more about life on the ground in wartime in a colonial world. This work will be very important for library collections and of immediate use to any university that offers courses in Southeast Asian history and/or social or cultural histories of WW II. Summing Up: Essential.

Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers; general readers. -- S. Maxim, University of California, Berkeley.