Slamet Rijadi
Slamet Rijadi Rijadi was born in Surakarta, Central Java, to a soldier and a fruit seller. "Sold" to his uncle and renamed as a toddler to cure his illnesses, Rijadi was raised at his parents' home and studied at Dutch-run schools. After the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, Rijadi studied at a Japanese-run sailor's academy and worked for them upon graduation; he abandoned the Japanese army towards the end of World War II and assisted resistance operations for the rest of the occupation. After Indonesia's independence on 17 August 1945, Rijadi led Indonesian forces in the Surakarta area during the revolution against the returning Dutch. Starting with a guerrilla campaign, by 1947, when he fought against Dutch offensives in Ambarawa and Semarang, he was in charge of the 26th Regiment. During a 2nd Dutch offensive, Rijadi lost control of the city but soon retook it, later leading counter-offensives in West Java. In 1950, after the end of the revolutio...