role in the Japanese occupation. According to a selectively abridged set of stanzas within a Jayabaya prophesy (all are extremely long epic poems): The Javanese would be ruled by whites for 3 centuries and by yellow dwarfs for the life span of a maize plant prior to the return of the Ratu Adil: whose name must contain at least one syllable of the Javanese Nata Nagara. When Japan occupied the Netherlands East Indies, in the first weeks of 1942, many Indonesians danced in the streets, welcoming the Japanese army as the fulfillment of the prophecy ascribed to Jayabaya, who foretold the day when white men would one day establish their rule on Java and oppress the people for many years – but they would be driven out by the arrival of yellow men from the north. These yellow dwarves, Joyoboyo had predicted, would remain for one crop cycle (3 1/2 months, which translated as 3 1/2 years of Japanese occupation), and after that Java would be freed from foreign domination. To most of the Javanese, Japan was a liberator: the prophecy had been fulfilled. The Japanese freed Indonesian nationalists from Dutch prisons and hired them as civil servants and administrators. In the waning days of 1944, however, it was clear that Japan could not win the war. The Japanese officially handed its authority over to Indonesia to be independent on 9 August 1945, and the commander of Japan's Southeast Asian forces appointed future President Sukarno as chairman of the preparatory committee for Indonesian independence. As one account of Indonesian history puts it, "With the minor exception that three crops had been harvested, Jayabaya's prophecy had been realized." Many believe that the time for the arrival of a new Ratu Adil is near (as the prophecies put it, "when iron wagons could drive without horses and ships could sail through the sky"), and that he will come to rescue and reunite Indonesia after an acute crisis, ushering in the dawn of a new golden age. References Further reading J.A.B. Wiselius, "Djåjå Båjå: zijn leven en profeteën" Bijdragen tot de Taal, Land-, en Volkenkunde XIX, 1872. pp.172-217. Ramalan Jayabaya Musarar | Alang-Alang Kumitir Ibnu Khan al Latif: Serat Pranitiwakya Kediri Kingdom Indonesian Hindu monarchs History of East Java Indonesian Hindu religious leaders Medieval Hindu religious leaders 12th-century Indonesian people map-bms:Serat Jayabaya