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The Indonesian Declaration of Independence was officially read at exactly 10.00 a.m. on Friday, August 17, 1945.
The draft was prepared only a few hours before earlier, on the night of August 16, by Soekarno, Hatta, and a student named Subarjo, at Admiral Tadashi Maeda's house, Miyako-Doori 1, Jakarta (now the "Museum of the Declaration of Independence", JL. Imam Bonjol I, Jakarta). Maeda himself was sleeping in his room upstairs. He was agreeable to the idea of Indonesia's independence, and had lent his house for the drafting of the declaration. Marshal Terauchi, the highest-ranking Japanese leader in South East Asia and son of Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake, was however against Indonesia's independence, scheduled for August 24.
Soekarno had initially wanted the declaration to be read at Ikada Plain, the large open field in the centre of Jakarta, but due to unfounded widespread apprehension over the possibility of Japanese sabotage, the venue was changed to Soekarno's house at Pegangsaan Timur 56. In fact there was no concrete evidence for the growing suspicions, as the Japanese had already surrendered to the Allies, and the Japanese high command in Indonesia had given their permission for the nation's independence. The declaration of independence passed without a hitch.
Thus ended the three and a half years of Japanese rule after 350 years of Indonesia being a Dutch colony.