Jakarta –
The end of the life of scientist and former director of Eijkman, Prof. Dr. Achmad Mochtar, was truly tragic. He was executed by Japanese soldiers for allegedly sabotaging the vaccine.
At that time, a number of doctors and scientists were executed by the Japanese army after more than a thousand romusha in Jakarta died after being vaccinated against TCD (Typhus Cholera Dysentery) in 1944. Unable to bear to see his colleagues subjected to cruel torture, Dr Achmad Mochtar asked for the researchers to be released and he was executed on July 3 1945.
He was then buried en masse with other doctors who died in detention, and at that time no one knew where his grave was. Through investigations carried out by his successor, the then Director of the Eijkman Institute, Prof. Sangkot Marzuki, and his colleague, Kevin Baird, managed to find Achmad Mochtar’s grave in Ereveld, Ancol in 2010.
A glimpse of the death of Dr Achmad Mochtar
In July 1944, a romusha village in Klender was in chaos after hundreds of romusha died following the TCD vaccine. Vaccination at that time was carried out by the Bandung Pasteur Institute which was managed by the Japanese military.
In notes Science Magazine July 2 2010 edition, romusha workers suffer from tetanus symptoms. At that time, the Japanese soldiers asked Eijkman’s doctor to treat him.
After conducting laboratory tests, researchers at the Eijkman Institute found tetanus poison contamination in the vaccine given to the romusha. However, the Japanese empire did not accept it and accused researcher Eijkman of having his own scenario behind the case and they were finally imprisoned.
The captives said they were tortured by electric shocks, burning and having water poured on them. One doctor died while being tortured and another died in detention.
The people at the Eijkman Institute who survived were released in January 1945 except Dr. Mochtar. It is suspected that Dr. Mochtar convinced them to be released in exchange for agreeing to become prisoners.
It took 65 years, since his death, to reveal the cause of Dr. Achmad Mochtar’s death. The process of searching for the truth by 2 scientists, Prof. J Kevin Baird and Prof. Sangkot Marzuki, was immortalized in the book “War Crimes in Japan-Occupied Indonesia: A Case of Murder by Medicine“.
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(his/her)
2023-10-04 02:31:15
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