Title:
Sukarno, the first President of Indonesia, as a prisoner of the Dutch in 1949. Courtesy of Tropenmuseum.
Caption:
Indonesia: Sukarno, the first President of Indonesia, as a prisoner of the Dutch in 1949. Sukarno was born on 6 June 1901 in Blitar, eastern Java. His name was Kusno Sosrodihardjo, but he was renamed, as per Javanese custom, after surviving a childhood illness. His name is frequently spelled Soekarno after the Dutch spelling. On 4 July, 1927, Sukarno and some friends founded the Partai Nasional Indonesia (PNI) with a view to fighting for Indonesian independence. Sukarno was sentenced as a political prisoner in 1930, but was freed in 1931 after his cause was widely reported abroad. (Photo by: Tropenmuseum/Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)