Cideng Barat Street, Central Jakarta, is bustling with heavy traffic even though the sun is already high in the sky. Rows of shop houses line both sides of the street. If you enter the small streets between Cideng Barat Street and Cideng Timur Street, you will see several colonial-era houses, some of which are still well maintained. They are surrounded by modern houses and shops.

It was in this area that tens of thousands of people lived a bitter life under the threat of bayonets and guns. Eight decades ago, during the Japanese occupation (1942-1945), the Cideng area was “hell” for its residents, namely the internees at a place called Cideng Camp.

"Cideng became one of the most notorious camps, so much so that the internees called it ‘Hell Camp Cideng’ because they were treated inhumanely there. One can imagine that a small camp house could be filled with 80 people," explained Nunus Supardi in his two books, Documenta Historica: Kamp Interniran (Documenta Historica: Internment Camps) and Beragam Segi Kehidupan di Balik Kamp Interniran: Masa Pendudukan Jepang hingga Revolusi di Indonesia (Various Aspects of Life Behind Internment Camps: The Japanese Occupation to the Revolution in Indonesia).

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