1. Work individually! 2. From the title, what is your prediction about the content? Read the text carefully! 3. The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence Indonesians celebrate their country's Independence Day on August 17. The proclamation of Indonesian Independence took place on August 17, 1945. This is a historical moment. On August 12, 1945, Soekarno, Hatta, and Dr. Radjiman went to Dalat near Saigon to meet with the Japanese commander. In the meeting, Japan planned to grant Indonesian Independence. On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered, and the Japanese authorities in the East Indies were ordered to maintain the status quo pending the arrival of Allied forces. However, there was no official confirmation from the Japanese of the surrender. Soekarno and Hatta went to Yamamoto office to get the confirmation, but the office was empty. Then Ahmad Soebardjo went to meet Tadashi Maeda to ask about the surrender rumours, and received unofficial confirmation that the rumour was true. Hatta then asked Ahmad Soebardjo to arrange a meeting of the PPKI for the following day and went home to draft a proclamation. However, a group of youths, Wikana, Soebadio, Chaerul Saleh, Soekarni, Adam Malik, Darwis, and Soeroto Kunto went to Soekarno's house on Pegangsaan. Wikana demanded an immediate proclamation of independence in person, rather than through PPKI. Soekarno entrefused to do so as besides the need to discuss matters with the PPKI, he did not want to provoke the Japanese. Hatta subsequently arrived and took the same stance as Soekarno, and pointed out that there was still no official confirmation of the Japanese surrender. On August 16, 1945 at 3 a.m. the youths went to Soekarno's house again. They took Soekarno and Hatta to the town of Rengasdengklok. They forced them to declare independence as soon as possible. However, Soekarno and Hatta still refused. Later that morning, Maeda learned that Soekarno and Hatta had disappeared. An army investigation led to Wikana, who was pressured to return the two men to Jakarta. Then Kunto and Ahmad Soebardjo went to Rengasdengklok to pick up Soekarno and Hatta. On August 16, 1945 about 8 p.m. they arrived at Soekarno's house. Around midnight Soekarno and Hatta went to Maeda's house. There had been some people, such as Tampak Latuharhary, Otto Iskandardinata, Teuku Mohammad Hasan, and the youths such as Chaerul Saleh, Soekarni, B.M. Diah, and Sayuti Melik. Soekarno and Hatta created the declaration of independence. There was a debate about who would sign the proclamation text. Finally, they decided that Soekarno and Hatta signed the proclamation text. Soekarni stated that the proclamation text should be read in Ikada Field because they had announced people to gather there. However, the idea was rejected by Soekarno because they didn't want to cause an incident. Finally, Soekarno decided that the proclamation would be read at his house on Pegangsaan Timur Street 56 at 10 a.m. The proclamation text was typed by Sayuti Melik.​