Friends and Exiles: A Memoir of the Nutmeg Isles and the Indonesian Nationalist Movement. Des Alwi (b. 1927) is well known as an early supporter of Mohammad Hatta and Sutan Sjahrir in Indonesia's Independence movement, and as a democratic activist and radio broadcaster and journalist. This memoir deals with his early years on Banda Island where he was "adopted" by Sjahrir who was there along with Hatta, in enforced exile. He tells of his life and travel under the Japanese and of radio's role in the 1945/1946 efforts to establish a new Indonesian state in Jakarta. Many of Alwi's observations offer insights into daily life under two different regimes and into the personalities and involvements of the two of the key figures in Indonesians political emergence. With black-and-white photographs and index.