romusha
English
Etymology
From Japanese 労務者 (rōmusha, “laborer; forced laborer”). Compare Indonesian romusa.
Alternative forms
- rōmusha
Noun
romusha (plural romusha or romushas)
- A forced laborer, especially those made to work in the Dutch East Indies under Japanese occupation during the Second World War.
- 2017, Lizzie Oliver, “‘Like Pebbles Stuck in a Sieve’: Reading Romushas in the Second-Generation Photography of Southeast Asian Captivity”, in Journal of War & Culture Studies, volume 10, DOI:, page 272:
- Javanese workers were known as romushas (the Japanese translation for the colonial term ‘coolie’) and put to work on Java, its neighbouring islands and across Southeast Asia.
- For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:romusha.
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Dutch
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Noun
romusha ? (plural romusha's, diminutive romushaatje n)
- Literally 'economic soldier'; Indonesian who had to perform penal servitude for the Japanese.
Indonesian
Alternative forms
- romusa
- romusya
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese 労務者 (ろうむしゃ, rōmusha), from 労務 (ろうむ, rōmu, “labor, work”) + 者 (しゃ, sha, “person”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ro.mu.ʃa/
- Hyphenation: ro‧mu‧sha
Noun
romusha (plural romusha-romusha, first-person possessive romushaku, second-person possessive romushamu, third-person possessive romushanya)
- (informal) romusa.