Surabaya never truly slept.
That morning, the streets began filling with the voices of vendors, horse-drawn carriages, and workers' footsteps. Amid the bustle, a boy named Soekarno walked beside his father.
His eyes kept taking in the situation around him.
On one side, he saw grand buildings belonging to the colonial government. On the other, the native people lived far simpler lives.
The difference made Soekarno wonder.
“Dad, why do those people live better than our people?”
His father did not answer right away.
He only said quietly, “Because power determines many things, son.”
Soekarno lowered his head.
That answer only filled his mind with even more questions.
Several years later, Soekarno began attending school in Surabaya. At school, he encountered all kinds of political thought and began discovering a much broader world.
He was not the kind of boy who stayed quiet.
Whenever he saw something he considered unfair, he asked questions.
Whenever he read something he did not understand, he searched for the answer.
And when he heard about other nations' struggles for freedom, his heart pounded.
One afternoon, Soekarno heard a name that would later have a profound influence on his life.
H.O.S. Tjokroaminoto.
That movement leader was known as one of the leaders of Sarekat Islam. To many young people, his house became a place where various ideas about the nation's future came together.
Soekarno, too, began drawing closer to that circle.
It was there that his thoughts began to develop even further.
He heard people discussing independence, education, justice, and the future of the people.
To the young Soekarno, it all felt like opening a brand-new door.
One night, he sat quietly after listening to a debate.
A young man asked him,
“Do you think our nation can become independent?”
Soekarno was silent for a few moments.
Then he answered,
“If we don't believe we can do it ourselves, who will believe in us?”
The room suddenly fell silent.
Soekarno himself was startled by the words that had come from his mouth.
Yet deep in his heart, he was beginning to find a conviction.
Independence was not impossible.
Independence was something they had to fight for.
The night grew late.
Outside, Surabaya was still filled with the sounds of life.
Soekarno stood by the window and gazed at the sky.
He did not yet know that a long journey lay ahead of him.
He did not yet know about the imprisonment, exile, debates, betrayals, and struggles to come.
All he knew was this:
He wanted to see his nation stand tall, with its head held high.
And that night, a resolve began to grow stronger within him.
The resolve of a young man determined to change the future.
Meanwhile, somewhere else, Mohammad Hatta was following his own path.
Two lives that had not yet met.
Two minds slowly taking shape.
And one day, history would bring them together.