Our monthly demonstration. Petition:237

                                         FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBT 
                                                                                          NGO, Status Roster

____________________________________________________________

His Excellency Shinzo ABE
Prime Minister of Japan

The Hague, 12 August 2014
Petition: 237
Subject:The meaning of August 15th

Excellency,
We remember the 15th of August 1945 as the day that Emperor Hirohito ordered his Imperial Army to cease the fighting and to surrender. For the then surviving Dutch Prisoners the news of the Japanese surrender came later, but they were liberated. They were kept in the concentration camps. Those outside the camps were subjected to further terror by the Japanese invoked Indonesian revolutionaries. On the 15th of August we remember the dead and the sufferings we endured. We are supposed to celebrate the end of the war. The truth is that those who survived and are still alive fully remember their fate at the hands of the Japanese military and the follow on of the Indonesian revolutionaries. But at the ceremonies they remember their lost ones. In particular how their lives ended through execution, torture, starvation, illnesses and lack of medicine and hygiene.For many of the survivors the end of the war meant a new challenge to survive. They had to move on for themselves, for their families and their children in particular and for their parents who lost all. They cannot forget and subsequently do not have respect for Japans' failure to acknowledge their war past and their moral responsibilities.

Prime Minister,
In this context it is outrageous that your government does not accept the advice of the UN Human Rights Council to acknowledge responsibility for the Comfort Women issues. It was possible the last opportunity for your government to do so honorably, in demonstrating Japan's sincerity to resolve the issues.The world will not forget Japans' refusal to follow the UN Human Rights Council advise. It will question Japans' standing as a responsible compassionate member of the international community, the United Nations.How remorseful is Japan for its past behavior? How long can you maintain this position of historical denial? How will Japanese voters react to the shame? The world is not all about economics and commerce, but it is ultimately about integrity in accepting history and humanity.

Prime Minister,
The MH17 plane disaster confronted the people of The Netherlands with the importance of the United Nations in maintaining an international community with respect for humanity and integrity. The pictures of the disaster site and the disrespect for the remains of the victims will be remembered always. His Excellency Mr. Timmermans, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, made the feelings and the disgust of the Dutch very clear in his speech to the UN Security Council. At this raw time for the Dutch Japan's disregard for its obligations to both the Dutch and the wider UN is unacceptable.

On behalf of the Foundation of Honorary Debts.

J.F. van Wagtendonk
President
cc UN High Commissioner of Human Rights
Attachment: High Commissioner Mrs. Navi Pillay Japan's approach to the issue of "Comfort Women" causing further violations of victims' human rights.

________________________________________________________________
Established April 4 1990
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Website: www.japanse-ereschulden.nl Mail: info@japanse-ereschulden.nl
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Attachment:

HIGH COMMISSIONER PILLAY: JAPAN'S APPROACH TO THE ISSUE OF "COMFORT WOMEN" CAUSING FURTHER VIOLATIONS OF VICTIM'S HUMAN RIGHTS 6 August 2014

GENEVA (6 August 2014)- United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Wednesday expressed profound regret that Japan had failed to pursue a comprehensive, impartial and lasting resolution of the issue of wartime sexual slavery, warning that the human rights of the victims, known as "comfort women", continued to be violated decades after the end of the Second World War.

"During my visit to Japan in 2010, I appealed to the Government to provide effective redress to the victims of wartime sexual slavery," the High Commissioner said."Now, as my tenure in office comes to an end, it pains me to see that these courageous women, who have been fighting for their rights, are passing away one by one, without their rights restored and without receiving the reparation to which they are entitled."

"This is not an issue relegated to history. It is a current issue, as human rights violations against these women continue to occur as long as their rights to justice and reparations are not realized," she stressed.

Instead of justice, the High Commissioner said, the women were facing increasing denials and degrading remarks by public figures in Japan. A report issued by a Government-appointed study team on 20 June 2014, stated that "it was not possible to confirm that women were forcefully recruited." Following the release of this report, a group in Tokyo publicly declared that "comfort women" were not sex slaves but wartime prostitutes."

"Such statements must cause tremendous agony to the women, but we have not seen any public rebuttal by the Government,"High Commissioner Pillay said.

Over the years, Japan has received recommendations from a number of United Nations independent experts, human rights treaty bodies and from the Human Rights Council under its Universal Periodic Review for it to take concrete measures to tackle the issue. Most recently, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which oversees implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, called on Japan to take "immediate and effective legislative and administrative measures" to ensure that all allegations of sexual slavery are investigated and perpetrators prosecuted. It also called for access to justice and reparations for victims and their families, the disclosure of all evidence available, and education in the country surrounding the issue.

Pillay noted that Japan had signed the United Nations Declaration on the Prevention of Sexual Violence in Conflict last year and that it had offered strong support to the UK summit on sexual violence in conflict earlier this year.

"I encourage Japan to pursue a comprehensive, impartial and lasting resolution of the wartime sexual slavery issue with the same vigour," she added, noting the Office's readiness to offer any necessary assistance.
 ==================================================

My mother on the right and her sister in the former Dutch Indies

This picture was taken just before the capitulation of the former Dutch East Indies. My mother and me, her sister and two children were soon there after taken to a so called protection camp. The Japanese had told them that they would be safe in these camps.. It turned out to be three and half years of hell. Locked up, not knowing what was going on outside their prison walls , with hundreds of other women and children.The atrocities they underwent while in these camps are almost not to describe.
My mother changed from a very happy young woman to a very sad woman. Like her sister they suffered tremendously at the hands of their captures. The Japanese military were cruel. I see them as monsters, who did what they liked. They behaved worse than animals.
This Japanese government has to come to terms with their past. They cannot keep glorifying their war heroes in the Shrine.Many of these war heroes were full blooded murderers.
I am angry at the Japanese government of today, how they handle the atrocities from the past. The Japanese government should be ashamed, to tel lies to their people. You are a bad example for the future generation of Japan. Japan prospered after the war, and the victims had to fend for themselves. The war was never over for them. They relived it over and over in their nightmares what your Military had done to them.We were lucky to be alive when the war was finally over. Your Emperor Hirohito had given the order to kill all POWs, women and children, so they would not be able to tell what they had endured. You were stopped by the A-Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Otherwise we would have been all murdered. Are you Japan going to say that this is a lie too? I am angry at the Japanese government of today, how they handle the atrocities from the past. I am angry at Japan that they say that we are the liars. I am angry at Japan that they deny what their forefathers have done to innocent people. They raped our mothers and sisters, they starved and worked us to death.  Shame on you!! I wonder if this Japanese government is ever going to take the blame.How long are the Japanese youth going to  follow the traditional culture of their parents, in which they glorify their past??  It makes me sad to think what this nation is being told by their government and their parents.Nothing but lies!

August 15, a day to remember.

Today it has been 69 years ago that we were free. Freed from our tyrants the Japanese Forces who occupied the former Dutch East Indies.For three and a half years they kept us behind barbwire and high fences. They had driven us from our homes, separated the men from the women and children and tortured, starved, used us for slave labor and raped the women.
Those who survived remember and feel their sufferings at the hands of the Japanese military and their agency still every day.
With pain and sorrow we will remember those who lost their lives at the hands of these barbaric Japanese Forces.
When I see the daily news on TV, I see that history repeat itself over and over again.I see the people being forced to flee from ISIS. I see men,women and children fleeing for their lives, driven from their homes. It's so terrible sad, but at least the world can see what is happening there. I think about my mother how she was forced out of her home and separated from her husband with thousands and thousands of other women and children. Being told by the Japanese forces that they were now the property of Japan and better obey by their rules, otherwise they would be killed.There was no food and water from the United States, no aid from the air. The United States themselves were at war with Japan. We were on our own. It's very sad to see these people now being stranded in refugee camps, but at least they are not terrorized anymore.I see small children and babies in their mothers arms and see myself. I was only one and a half year old and spend the next three and a half year growing up in a concentration camp terrorized by Japanese men, seeing the most awful things. After the war I was terrified of men, and thought I had to bow for them, otherwise my mother would be punished. We were held in concentration camps,captured and robbed from our freedom by the Japanese for three and a half year. There was no TV for the world to see what these barbaric Japanese military did to us.
Every second Tuesday of the month, we demonstrate in front of the Japanese Embassy in The Hague in the Netherlands for recognition for  what their Japanese military had done to us.How many more years we have to do this and continue to feel the pain since the capitulation of Japan on August 15,1945.Japan keeps denying their wrong doings during World War Two.We hope to live and see the day that we can put the past to rest.

Lest we forget!

Our monthly demonstration.Petition 236

                                  FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBTS
                                                                              NGO, STATUS ROSTER

His Excellency Shinzo ABE
Prime Minister of Japan

The Hague, 8 July,2014
Petition: 236
Subject: Japan's indigestible war history.

Excellency,

Why can you not accept that Japan lost its colonial war in 1945? Deal with it and recognize the moral consequences. Then you can concentrate on Japan's future in the Pacific region.As long as you do not accept this commitment your neighbors and the rest of the world will doubt Japan's intentions. Japan remains haunted by its past as it does not wish to acknowledge the historic facts.The sneaky way you try to throw doubts upon the Kono statement to satisfy local political interests makes Japan unstable and unreliable in the eyes of the world.Questioning the validity of the Kono statement and suggesting that the wording of the statement were established by diplomatic negotiations with the Republic of Korea is untrue and deceiving. The historic facts are overwhelming: the Imperial Forces committed war crimes as a matter of policy and were supported in this by Tokyo government. The Kono statement deals only with the terrible coercing of young women and girls by the Imperial Forces in Japanese occupied territories into sexual slavery, it does not cover the other atrocities committed by the Imperial Forces such as those to the Dutch in Netherlands-East-Indies.

Prime Minister,

Historical facts cannot be changed. As long as there is doubt about the meaning and amendments of apologetic statements by the belligerent nation Japan, the victims and their next of kin will never accept Japan's sincerity. They will continue to press for a universally accepted resolve to the Japanese Honorary Debts stemming from the misconduct by the Imperial Forces during World War Two. The continuous doubts expressed by you and by frustrated politicians, who remember it all too well but dare not take their responsibilities, are obviously done in order to avoid liabilities. If you are still in doubt about these historic facts have the courage to ask the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the facts and accept this honorably. For global acceptance cover not only the enforced sexual slavery issue, but the other issues such as crimes against humanity, and ignoring international conventions by the Imperial Forces. An independent investigation by historians and lawyers under the auspices of the Human Rights Commission would demonstrate Japan's sincerity to resolve the issues.

Prime Minister,
We require a personal acknowledgement of the receipt of this petition.

On behalf of of the Foundation of Honorary Debts,

J.F. Wagtendonk
President
Cc UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

==========================================================

Those who fought and all others, paid a dear price for freedom as Pacific Theater prisoners of war, deserve and need to be remembered. Most of all they deserve our thanks! Joseph C. Crew, a former US ambassador to Japan and special assistant to the Secretary of State, said in an official statement:"The Japanese people as a whole would if they knew the facts, be utterly ashamed. I doubt whether the perpetrators themselves will have any feeling what ever of repentance. But others, including perhaps some of their highest leaders, may and probably will feel a sense of shame, or at the very least, a desire to offset in future this record of barbarism."

These men, women and children suffered their own holocaust and this has never been recognized. This terrible injustice needs to be rectified as soon as possible. These men, women and children waited too long for their private hell to end. "Justice should be at the top of the list," and the accounts and information about the barbaric behavior of the Japanese Forces should be incorporated in our history books. It might be a deterrent for any of this happening again. We also call for an apology from Japan for its inhumane wartime acts.
This is not about race and it is not about Japan bashing, Its about reconciliation and what's right.
This is about Japan's rampage through the Pacific, which was the equal of, if not superior to Hitler's rampage through Europe. Emperor Hirohito and his minister of war, Hideki Tojo, were as convinced of the superiority of their race and their right to rule their neighbors, as Adolf Hitler was convinced of the superiority of the members of the Aryan race and their right to rule the world.
With the blessing of the emperor  Hirohito, the Japanese steamrolled through the Pacific, screaming "Tora! Tora! Tora!. (Tiger, Tiger, Tiger.)  at Pearl Harbor and they never looked back.
People all over the world gasped as they read reports of the Japanese atrocities that made headlines into newspapers. The Japanese brutality, many of rape and torture, about heads hung on poles with the looks of horror still in their eyes. The East, it was becoming apparent to anyone, was no place for a Westerner not with Japan on the rampage carrying their banners;"Asia for the Asians".
Emperor Hirohito who was made out as an innocent bystander after the war, wrote a telegram that was send on September 8 1942 to "All Transportation and Communication Chiefs" in which he told them, that all white POW's, due to a serious shortage of labor power in Japan, the use of these white POW's is earnestly desired.
This was against the Geneva Convention treaties, which Japan had signed and totally ignored.
Tens of thousands of troops and civilians from Australia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Canada and the United States had become integral if unwilling, part of the Japanese work force. They were used as POW slave laborers. These slave laborers were put into work camps throughout Japan's expanding empire. The majority of the camps were centered in Japan's four main islands. Honshu, Hokkaido. Shikoku and Kyushu. But the network spread out to eventually include work camps in Korea, Thailand, parts of Japanese controlled China, Java, Formosa, and as far north as Manchuria. All were directed by Japan's Prisoner of War Information Bureau in Tokyo. POW 's were the property of their companies during the day and the Japanese Army by night. Brutal, dangerous working conditions were a staple of the camps.
The biggest of the employer's were Japanese family conglomerates known as zaibatsus, including Mitsubishi, Mitsui, NNK (Nippon Iron and Steel) and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. At the POW complex in Mukden, Manchuria where the Mitsubishi zaibatsu oversaw textile and machinery manufacturing factories POW made artillery pieces that would be used against Allies. Next to the factories, in a place called Harbin, was Unit 731, where Japanese doctors used Allied prisoners for medical experiments.
King of the torture camps, in terms of sheer size and scope, was the moving chain gang that built the infamous Burma-Siam-Railway, through 225 miles of dense jungle. (This is where my father was a POW and where he was beaten, starved and worked to death. He died on September 18 1943 just one month before the railway line was finished. His friend survived the ordeal and was send to work camps in Japan. He met my mother when she was recovering in the Java center in Bandoeng in March 1946. He brought her his wedding ring and some belongings. He told my mother some of what had happened to them)
Of the 133,000 Allied prisoners of war taken by the Japanese, 36,000 died in captivity, a death rate of 27 percent, whereas German and Italian prisoner of war only 4 percent died during captivity. These prisoners of war fared considerably better in the European Theater, where Geneva Convention POW rules were more strictly observed.
Japan's prison camps extended the captives virtually no rights. Soldiers, civilians, women and children became slaves, powerless to do anything but obey their masters.
Hirohito, the war emperor died in 1989. It pains me to know that Emissaries from 163 nations and 27 international organizations gathered for the funeral of Emperor Hirohito, the biggest warrior who ever lived on this planet.
Most of the survivors from the Japanese Forces thought of them as beasts, although they were really not. A beast is an animal, and an animal kills only to eat. The Japs killed for fun.
Ambrose's description of World War Two: "The Japanese presentation of the war to its children runs something like this:'One day, for no reason we ever understood, the Americans started dropping atomic bombs on us'.
Mostly as the dearth of history books and discussions on the subject inside Japan attest, the subject is ignored.
My husband wondered how he would have held up under the brutality of the Japanese, the constant physical and mental abuse, the daily torment and deprivation. Would I have lasted three and a half year? He wondered if he would have been able to forgive the Japanese. It is difficult to imagine being in such a position.
The saddest of it all is that the United States of America and 48 other nations took away the rights of thousands of its fighting men in 1951 by signing the San Francisco Peace Treaty.
But the much discussed Article 14 (b) had been deleted from the text before the wording was approved.After the sentences "Except as otherwise provided in the present Treaty, the allied Powers waive all reparations claims of the Allied power, other claims of the Allied Powers and their nations, arising out of any action taken by Japan and its nationals in the course of the prosecution of the war. The deleted parenthetical read: "(Including claims arising out of the treatment accorded by Japan to its prisoners of war and civilian internees)."If that phrase had been allowed  to stay in, it would have definitively prohibited future claims by prisoners of war and civilian internees. That parenthetical was taken out, because the Dutch wouldn't do the deal. The Dutch realized it couldn't be done. Their constitution did not allow the taking of private property without compensation. The Dutch had a hundred thousand civilian internees that had been in Dutch portions of the Far East. It opened the door for Dutch prisoners of war and civilian internees to later file claims, should they choose, against Japanese nationals.
Why then is it that our own countries abandoned these soldiers and civilians. How come these soldiers-slaves and civilians internees are rewarded with great injustice?
It makes me angry. This terrible injustice needs to be rectified. The victims are old and dying. They have waited too long for their private hell to end. Following the end of the war, our governments allegedly instructed many of the POWs held by Japan, not to discuss their experiences and treatment. Some were even asked to sign nondisclosure agreements. Consequently many Dutch, Americans, Englishmen etc. etc. remain unaware of the atrocities that took place and the suffering our prisoners of war and civilians endured. Some survivors can never forgive the Japs for what they had done to them. As for me forgive and forget are the same words and have the same meaning.I can never forgive what these bastards had done to my mother and her sister and I will never be able to forget. I was only five years old when the war was over and we were freed from our tyrants, but I can never forget the years after the war when my mother so often woke me with her screams in the middle of the night having these terrible nightmares.Too many of her friends did not survive the harsh conditions in these camps.So many of them she never saw again. Seeing young children, and her friends dying because there was not enough food and medication. My mother would often say:" Its a miracle that we survived,we were nothing more but bones held together by very little flesh", and that's all she would say. Many of my questions were unanswered, the past was hurting her too much.
How can Japan begrudge these world war two veterans and civilians, now grand fathers, grand mothers and great grand fathers and mothers, asking for justice? The Japanese people as a whole would if they knew the facts, be utterly ashamed......
They suffered quietly, they suffered bravely, and they remained resolutely true to their roots. Those held prisoners by the Japanese came home, mostly unnoticed.

My mother passed away in 2003, not even knowing that her husbands remains were taken to Kanchanaburi where he was laid to rest, amongst his friends. Why did she not know and why was she never told, she would have been so much happier if she had known that he had at least a grave. All her life she thought that his remains were somewhere laying in the middle of the jungle along the infamous railroad line.How happy would she have been if she could have seen this.

Our monthly demonstration:Petition: 235

 

                                         FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBTS
                                                                                         NGO, Status Roster

 His  Excellency Shinzo ABE
Prime Minister of Japan

The Hague, 10 June 2014
Petition: 235
Subject: Review of the Kono apology.

Excellency,
In our previous petition 234 we stated that the Kono Statement and the Murayama Statement are only limited apologies as they deny Japan's full liability for the consequences of the Imperial Army's violations of human tights. We presented the points which should at least be included in the lasting apology by Japan on behalf of its people. The San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951 did not discharge Japan from its moral responsibilty. What happened in the past has a bearing on Japan's future.

Prime Minister,
The announcement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga that a "verifying team" is to study how the Kono Statement was established and on which  facts it was based makes the remarks in our petition 234 even more valid. Although the Chief Cabinet Secretary remarked that the Kono Statement will not be revised during your administration, it begs the question what will happen if the review concludes differently to the official apology. This is why we request the Japanese government in a gesture of penance to promise in the apology that it will never happen again. Indeed a commitment which will be lasting into the future. President Barak Obama's damning remarks in Seoul following his visit to Tokyo about Japan's institutionalized forced recruitment into prostitution during World War Two as a "terrible, egregious violation of human rights" should be taken into account by the "verifying team". As should Japan's general unwillingness to accept the world's disapproval of Japan's World War Two past. We recommend you instruct your verifying team to involve surving victims from the Netherlands East Indies (now called Indonesia) in its review.

Prime Minister,
The issues which the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts presented in her petitions are issues which will not go away. It is not a legal matter but requires an Honorable solution in accepting the moral obligation stemming from the behavior of the Imperial Army during World War Two. We are confident that if you put the question to the Japanese people, they will admire your courage and agree to resolve this painful memory of World War Two. And this will allow your country to move far more quickly into the future.

We require a personal acknowledgement of the receipt of this petition.

On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts,

J.F. van Wagtendonk
President

================================================

Its sad that this matter is taking so long to get solved. Many of the women who were abused by the Japanese Imperial Army have passed away. They lived their lives with the most unbearable memories they had to undergo at the hands of their captures. The emotional pain they had to live with for the rest of their lives is not to describe. Many a night I have laid in my bed listening to my mothers cries, as she relived in her dreams the Japanese officers using her over and over. My mother and I, her sister and two children were taken to our first camp in Moentilan,on the island of Java, where we each received a number. My mother's was 546, and mine was 547. We were no human beings anymore, we belonged to the Emperor of Japan.Yes we survived the horrors of the camps....  My mother passed away in 2003 and her sister in 1995. It doesn't matter for them anymore, but for us their children it will matter , and after we have gone our children will fight for an apology from Japan for the behavior of the Imperial Army, and we will keep seeking for a sincere apology which hopefully cure the emotional pain. As Barak Obama said it is a terrible egregious violation of human rights.
My mother was a very happy woman. Happily married to the love of her life. In 1941 they were blessed with a daughter, which is me. Oh how proud they were.How everything changed in 1942 when the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies.Their lives would never be the same.My father died a horrible death at the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army building  the infamous Burma railroad at the young age of  twenty six. My mother and her sister with their children spending three and a half year behind barbwire and high fences.Almost starved to death and being subjects of daily beatings.
Many of to- days people, specially the younger generation, are not aware of the ultimate sacrifice they made to stand up against evil!! They were truly the greatest generation of heroes. And that's why we should stand up for their rights and fight for Japan's unwillingness to accept their World War Two past,and the evil their Japanese Imperial Army inflicted.

Happy times, my mother in the middle, my father on the right.

Me in front of our house, with the boys from the neighborhood.

My mother often wondered what happened to these boys. Did they survive the camps? What happened to their mothers and fathers?  Their childhood was taken away by evil. Did they end up in the boys camps, where they had to work day in day out and take care of themselves? Innocent boys who had to live three and half years in fear, being ruled by the Japanese Imperial Army. How they must have suffered. Facts of history have to be passed on to our next generation, so this will never happen again.

Only 10 years old.

Boys camps.

                                                              LEST WE FORGET!

Our monthly demonstration. petition:234

                                         FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBTS
                                                                                           NGO,STATUS ROSTER

His Excellency, Shinzo ABE
Prime Minister of Japan

The Hague, 13 May 2014
Petition: 234
Subject: Meaningful formal apology by Japan for its wartime atrocities.

Excellency,
The Netherlands remember their war dead on May 4th. Each year it is a very moving moment when the King and Queen lay their wreath in remembrance, thus paying their respect to all Dutch who died during World War Two and during peace keeping missions. It is also the moment to reflect on how Japan remembers World War Two. In particular how Japan has dealt with the atrocities by its Imperial Army, its poor apology to the victims and their next of kin and Japan's disregard of world opinion.

Prime Minister,
The Kono statement and the Murayama statement are limited apologies as they deny Japan's liability for the consequences of the Imperial Army's violations of human rights. They do not involve the victims and their next of kin in a gesture of penance. The actions of current Japanese politicians demonstrate time and again that the apologies are not made sincerely by the Japanese nation and continue to haunt Japan. The suggested revision of the constitution proves that the Japanese apologies in their present form cannot be taken seriously. Formal government apologies have to be meaningful and state the facts in order to be acceptable now and in the future. It is essential that Japan issues a meaningful apology in which:
     -     Japan acknowledges the wartime atrocities by its Imperial Army,
     -     Japan accepts responsibility for these atrocities,
     -     Japan sincerely apologizes and incorporates the surviving victims and their
            next of kin in formulating the apology,
     -     Japan promises that its military nor any other government body in future
           are involved in atrocities and other violations of human rights,
     -     Japan offers concrete reparations to the victims and their next of kin,
     -     Japan formally remembers in wartime ceremonies the atrocities,
            involves the victims and their next of kin and educates its people
            on the importance to remember the past for a better future,
     -     Japan's apology is by an act of Parliament, in which it accepts both legally
            and morally liability to the victims and their next of kin and penalizes denial
            of  the atrocities by politicians.


Prime Minister,
We are not alone in requesting Japan to apologize for its wartime atrocities. In formulating our request we made use of the concept of apology by Calvin Hancock for Toronto ALPHA, Association for learning and preserving the history of World War Two in Asia.

We require a personal acknowledgement of the receipt of this petition.

On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts,

J.F.Wagtendonk,
President

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The following is an article I read while in The Netherlands. It was written in the newspaper Haarlems Dagblad on April 26,2014. I will translate it as best as I can.

                                                 
                  American president wants a solution about the affair of the 'comfort women'

                                                  OBAMA IS ANGRY WITH JAPAN

From our reporter:

Seoul * The American president Barack Obama called upon Japan in strong words to get to a solution about the 'comfort women', foreign women who during World War Two were forced by the Japanese Military to work in brothels as sex slaves. He likes to have this business once and for all solved.
This was a terrible and injustice of the human rights", he said during a visit to the South Korean capital city Seoul. The matter of comfort women clouds the relation ship between Japan and South Korea. But also women from other countries like, The Netherlands, the Philippines and China, were victims of this terrible crime from the Imperial Army. They also are fighting for decades for recognition and excuses and compensation from the Japanese government. According to Obama the victims have the right' to be heard and have the right to be respected'."We have to come to an accurate picture from what has happened during that time", said President Obama. The Japanese prime minister Shinzo ABE has accepted the past, according to Obama and has agreed to recognize this 'honestly and sincerely'. "My hope is that we can come to an honest conclusion to bring these tensions from the past to an end and work on the future and the possibility for peace and prosperity for all nations."
The American president met during the top nuclear meeting in The Hague the government leaders of both Asian countries for the first time since their line of duty. They already had discussed earlier this month about the question of the 'comfort women'.
==========================================================

The Foundationof Japanese Honorary Debts was established in 1990 with the purpose of looking after the interests of the Netherlands-Dutch-citizens who, during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), were victims of the Imperial Japanese military during World War Two.

The Dutch citizens were interned in concentration camps, families were split up and men, women and children put in separate camps. No communication was allowed, smuggling of messages was impossible; if caught it cost your life, in the best case you were brutally tortured. Many men were transported overseas and forced to do slavery work on railroads (e.g. Birma railroad) the mines or do coolie work in harbors. War time conventions were violated despite acceptance of these conventions by Japan.

Those Dutch left outside the camps on racial grounds were terrorized and disallowed to work for a living.

All were subjected to organised terror by the military, including enforced sex slavery and other forms of slavery, torture, intimidation, harsh disciplines, systematic starvation and denial of medicine. Many died and the ones who survived cannot forget their ordeal. Many continue to live with traumas and other health problems.  Still now, more than 68 years after the end of this war people come forward with their personal stories, the memories that still haunt them.

                                                   
GENERAL ASSEMBLY


HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Twenty-fourth session
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development

Written statement' submitted by the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts, a non-governmental organization on the roster

The secretary-General has received the following statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.
                                                                                                           [ 18 August 2013 ]


*This statement is issued, unedited, in the language(s) received from the submitting non-governmental organization(s).

                                                  HAUNTING MEMORIES

One of these stories is an eye witness report of a then 14 year old boy who had only just moved into Women's Hospital camp Solo on the island of Java, together with his mother, his two older sisters of 15 and 18 and his younger brother of 10.

His story is about Japanese officers who, as announced several weeks beforehand, came to collect 30 Dutch girls from Camp Solo in 1943.

In his own words written down in 2013 at the age of 86.

Quote:"Led by a young female doctor, Dr.Engels, thirty girls had soiled themselves and some had inflicted small injuries to themselves, such as little wounds on their lips. These would fester and looked very unappealing. At the time, I didn't understand it. These girls looked terrible and reeked immensely. Hair was no longer cut and there was no more bathing. Dresses were torn and smeared. Rags were bound around legs and the girls were taught how to limp and squint.

Once in a while there was some giggling because of these smelly, dirty disguises, but in the hearts of the girls and their mothers was great fear and grief because no one knew what the Japanese were planning. It was clear however that, once the Japanese had made their choice, those girls would have to go with them. Tes, working in a hospital, getting an education and all kinds of other promises were made, but behind the scenes there was silent grief and great uncertainty.

And so the day arrived. Several girls had fallen ill because of all the misery and fear. There was vomitting and crying..

In my thoughts I saw my sisters standing there. What would happen to them? No one knew. There they were. Five senior Japanese officers, in full uniform with high hats, imperial samurai swords, gold stripes and shiny leather boots. There were they, on the steps of the hospital, our Camp building, in Solo. Everyone in the camp had to be present on the forecourt. About 1800 women and children were already waiting for an hour. It was dead quiet. My little 10 year old brother was sitting on the ground playing with sand and stones. My mother cried softly.

First a long story in Japanese translated by a Javanese interpreter in Malay: the beloved, benevolent and divine Japanese emperor Hirohito was pleased that 30 girls from the Women's camp were allowed to study in Japan, or would be trained as nurses, and could then go to work in various hospitals.

[In reality, girls, once selected in this manner, were forced to prostitution in brothels run by the military, as 'Comfort Women' for the Japanese forces.]
A spacious place in front of the steps of the building was kept free for the girls. There they would stand in a long line. Somewhere elase the girls must have been standing at the ready. But they didn't show up.

And then this happened.

The Japanese officers became restless: First murmurings, then profanities. They were not used to this. Our camp director, Mrs.Smith, was called forward. It took a while. Doctor Engels, a female doctor and the only doctor in the Women's camp, the one that had 'prepared' the girls, walked along with Mrs. Smith, onto the steps of the terrace. When asked where the girls were, the camp director told the interpreter in Malay that the girls were too young and were needed in the Camp. Doctor Engels continued that the girls were sick and weakened because there was not enough food in the camp. She added that the girls could not leave because they had to take care of their sick mothers and the smaller children.

Doctor Engels immediately got a hard slap in the face from a Japanese officer. She almost fell to the ground and just managed to prevent the man from hitting her with his sheathed sword by grabbing the sacred Japanese sabre. This caused her and the samurai to topple over backwards onto the floor. We knew what this would mean. This was a deadly sin to the Japanese. A holy Samurai was not to be touched by anyone, most certainly not by a woman!

Then all the officers went mad. Doctor Engels was kicked till she bled and beaten up completely, until she stopped moving. She was then dragged away to the hallway behind the terrace. We heard her screaming in agony a few times, and then there was silence. I remember that Doctor Engels lived another few days, but then died from her injuries.

She had had the courage to say NO and the died for the sake of the lives of 30 Dutch camp girls. All women and children present on the forecourt flew in all directions in a panic, back to their rooms and to the barracks, in desperate fear of what could happen now.

The Japanese officers retreated and got in their cars and left without having seen the girls.

A second attempt to pick up the girls failed to materialize and why......we do not know. Probably because soon the 'Military Command' of the women's camps was transferred to a Japanese Citizen Authority or Board.As far as I know there was never any retaliation, except that we received no food that day and all of the about 200 boys aged 10 to 18 were taken to the Boys Camp7 in Ambarawa 100 kilometers away in the week after the uprising."  End of quote.

Memories like these still haunt the victims of the Japanese concentration camps.

On behalf of these victims the board of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts continues to seek moral recognition and justice. The Japanese government, due to international pressure, will ultimately have to acknowledge that they have a moral duty towards the Dutch from the former Netherlands East Indies. The Japanese government claims that as a nation they "fight" for peace and justice, taking its responsibilities in the international bodies seriously, playing significant roles in human rights, conflict mediation and peace keeping forces. Before claiming this position however Japan must consider its past and rectify their wrongdoings.

The Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts requests the Human Rights Council to ensure that at last, after 68 years, Japan recognizes the facts and settles the damage by compensating the victims.
==============================================================

                                                              some camp drawings:

Boys have to go to separate camps, mothers crying saying goodbye.

These were heart wrenching scenes.Would they ever see their kids again? How cruel to take boys only just 10 years old from their mothers.

Our monthly demonstration. petition 233.

                        
                                        FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBTS
                                                                                                  NGO,Status Roster

His Excellency Shinzo ABE
Prime Minister of Japan

The Hague, 8 April 2014
Petition: 233
Subject: Murayama and Kono statements uphold!


Excellency,
Just prior to the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, the Japanese government wisely announced that they would continue to adhere to the apologies for wartime behavior made by past Japanese cabinets in 1993 and 1995. On behalf of the members of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts we are relieved that Japan will uphold the Murayama and Kono statements and, by implication, no longer put in doubt Japan's responsibility for the World War Two atrocities by the the Imperial Army.

Prime Minister,
During the Nuclear Security Summit in the Hague you visited the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam. A war memorial of a Dutch girl, famous for her diary, murdered in the Holocaust. You faced the historical facts in a humble manner. You said that you would like to pass on the lessons and facts of history to the next generation. We assume that you will do likewise in Japan. You are obliged to educate your people to recognize that Japan's Imperial Army also attempted genocide to the same extent as the Holocaust. Many of the Dutch children of Anne Frank's age in the Dutch East Indies did not survive the war. Those who survived remember and feel their sufferings at the hand of the Japanese military and their agents every day. It is time that you acknowledge those historic facts as well, as an Honorary Debt of Japan, to the world in general, and to the Dutch in particular.

The Anne Frank House and her diaries are monuments of war. Amongst others the Germans continue to visit the museum and are humbled and ashamed, despite their Wiedergutmachung. Your visit should have been in shame as Japan has not made its Wiedergutmachung to the Dutch who survived, nor did you attempt to open up Japans World War Two military history to the people of Japan. The Japanese educational textbooks ignore the facts and give false impressions. There are even attempts to destroy copies of Anne Frnak diaries in Japanese libraries, and yet you visited the Anne Frank Museum.

Prime Minister,
In your discussion with Prime Minister Rutte you indicated that the doors for dialogue are always open. You also stated that Japan will continue programs to cure the emotional pain of the Dutch people who were detained and mistreated by the now defunct Imperial Army. We would highly appreciate an immediate date to meet to open the dialogue on curing the emotional pain and conclude this issue, on mutually acceptable terms. An annual trip for 20 of the remaining 60.0000 Dutch victims of Japanese terror does not cure many. Acknowledgement with appropriate atonement will be a better cure.

We require a personal acknowledgemnet of the receipt of this petition.

On behalf of the Foundation of Honorary Debts.

J.F. Wagtendonk
President.

================================================================

We are all there, on the left Sietske my sister, Thea, Carla. Pic. taken by Ruud.

Hanging up the banners.

Carla my sister in law busy hanging the banners.

It was windy that day and not easy to hang the banners.

When we were hanging  the banners and I saw the writing on it again, it made me want to cry.Why do we have to do this every month? When is Japan going to admit they committed these atrocities. It surprises me every time that Japan shows no respect. Its unbelievable that they show no remorse. We will not ever  forgive those who gave the orders to maltreat and gave the order to kill us all in order to hide the war crimes of the Japanese military.
I am thinking a lot of my mother and her sister, how they were raped by these beasts who called themselves soldiers. It is sad that they had to live the rest of their lives with these horrible memories. How they must have suffered at the hands of the Japanese military and their agents.How my mother tried to erase all these horrible  memories from what was in my head.She kept saying that I suffered from bad nightmares and telling me all the time that things like that do not happen in real life.For my mother and her sister it was a nightmare.As long as I live I will write about Japan's past, until maybe one day they will recognize their past wrong doings during World War Two. I will not rest until they admit that my mother and her sister, and so many girls and women were forcefully abused by their officers in a church (of all places) during our captivity in a concentration camp in Moentilan.That day will be the day that my mother and her sister will rest in peace.

As usual the curtains close when we arrive.

We were happy to be able to participate on this day in The Netherlands at the demonstration in The Hague. At twelve o'clock we arrived in front of the Japanese Embassy. As soon as the Japanese noticed we had arrived for our monthly demonstration the curtains closed. It seems like they still do not like to face the facts, 'the facts of history'. It is very easy to close your eyes and curtains for the reality which occurred so many years ago.Japan thinks that one day it will just disappear and forgotten.

On the left General Bouman, 91 years old.

 General Benjamin Bouman has written numerous books. One of his books is called "From Three colors to Red and White". (Means the three colored flag, Red, White and Blue from The Dutch East Indies was changed into two colors into the Indonesian flag Red and White. The color blue was cut off). General Bouman fought first in Holland and was fighting alongside the Americans on the Waal in Rotterdam. Later he went with the Americans to the Dutch East Indies to help fight the Japanese.. It was very interesting to listen to him. He has some tales to tell.We are very fortunate to have met General B. Bouman. Thank you for telling us some of your stories. We are sure you have many of them.

J.F. van Wagtendonk. our president from Foundation of J.H.D.

He lost several of his family during that horrible time, when Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies. He has some heart wrenching stories to tell. Thank you for being our president and all the work you have done over the years for our Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts.

Here we are singing The Captives' Hymn.

Today was a historic day for the demonstration, as two Japanese Journalists were present . This Newspaper is being made out as being Anti Nationalist. Our president J.F. van Wagtendonk , secretary Brigitte van Halder and Jose Adriaansen-Smit were interviewed for an half hour and were asked if they could continue this interview on Wednesday April 9, for another couple of hours. We will hear more about this interview at the next yearly meeting from The Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts, which will be held
May 20.

We are not getting younger.

But as long as we can and able to walk we will be at the demonstration every second Tuesday of the month in The Hague. We will remind Japan of their past, as long as we live. Many of us have since passed away, hoping to hear  that Japan fully recognize their wrong doings during WW2.


STATEMENTS UN

Japan must remember its past. 
March 17th

On March 14, 2014 Mrs. Jose Adriaansen-Smit, read the following statement during the 25th session of The Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL,

                                   JAPAN MUST REMEMBER ITS PAST

Mr. President,

Japan must remember its past. It must honor the victims who survived the Japanese occupation of the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) during World War Two.

The surviving victims, who are in their seventies and eighties now, were children then. As children they had to endure the evil of the Japanese military occupation.They know and painfully feel their past. They know how it was to endure hunger, maltreatment, enslavement and to be forced to see the humiliation of their mothers, sisters and brothers. They cannot forget the deliberate barbaric treatment they had to endure at the hands of the Japanese military and their agents. The traumatic experience of slave labor, no matter how young they were, is still with them. They know how it feels not knowing what happened to their fathers, who were kept in separate captivity.

Of the surviving victims many suffered from incurable disorders. All cannot forget their ordeal and continue to live with traumas and other health problems.

It cannot be a surprise to you that we do not respect and cannot forgive those who gave the orders to maltreat them and ultimately ordered to kill them all in order to hide the war crimes of the Japanese military.

The Japanese leaders of the war period lost all respect for humanity. The present leaders must accept that and must not try to rewrite history. There is not and there never will be honor in glorifying the Japanese military behavior during World War Two. It would be honorable for the present leaders of Japan to admit and not to glorify the past.

Every year more of these victims, including Comfort Women, die of old age. This does not mean that their pain and their stories will be forgotten. It is up to the next generations to use their voices until the Japanese government listens and accepts the moral commitment from art.14 (a) of the San Francisco Peace treaty:"It is recognized that Japan should pay reparations for the damage and sufferings caused by it during the war."

On behalf of all the surviving victims of Japanese military terror, children then, the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts demands acknowledgement from the Japanese authorities of the gross violations of human rights and seeks redress for the damage done to the individual victims still alive or their next of kin for those who passed away.

                         Some pictures taken after the capitulation of Japan.

Behind barbwire.

Lucky to be alive.

Not many pictures exist from after the capitulation of Japan. But these photographs are a reminder how the victims looked like when the war with Japan was finally over. It was shocking how the victims looked like, it was not to describe. They looked like walking skeletons, men, women and children alike.

Our monthly demonstration in The Hague.petition # 232

                                             FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBTS
                                                                                             NGO,STATUS ROSTER


His excellency Shinzo ABE
Prime Minister of Japan


The Hague, 11 March 2014
Petition: 232
Subject: Review of the 1993 Kono statement.


Excellency,
The world is astounded by your government's decision  to consider the so called Kono statement of 1993. According to your chief Cabinet Secretary evidence given by "comfort women" is to be re-examined.Much of the information given has been verified by many and proven to be correct. Whilst considering the evidence it is opportune also to consider the evidence taken by the 1946-1949 Temporal Military Tribunal of Batavia. 356 Japanese military and their civilian agents serving in Netherlands East Indies during its occupation were accused of war crimes. Of the accused 59 (more than 20%) were sentenced to death and subsequently executed. Only 27 (less than 10%) were acquitted.

Prime Minister,
Among the cases considered by the Tribunal was the so-called Semarang compulsory prostitution case. Officers of the Japanese army and their Japanese civilian agents were convicted for removing, under force and threat, young European girls and women from concentration camps, These girls and women were coerced into prostitution for Japanese officers. The victims made sworn statements that they were not volunteers, but were abused and forced by camp commanders, systematically raped and forced into sexual slavery for Japanese officers in specially organized "clubs".
The Tribunal punished the Japanese offenders severely including the death penalty and long prison sentences.

Prime Minister,
It would have been more courageous if you had taken the opportunity of the revision to personally announce that you would bring the "revised" Kono statement to the Diet for approval. Then you should widen the scope of the apology to include the brutal and unacceptable and unlawful behaviour of the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces in the occupied territories of South East Asia during World War Two. Failing to do so will continue to question the sincerity of Japan in recognizing its past and apologizing for its war crimes. It will worsen Japan's global moral standing, Japan must accept responsibility and face up to its past. It must make good what it had failed to do so far, for the survivors and the next of kin. An obvious and weak willed attempt to undermine the victims of your country's military will only add to Japan's further shame.

We would welcome an acknowledgement of the receipt of this petition by you personally.

On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts,

J.F.van Wagtendonk
President.


================================================================


 This article I read on the website : www.powtaiwan.org/
                                                                 
Japan's Democracy At Risk-Japan under the new ABE regime. 

For the past many months we have featured articles on the homepage regarding the sweeping changes taking place in Japan under the new LDP government of Shinzo Abe and his Right Wing extremists.

We have shown from reports and studies, first hand news accounts and references, how the Abe government wants to return to the extreme Right Wing policies of former times, how they want the so-called apologies made by the former prime ministers and renounce the previous stand on the :Comfort Women", now saying that that they were simply prostitutes and that they were necessary and that they were not coerced or forced by the Japanese military to perform services for the troops. They want to re-write Japan's pacifist constitution in order to make it possible for Japan to wage war again, and more alarmingly, they want to limit or abolish human rights and freedoms, so they can persecute those who differ with their opinion or who want to peacefully gather in protests. If one looks back at the history of the 20th Century, one can clearly see that these were also the polocies adopted and propagated by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis when they came to power 80 years ago in 1933!

 

THE NOOSE TIGHTENS ON JAPAN'S DEMOCRACY -March 11,2014
Japan's new secrecy law will gag the media and limit Freedom of the Press...... 

Read the ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL report at-

http/www.japanfocus.org/-Lawrence-Repeta/40867utm_source=March+10%2C=2014& utm_campaign+China%27s+Connectivity+Revolution&utm_medium=email

Amongst us their will always be dictators like Hitler. Its sad but it seems like many of us forgot the past. I recently was in The Netherlands and one of my family members said: 'People should let go of the past , and forget.' This person is one of many people who are not interesting in history and mankind's history. These are the people who will  be condemned to repeat the past. Its very sad that they forgot how many died for them, so they are able to live in peace.These are the people who should see the thousands and thousands of crosses all over the world, with fallen soldiers who gave their life.These soldiers were not able to live their life to the fullest. They died for their country, fighting evil.Those who survived the war, had to live their lives with the terrible atrocities they had seen, with their buddies dying in their arms. Its something we should never forget, and should always be remembered and taught to our children. They should not have died in vain.

                                                           LEST WE FORGET!