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.