Expo in hall library about The Dutch- Indies.

First of all I have no news yet about the meeting with the house of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament. The meeting was postponed until the 28th of June.
In the meantime their will be an Exhibit at the library in Roosendaal. "After 65 years,still the children who paid the piper'.
This is about the Dutch community from the former Dutch Indies,during and especially after world war II.

Bandoeng destroyed.

Street in Bandoeng

Waterway in Bandoeng

School bus with students in Bandoeng

The exhibit is an initiative of the foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts in deliberation with the Indies Platform and will be officially opened by the Mayor Jacques Niederer from Roosendaal, on June 17th.
The exhibit is a compound on the basis of two NIOD-accounts, the Dutch government instructed professor dr. Hans Meijer and dr. P.Keppy to put this together.

In these reports('trails of destruction' and 'Indies account') both scientists affirm
that after world war II the Dutch government has neglected and purposeful forgot about the interests from about three-hundred-thousand Dutch from the former Dutch-Indies.This enormous group of Dutch people feels that the Netherlands has neglected them for already 65 years.They are still waiting for acknowledgement and a justified settlement of wages and pensions, the socalled 'backpay'.
The compliers of these reports speak about a very harsh judgement, how this has been handled. Profressor dr. Meyer said that the situation during an interview some years ago was' shocking and dr. Keppy spoke of 'shameful.
The two NIOD-reports are,in spite of the promises of government and parliament,still not taken care off in the house of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament.This is one of the reasons why this exhibit was put together. Through this exhibit these two reports will give insight and understanding.

On June 28, we finally will be heard by the house of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament.

Elizabeth van Kampen, my best friend from Holland, said on facebook:
Dr. Keppy wrote a very good book about what every single one of us, Indonesian-Indo-Europeans and Dutch have lost. Especially our parents of course. So please order a copy.

I am sad to say, that there are also people who oppose our rights to that acknowledgement, and/or compensation for their own pet reasons, which are usually spawned by their enormous ignorance and hate.
I hope for these people that a day will come they change their mind.It is sad that they do not know the history, which was never been taught in school.So I do not blame them.I only feel sorry for them, that they are talking about something they do not know about.

As soon as I know, how the meeting with the house of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament went, I will write about it on my blog.

Amsterdam, 1947. Protest against sending military to Indonesia.

 On the signs it says: Stop the war, Save our boys, Peace with Indonesia, No fighting but friendship.
Protest against the Dutch government.

Peru apologises for WWII persecution of Japanese

LIMA- PRESIDENT Alan Garcia on Tuesday, June 14 2011, apologized for the arbitrary arrest of thousands of Japanese immigrants and their deportation to US internment camps during World War II.

The Japanese immigrants were rounded up by the pro-US government of the time soon after Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

'Today, as president of Peru, we ask for forgiveness for this grave attack on human rights and the dignity of the Peruvian-Japanese and the Japanese in 1941,'Mr Garcia said. 'Thousands of Japanese citizens or children of Japanese were arbitrarily and illegally detained....mobs of bandits raided your homes, your businesses, and occupied your property.'

He noted that 'the Peruvian government has never asked for forgiveness or apologized'.'Today I say, as president of Peru, that we ask for forgiveness,'he said. Most of the Latin Americans of Japanese origin in US internment camps came from Peru, according to journalist Alejandro Sakuda, who has written extensively on the subject.

Many of the survivors today are seeking a compensation equivalent to the indemnity Japanese-Americans received in 1988, when the United States officially apologized for internment camps. The first Japanese immigrants sailed to Peru in 1899 aboard the Sakura-Maru. Most came to work on cotton or sugar plantations. Some 100.000 descendants of Japanese immigrants today live in Peru, according to government figures.

The most famous Peruvian of Japanese descent is Alberto Fujimori, president 1990-2000, who is serving a prison sentence on rights abuse and corruption charges. Fujimori traveled to Japan in the final days of his presidency in the midst of a corruption scandal, then resigned via fax from a Tokyo hotel. Japan subsequently granted him citizenship, and Lima spent years trying to convince Tokyo to extradite Fujimori to face criminal charges.


This article I read in the STRAITS TIMES breaking world news.

I hope Japan will follow next. It is never too late to apologize for all the wrong doings Japan has inflicted on human beings in world war II.
WHEN IS THIS DAY COMING? DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORD "APOLOGIZE"
DOES "MOSHIWAKE GOZAIMASEN" AND A 90 DEGREE BOW DO IT?OR DOES THE SITUATION CALL FOR FURTHER ELABORATION AND ACTS OF CONTRITION?

Our trip to Holland

Just returned from my vacation in Holland. We had a great time. Met lots of our friends, who we had not seen for over 40 years.It was like time stood still. The only difference was a few wrinkles.We left 0n May 6 with KLM and arrived in Holland Saturday May 7, 12 noon.On Tuesday May 10 we went to The Hague, to attend a demonstration in front of the Japanese embassy.The Dutch who survived the war as prisoners of war from the Japanese, demonstrate every second Tuesday of each month.This has been done for years. The Japanese have never acknowledged their wrong doings in World War 2.Two people from the foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts spoke with the Prime Minister of Japan the Excellency Naoto KAN.

Elizabeth van Kampen and me in front of the Japanese embassy, in the background my cousin Toby.

Here we are the three of us in The Hague at the demonstration.

Excellency,

Disasters caused by nature are difficult to comprehend, albeit they offer numerous opportunities for change. An obvious one and most exciting is the quantum leap one can make in resolving old problems. In this context the earthquake and tsunami could be a chance "to face up to the past in shaping the future." These famous words by the great former German President Freiherr Von Weizsacker made it possible for the German people to accept their responsibility for the past in acknowledging the wrongdoings by the Nazi regime and compensate the victim materially and immaterially.

Prime Minister,

In my previous petition I initiated an opportunity in the field of sustainable energy. Japan's original strategy to rely in future on mainly nuclear power will no longer get the public support needed. Preference, desire and expectations in establishing future energy sources determine the strategic decisions. No longer are short cuts or committee decisions the order of the day, but dynamic leadership with a clear vision and willingness to invest in the future will be required. We noted that you have been much involved in setting up a reconstruction agency to cope with the immediate task of restoring the earth quake and tsunami damage, but with a view to the future too. In this context it would be suitable to consider the suggestions made in my previous petition 197. The Dutch sustainable energy initiators could jointly with Japanese industry and the Japanese government explore ways of cooperation whereby the fruits of this cooperation could form the basis of a new foundation which would resolve the historic wrongs of the Japanese military in the Far East, in particular the Dutch from the Dutch East Indies during the Pacific War.

Prime Minister,
I sincerely look forward to your early reply. Time is of the essence in restoring confidence and taking lead.

On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts,

J.F. van Wagtendonk.
President.

We held up a big sign , which said: NO PEARL HARBOR....NO HIROSHIMA! After the demonstration, which lasted for about an hour, we all met in a restaurant close to the Peace Palace in The Hague, and got to hear what the Japanese ambassador had to say. As usual they had all kinds of excuses.I met a few people who had been in the same prison camp as me. It was very emotional.Sad that none of them remembered my mother or my aunt.So many have passed away.It was so nice to meet with Elizabeth van Kampen, who had been a prisoner of war in Banjoebiroe. It was very nice to talk to her.She was 15 years old when she was put in this camp with her two sisters and mother.She told me that she had to work everyday outside the camp, she only knew the girls and young women from her shift.When they got back from their days work they were too exhausted, to even be interested what was going on in the camp. The most remarkable thing was that she, her mother and her sisters must have been on the same transport as my mother and I. We might even have been on the same truck, which took us from this prison camp, after the war. We were one of the last people of the camp who were taken from there, because our mothers were so sick.It was November 26 1945.

The cells in Banjoebiroe 10, where we were locked up.How it is now.

A drawing from Banjoebiroe 10. How it was.

I received an e-mail from Elizabeth van Kampen which said that the foundation had a meeting on June 8 with the house of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament. There will be another demonstration on Tuesday 14th. and the 16th we hope to hear from the Dutch government if we will get a payment, yes or no.
The thing is that all we like to hear, and from the government and the media that not only the Dutch in Holland suffered from world war2, but also the Dutch in the Dutch Indies. Our wartime was nothing compared to the Netherlands they always say. We always get put in the background. Very strange indeed, because we are Dutch very much Dutch.When will we get recognition, which we seek so desperately?

I cannot wait till the 16th.

A few more pictures taken in The Hague on May 10 2011.

Elizabeth van Kampen with my husband at the demonstration in The Hague.

                                                    

                                                  Peace Palace in The Hague

Heartache and destruction

What is going on in the world? America struck by tornadoes.Mother nature at its worst. So many death's. So much destruction,so many people homeless.What struck me the most is, that the newspapers and televisions were hardly mentioning it, all stations were following the royal wedding. Maybe it is that people like to see happiness and fairy tales. It is very depressing to see so much heartache, destruction and sorrow.People are sick and tired to watch people getting killed through war, and disasters.
I came upon this recipe and had to put it on my blog.One of my friends in Jamaica had it hanging in their kitchen.

A Happy home recipe.

4 cups of love.
2 cups of loyalty.
3 cups of forgiveness.
1 cup of friendship.
5 spoons of hope.
2 spoons of tenderness.
4 quarts of faith.
1 barrel of laughter.

Take love and loyalty, mix it thoroughly with faith.
Blend it with tenderness, kindness and understanding.
Add Friendship and hope.
Sprinkle abundantly with laughter.
Bake it with sunshine.
Serve daily with generous helpings.

When you serve this recipe daily,your life will be beautiful.

This is Love.

 

                                                             Is it life wonderful?

I am not alone.

Today I was doing some shopping in the mall, and when I was ready to pay my bill, the cashier asked me if I liked to donate one dollar for Japan.I had to be very careful with my answer and before I could help myself my words came out by it self, and I said;I will not even donate one penny. To my surprise the lady cashier said to me; You are like me and my husband, he forgave but will never forget.I asked her why then she was asking for money, she told me she had to ask every customer to try to raise some money, this was in a big department store in the mall.We got to talk a little bit after, and that's all I like to write about it, for now.
When I came home, I had to think about it again, and yes the Japanese people are suffering and I feel for them. The suffering and damage what has been done to them by mother nature is very sad.It has brought a lot of pain and destruction for the people of Japan, and I feel for them.But things are stuck in my head and the sorrow I feel for my mother and my aunt, with what they had to live with, all their life, comes to the surface with so much pain. I feel anger towards the government of Japan, who never acknowledged about the destruction and atrocities they had brought upon millions of people in world war2. They used men, women and children as slaves to work in their factories, until they dropped dead.The lady in the store told me that her husband was one of the ten year old boys, who were taken away from their mothers, because they so called were the enemy and a threat for Japan. As a ten year old boy you were taken away from your mom, you were put in prison camps and had to do slave work, with very little food.Think about that your ten year old is taken away from you, you knew almost for sure you would never see him again.
Japan had the second best economy in the world before this disaster struck.Was it too much to ask for an apology, and some sort of compensation? Millions of people died of starvation, torture, rape and killings.My mother and my aunt and thousands of women,children and men had to live the rest of their lives with these terrible memories and the loss of their husbands, the piercing cries of pain and terror of their friends being tortured and killed.All their life they lived with these nightmares, brought upon them by human beings,....no, these were not human beings they were animals from another planet.It is terrible when you lose a husband, child or friend in a disaster, by mother nature. But nothing can compare what human beings are capable of doing to each other.That's what stays with you for the rest of your life.You will never be able to forget.

As young as 10 years old the Japanese took them away from their mothers.

I came upon this poem, written by Win Rainer.

Can anyone forget the war?
The principles worth fighting for?
Can we ever accept loss of life
The sadness and emptiness of a wife?
Times are changing that we know,
Leave our young in Peace to grow,
How can they achieve and understand
Any nation over land?
Power is a mighty blade,
That never achieved any grade.
Young people have the right
To their life without a fight.
To make their way in peace,
War is nobodies release.

Perhaps the experiences of the Australians, Dutch, English and all the other people who struggled, lived and died together, is best summed up by a poem written by an Australian named:
DUNCAN BUTLER.

"I've traveled down some lonely roads
Both crooked tracks and straight
And I've learned life's noblest creed
Summed up in one word "MATE"
I am thinking back across the years
A thing I do of late
And this word sticks between my ears
You've got to have a "Mate".
Someone who'll take you as you are
Regardless of your state
And stand as firm as Ayers Rock
Because he is your "Mate".
My mind goes back to '43
To slavery and hate
When one man's chance to stay alive
Depended on his "Mate".
With bamboo for a 'billie-can'
And bamboo for a plate
A bamboo paradise for bugs
Was bed for me and my "Mate".
You'd slip and slither through the mud
And curse your rotten fate
But then you'd hear a quiet word:
"Don't drop your bundle "Mate".
And though it's all so long ago
This truth I have to state
A man don't know what lonely means
Until he has lost his "Mate".
If there's a life that follows this,
If there's a Golden Gate
The welcome that I want to hear
Is just a "Welcome from my Mate".
And so to all who ask why?
We keep these special dates
Like Anzac day, I answer "Why"?
We're thinking of our "Mates"
And when I have left the driver's seat,
And handed in my plates
I will tell old Peter at the door:
"I have come to join my "Mates".

Ayers Rock in Australia, also known as Uluru.

The words in the poem includes lines like....."Why..... do we keep these special dates". It is important to realize history is a teacher of us all. It is a method by which we should not repeat, unthinkingly, the same errors of the past.
As somebody once said:"The difference between the fool and the intelligent person , is that one only makes the mistake once".

Another very sad day and days to come in History.

It took me awhile to think about what I should write today about the terrible catastrophic earth-quake and tsunami in Japan.It is terrifying what mother nature can do.
As the people who read my blog know, I have been writing about world war2 and the Japanese prison camps my mother and I were in. How we suffered and how we are trying for 65 years to get justification from the atrocities Japan inflicted.Without success.

Today I read:Japan has exposed her soul to us, as she reels from this ongoing tragedy.

I sincerely hope they do.

I weep for the women, children and men, and feel very sad what has happened to them and I worry about the struggles they still have to overcome.
It is wonderful to see how people come together in disasters like this and no matter how they can help with money, food, manpower, they are ready to give a helping hand.

I however.. still struggle, how this Japanese Government has handled their atrocities they committed to human beings in world war2.They never took responsibility, to the destruction they caused and the immensely sufferings they committed to human beings. This time it is a war against mother nature, which is not to prevent. But human nature kicks in to help immediately , to help people in distress.

I hope the Government of Japan learns from this. Although I know that its younger generation is full of shame about their history.

I hope indeed that Japan has exposed her soul. They are now the ones to try to survive to overcome this disaster, as we tried to survive, during the war and after the war, which Japan brought on to us.Women, children and men have struggled with war trauma for 65 years. I sincerely hope that the women, children and men of Japan do not have to cope for 65 years with this trauma, which is brought upon them by mother nature. I hope they will not have nightmares for 65 years.It is tough enough to recuperate from nature's destruction, but it is even harder to recuperate from human atrocities and destruction.
We are in this world to help each other and not to fight each other, and kill each other.
Mother nature is very power full.It brings a lot of destruction, loss of  life, pain,and sorrow.
Then the unthinkable happens, it brings people together, no matter what language you speak, what religion you have,what color you are, all of a sudden the whole world comes together. Is mother nature trying to tell us something, that we should be living in freedom and tolerate one another!!!!!

Destruction by mother nature

Rays of hope.

The nuns in Japanese prison camp.

Today topped it all. We had snow, hail, rain and snow, wet slush snow. What a mess. All day long. Twelve more days and spring will be here. I can't wait to be outdoors in my garden.I spoke with my cousin Toby today, she lives in the Netherlands, it was not much better there either.It is so nice to talk to her. As I had talked about before we grew up together in the Dutch Indies, in Japanese prison camp, in Moentilan. She is one year younger than me. We were every where together. She was my shadow. When our mothers had to work on the fields for the Japanese and had to leave us for the whole day, the nuns had to babysit us.We were singing songs with them and they read stories to us and they taught us. Teaching was strictly forbidden by the Japs, the (blandas) white people had to be kept stupid. The nuns did it anyway. My cousin and I do not remember much about this, but our mothers told us about this part of Japanese prison life.In the morning we would say goodbye to our mothers and hand in hand we went to the nuns on the gallery (Indonesia veranda) We were only three and four years old.How we loved being with the nuns.The trick was when a Japanese guard would be checking what the nuns were doing,we had to sing and the nuns would hide the pencils and papers under their long skirts. We thought it was so funny and we would giggle.We had such good times,for us children this was such a normal life, we had no idea how our mothers suffered, and how the nuns were struggling. From the 144 nuns in our prison camp,only 4 survived.

Taking a bath was done very simple outside, all together. We had no shame of feelings anymore. The nuns however, had a piece of cloth that they draped around their naked bodies, and that's how they bathed themselves, very purely(discreet). I remember my mother telling me that one of the ladies from camp had lost so much weight, that her skin was hanging down, like extra pieces of flesh, like saddle bags.This lady also had the biggest wrath on her behind, and I had asked her what it was.Most of the time when we were bathing a Japanese guard would pass by and no matter what you were doing, you had to bow for him. We all were naked,and there we were standing in our birthday suits in the bow position. You had to drop everything, whatever you were doing and bow as a clasp knife. Your upper body had to be straight on a sixty degree angle above your loins. He would scream,"kiotskay" "kiray" and would let us stand for the longest of time in the "kiray"(bow position). He would get a kick out of it, to humiliate us. Our skeleton bodies would hurt so much,all we felt was hate, for these little yellow men, with their whips in their hands and their ridicules big swords on their hips.When he would finally scream'"nowray"(stand up) we would hardly be able to stand up straight.What was hurting us the most was that our children had to stand in the same position, and we had taught them well, not to stand up straight before the yellow man would say"nowray"(stand up)If a child would stand up straight before he gave the order of "nowray" he would ask whose child it was, and then the mother of that child would get a severe beating.We were told by these Japs that we did not teach our children the values of life.and it was very important to bow, bowing was showing respect for the emperor Hirohito of Japan.After the war this tyrant, Hirohito got an invitation to come to the palace in The Netherlands. The year was 1971.He should have been hung, instead he was sitting at the Queens table eating from beautiful dishes.How he could have told them, while they ate, what had happened there in those camps, with all those sick, all those deaths, and all those women and children who were starving in those prison camps.What an opportunity he had.I wonder now how my mother and aunt, and all these women and children must have felt, that year in 1971.

We bow,- but will not break,
Identical and tough as flexible cane
That patiently sustains each storm
But afterwards, high spirited, stands up straight.
We bow,- but will not break.

Kamp kroniek 13--9 October 1943.

Oh mom, I asked you so many times, to tell me what had happened there in these camps, why would you not acknowledge my questions? But after your death in 2003, we found the black satin pouch, and now I know. It breaks my heart.

All I knew is what you said,
You had told me it was not so bad!
When I found the pouch with letters,
I realized why it really matters!
The things I read froze my blood.
The tears I shed were like a flood.

written by:Tetske T. van der Wal