CHRISTMAS?

I read this poem today by Win Rainer

Christmas?

What have they done to Christmas, do we know?

Round the shops, like mad we go,

That special feeling, long since gone

In it's place, high business, and its wrong,

Excitement and glitter, false in its way

After Christmas much misery, many bills to pay,

Can they not ever understand?

That money cannot buy Christmas in our land,

Down the wrong road they are going

Sad but true, not even knowing,

Try to make it's meaning, loud and clear

A very special time of year!

Here is one more I have to write. Another poem by Win Rainer a former Japanese POW, a very wise man.Sadly to say, he passed away in 2009. May he rest in peace.

 All our Christmases!

Think of those less fortunate than you

Just imagine what people, without do,

The heartache of those with nothing to give

A despair in the way they have to live,

Little do they know, the priceless gift of Love

It's purity of thought is far above,

The value of things money can buy

Is not the true reason where life lies.

To all my family and friends,Have a merry Christmas!

Peace on Earth!

December is a month , when families come together.

 For many families December would never be the same.For many this month brings back bad memories. December became a month for mourning, with sad memories.Christmas changed for many of us. Husbands, fathers,sons, daughters, would never come home for Christmas anymore.
World War 2 had left many scars.

Candles lighted for all those men, women and children of all races and countries in the Far East, who died during WW2. An extremely cruel war, that started in 1939 in Europe and on December 7,1941 in the Pacific. May they all rest in Peace.

Lest we forget!

It seems I cannot stop writing about the years we were in Japanese concentration camps. My mother passed away in 2003 and we found a black satin pouch hidden away in one of the drawers, when I started to read some of the letters which were in that pouch, it brought back so many memories.So much information was tucked away in that pouch.The pain I felt for my mother was unbearable. It took me 7 years to start writing about it, I was afraid of the memories which came back to me little by little. I was only 5 years old when the war was over, but for 31/2 years of my life I had been in concentration camps. Some of the things I had seen as a little child were stored in my brain, and they came back to me with so much force, that I was even surprised what a five year old can remember from those days.The painful feelings and some of the afflicting memories came tumbling down on me.That's why I think I have to keep writing about it and document these memories for the coming generations, and hope that a repetition of such tragedies will never happen again.I hope that my children, their children, and the children of the future will never have to go through such tragedies.

This drawing was done from me in Moentilan Camp in February 1945.These eyes saw some horrible things.

It's very sad that few women, who were in these Japanese concentration camps never talked about these atrocities the Japanese inflicted on them. My mother and my Aunt always told us to get on with life. Better to forget and never talk about it, because nobody will listen anyway.
I knew my mother could not forget. She often screamed in the middle of the night, it always scared me.I felt confused, because we were not in a camp anymore. Why was she screaming, she was lying in her own bed,and those bad men were not here. They were only in that other world. That world I thought I had left behind, when we boarded a ship and arrived in the Netherlands.I did not understand, I was to busy being a child again. When you have gone through so much scandalously suffering and have seen your mother being beaten by men, you are able to store it away, deep inside. Children in concentration camps where mothers were beaten daily, grow up fast. When the war was over I finally was able to be a child again, and play. I did not have to stand in long lines anymore to fill up a small bottle with water. I remember the tap going drip......drip......drip. It took a long time to fill a small bottle. My mother had to send me, because she was sick. This was in camp Moentilan.
We had arrived in the netherlands and I was here now( in this new camp, I thought) where I could play on the streets with my friends. This for me was Paradise, when I remember the first snow I could not get enough of it. I was in a place where I was no longer afraid. I did not have to bow for men anymore, my mother did not get smacked on the head anymore, and we did not have to bow for men anymore. These men were so nice.We were not hungry anymore and nobody died here. This is where I wanted to stay for the rest of my life.It had taken me a while not to hide behind my mother, when a man passed by. I always thought, because she did not bow she would get a beatings.I had a girlfriend and her mother one day liked to speak to my mother. I found out later when I was a little older that this women had been concerned, because I had told the strangest thing to her daughter. Particular the part were I had told my friend that my mother always got smacked on the head, when she did not bow.

Pieternella on the left,and that's me on the right, the daughter of aunt Zus.Here we are about 12 years old.

Her mother  became very good friends with my mother. This friend would listen to my mother about the things which were haunting her. I have to mention her name, because I think without her my mother would not have made it. Her name is Zus van Breukelen-Keesman and I was friends with her daughter Pieternella van Breukelen.Aunt Zus I called her, which she thought was so nice. In camp everybody was my aunt and everybody was my Oma(grandmother) I had lots of them.Zus van Breukelen is still alive and lives in Zandvoort, The Netherlands. She is in an old age home and I saw her this summer.I thanked her for being such a good listener and for helping my mother to let her talk about what had happened to her and her sister,in those horrible Japanese camps. She would sit with my mother for hours, sometimes till early in the morning hours, because my mother could not sleep.The husband from Zus would sometimes come and ask his wife if she still was coming home...God bless him..(Bram van Breukelen) he was such a nice man. and so patient.

My mother and her sister, both lost their husbands in that terrible war. The scandalously sufferings have haunted them all their lives were only recognized by the British government in the year 2000, when it offered compensation of 10.000 pounds to survivors. Unbelievable the British Taxpayer had to pay out that paltry sum not the culpable Japanese government. The criminal regime that ran Japan during the war years and the failure of successive Japanese governments to face up to their crimes.
Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway paid their war victims of the Japanese Occupation, with amounts of 18.000 Euro per victim  or heir, in 2000 and 2001.

The Netherlands who promised in 1941 that all Dutch in the East Dutch Indies would be rewarded, without hesitation as Freedom comes; never paid a penny, not even the soldiers wages. Up to now they still have to live up to these promises. The war is over for 66 years. Why don't you refresh your memory and listen to all those radio messages again. These messages are recorded and still exist. These messages were broadcasted from England when our Queen was in exile.Why are you the only country who can not live up to your promise.The effects of two wars in the Dutch Indies are still felt.First there was the war with Japan, followed by the war about the Indonesian Independence.Time and time again the government from the Netherlands, the VVD-CDA-PVV party left us in the lurch.This treatment from the Dutch government for the people from the former Dutch Indies is not acceptable and this behavior of the Government unworthy.
I am embarrassed that I used to be Dutch, my husband and I and our children all became Canadian, and we are proud of it.

The wounds inflicted on women in war are considered to be'........invisible scars upon the heart.

Love in the sky!
Let there be Love on Earth!

This coming Tuesday  the 13th of December is the monthly demonstration in the Hague in front of the Japanese Embassy. I wish I could be there to support the demonstrators. Japan has apologized to Canadian POWs... now it is time to apologize to the rest of the world, and finally admit to all their war crimes.

I am afraid the apology does not come from the heart, I am afraid they need something from Canada.Time will tell. But I sincere hope that this is the beginning for Japan , just like Germany has done...... pay for their crimes.


This was in The Star today

Japan issues'heartfelt apology' to former Canadian prisoners of war

December 08,2011

OTTAWA_The government of Japan has issued a "heartfelt apology" to former Canadian prisoners for their suffering during the Second World War.

The apology was delivered today in Tokyo by Toshiyuki Kato, Japan's parliamentary vice-minister for foreign affairs.

On Christmas Day 1941, the Allies surrendered in Hong Kong after almost 18 days of fighting in which 290 Canadians were killed and 493 wounded.

Those who survived were held prisoner in Hong Kong and Japan until Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945.

Another 267 men died in the camps, where they were subjected to back-breaking labour and were frequently beaten and starved.

Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney led a delegation of Canadian veterans to Japan for the apology and a commemorative ceremony.

"This important gesture is a crucial step in ongoing reconciliation and a significant milestone in the lives of all prisoners of war,"said Blaney in a statement."

"It acknowledges their suffering while honouring their sacrifices and courage."

Queen Juliana.World War 2. One war..two worlds apart!

It is December 7. 2011 and I like to write a little bit about world war 2 in Europe. Lots of young people of today have a misunderstanding about this war. Specially about what role the US played in this war.

The Netherlands and the USA hoped to stay neutral when World War 2 broke out in 1939, but this failed to happen when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. On May 15 1940, one day after the bombing of  Rotterdam the Dutch forces capitulated, and the Netherlands was taken over by Germany.

This sounds familiar? Yes this indeed sounds familiar! The USA just like the Netherlands wished to stay out this War, but then they too were bombed. The sneaky attack from the Japanese who were allied with the Germans and Mussolini fascism, bombed Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December 1941. Now the USA was at war in the Pacific, and declared War to Japan. Hitler thinking that the US fleet was now crippled, thought this was a perfect time to declare war to the USA. Let the Japs fight the USA in the Pacific and Germany and Italy would take care of Europe, that's what he thought. This would be perfect.
Hitler made a big mistake when he made a declaration of war against the USA in support of Japan. Hitlers biggest mistake.

The US provided millions of dollars in weapons, armament as well as money itself to the Allied forces in Europe. Then the attack on Pearl Harbor pushed the USA official into war.
The real reason the US entered World War 2 because Japan did not like the fact that the US stopped selling oil and scrap metal to them, which they needed so desperately to fight their war..

The Germans deported the majority of the country's Jews to concentration camps.
Sounds familiar?
The Japanese deported the majority of Europeans to concentration camps.

The Germans killed the Jews by putting them in gas chambers.
Sounds familiar?
The Japanese used the Europeans to build whatever there was to build to fight the war, and tortured,starved and worked them to death.They used their prisoners, until they dropped dead.

My husband grew up in occupied the Netherlands and I grew up in occupied the Dutch East Indies (now called Indonesia)

But here is a difference.The Dutch were in their own houses and life continued, although under the rule of Germany.They were together still as one family.Families were still living in their own homes. Father was home, mother was home and everybody slept in their own beds and eat from their own plates, eat with their own knife and forks.Father went to work as normal as it was possible.

The Europeans under the rule of Japan were separated from the men, and all women and children were put in concentration camps.Women and children were locked up behind high fences,taken from their houses. Our daddies were not home,we did not have a home anymore, we did not sleep in our beds, we did not eat with our forks and knives, we had a little spot with hundreds of other women and children, which was our bed, our living room, our dining room, our play room.We had to share these spots with all kinds of insects.Our mothers had to work all day for the Japs, and when they came back from working the fields in the sweltering sun , they had to take care of their children, and try to feed them. Daily beatings were the order of the day. My mother was often black and blue, just because she had not seen a Japanese guard and had not bowed for him.The Japanese  tortured and raped them. My mother and my aunt, my mothers sister, where raped by these little yellow devils.For three and a half years they were used and locked up and abused. If a woman lost her sanity,because her child had died, she was taken away and never been seen again,she was of no use anymore to the Japanese.

Being a child of only 4 years old, it is really amazing that there are things,deep inside you, which won't go away.Some things you have seen, come back to you at the strangest moments. It's when you
look at your grandchildren, you think how lucky they are to live in a free world. It is very important that what our fathers and mothers and we as children had to undergo in world war 2 should never be forgotten. The men and women who fought in this war are soon all gone.Boys who  fought in world war 2, and survived, are now over  80 years old. It is up to the children now to keep these stories alive. Lots of sacrifices were made. That terrible bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war.Millions of people were saved, it forced Japan to surrender. But what a destruction and what a scary thing to have. It could be the end of mankind.Lets just hope this bomb will never be in the hands of lunatic's. Lunatic's who think they can rule the world.Because that's what Hitler was 'a lunatic' and that's what  the Emperor Hirohito of Japan was. Hirohito never got prosecuted for all his crimes.He ordered all POWs, men, women and children to be liquidated, and the date was set for August 26,1945. Thank God the USA found out about this.They carried the quilt for dropping the A-bomb, but it saved hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people.

Now I come to the point, the year is 1971; how is it possible for the Netherlands to invite this Man 'Hirohito emperor of Japan' to come to the Palace and sit with the Queen at her table and have dinner .This man committed such barbaric crimes and here he is sitting at the Palace eating from beautiful dishes,eating with silver spoons, knives and forks, while he starved, tortured and killed thousands and thousands of men, women and children.I wish he had choked, right there at the table in front of the Queen.The year was 1971.
How must my mother have felt and all these women and men who survived this horrible ordeal in the Far East. This ruthless lunatic 'Emperor Hirohito of Japan' should have been hanged.I am not a person who is for the death penalty, but this barbaric man deserved it. When I understood what he had done to all these helpless women, men and children, and how they suffered and had to live with these nightmares the rest of their lives. My blood boils, when I think that our Queen Juliana from the Netherlands was sitting  with this murderer at the table, and while they were eating were chit chatting. It is beyond my understanding.A murderer who gave the order to murder all men and helpless women and children and had the quilt on his shoulders for murdering hundreds and thousands of men and women.He was ruthless, he had no shoulders where the quilt must have weigh him down, he had no remorse, he was a two faced son of a bitch.
A protest verse from a well-known cabaret performer, Wim Kan, from the Netherlands, sums it all up. He worked as a slave on the Burma railroad tracks.He and his wife Corrie Vonk, lived in Bandoeng. His wife was in Japanese prison camp, and Wim worked along side my father on that terrible railroad track. My mother knew them from Indonesia. We all lived in Bandoeng, on the island of Java.Wim Kan was so god -damned mad!It was beyond his understanding.

Wim Kan

The Netherlands, October 8,1971. Hirohito from Japan arrives at Amsterdam airport. It is a very cold reception by the Dutch people. The visit is a big fiasco. The emperor is being driven quickly through the country. The Dutch people are staying away from the route and in some places he gets treated with car horns concerts. In Rijswijk somebody throws a thermos bottle through the window of Hirohito's car.(.....) Big rocks are thrown through the windows of the Japanese Embassy. " Hirohito war criminal" is written with chalk on the walls. He is made out to be a Murderer and named Hitler no. 2.
One man tries to give him a smack on the head. Japanese flags are being burned and people are spitting on them. The car from the emperor is even assailed. The press, who is present, is perplexed.!!

After Hirohito departs from the Netherlands Wim Kan speaks at the airport with two Japanese Journalists. They are very outrage, about the treatment their emperor received and see Wim Kan as the instigator from all this commotion. Wim Kan explained that it was not him who organized this violence, and  offered to one of the Japanese journalist, while he was very emotional ,a copy of his diary about his days on the Burma railroad tracks.There happened one more  row against the journalist from Japan and Wim Kan is the scapegoat.

The married couple Wim Kan and Corrie Vonk, threw their East-Asian resistance stars in the Westereinder plassen. (Lake)
They were so mad at the Dutch Government and so disappointed, they were in disbelieve.How could the Queen invite a murderer, no...a barbaric murderer into the Palace.Wim Kan became very emotional and thought about all his comrades he left behind in the jungle. The men who were tortured and starved to death by the emperor of Japan, and now he was here, well and alive in a nice suit with a wicked smile on his face, sitting in the Palace, while thousands of Wim's countrymen were laying in a jute sack, somewhere in a stinking hole in the ground along side the railroad tracks on the River Kwai.

Wim Kan starts to write a protest verse; 'there are not many people anymore alive!' in which song the Emperor is being accused for his role in Burma. This verse is not being accepted by record company Phonogram  (ownership of Philips). They were afraid to hurt their investments in Japan.

Wim Kan breaks his contract with Phonogram and a single came out by Imperial.

Wim Kan passed away on September 8 1983, suddenly. He had stomach cancer,exactly 40 years after my father passed away on that terrible rail road track.Corrie Vonk his wife passed away in 1988.

This is the verse he wrote.

There are not many people alive anymore!

There are not many people alive anymore, who were there
The enemy killed about 1/3 of them
They sleep in a jute sack, and the sky is their roof
The camps are abandoned and the prison cells empty
There are not many people anymore who can tell

Only the dead know, what happened on that railroad track
And under every sleeper is lying one
There in the ground in Burma, their mouth shut till eternity,
What happened here, he could never have predicted
There are not many people anymore who can tell

Those are the ones who know from then; the three Pagoden pas
The death railway at Rangoon, escape, how is that
You were murdered, without being heard, at the Emperor command
But who likes to spread this still around?
There are not many people alive anymore who can

There is however still one who can tell
Who knows the history as no one else..'the emperor of Japan!
He was not hung but came to the palace and ate from a dish
Someone could have asked him questions about that time in Burma
At the railroad tracks, with all those deaths,and sick, and hunger
and those prison cells.

What an opportunity he had
While he ate
To tell them how it was.

Dutch government bow for Hirohito the biggest murderer of world war 2.Oct.8,1971.; My mother was in disbelieve., and so were thousands of people.

My mother and her sister received many beatings from the Japanese during ww2. They once were so severely beaten that that it was a miracle that they survived.My cousin and I, we were only three and four years old at the time, forgot to bow, we had waved at them instead. Our mothers had to pay for that dearly, almost with their lives.

Unbelievable!!

Too bad Hitler could not join them.

This picture makes me sick...I feel they betrayed my Dad who fought for his country and died for his country! Queen Juliana and Klaus welcome a murderer at the Palace.I feel very sad .My heart aches for my mother, what was she thinking when she saw this all over the news.She must have felt like a nobody...I wonder if Hitler had been alive....would the Queen have invited him to the Palace too?

TV NOS news with Wim Kan and Corrie Vonk.Wim Kan was fuming.

Not many people who were there, are still alive. Book from Wim Kan.The arrival of the Emperor of Japan.

                                                           How betrayed they felt.

While denialists maintain that Hirohito was a man of peaceful intentions who was manipulated by wicked advisers. The emperor personally authorized assassinations, was fully aware of medical experimentation on prisoners of war, and personally approved the policy of systematic looting of Asia. As Hoshina Naoki, head of the imperial heroin monopoly, reminded the emperor at a meeting of the Imperial Headquarters Liaison Conference: "There are no restrictions on us. We can do anything we want." see http://home.comcast.net and read Fukuoka POW Camp page 35.
It has taken Holocaust victims nearly six decades to recover assets stolen by the Nazis and hidden by Swiss banks, and to win compensation of slave labor at German companies like Volkswagen and Bertelsman.
This success has encouraged victims of Japanese aggression to come forth with valid demands for similar compensation. But these victims of Japan are being stonewalled by their governments.It's a disgrace! I cannot describe my feelings.The government of Holland betrayed their own people. It really saddens me.
 I cannot possible understand how the survivors must have felt when they saw these theatrical actions by the Queen.It makes me want to throw up.
                                          Photographs. Reminders of that violent past.

Only the dead know what happened here, because not many are alive today.

Kuie,(Kuie Yae) where my father was buried, on the side of the railway tracks.

A grave in the middle of the jungle.

Kui , my fathers remains were transferred after the war to Kanchanaburi, where he is resting with his comrades.

Since the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty  in 1951, these victims have been denied all rights to compensation. The Treaty falsely declared that Japan was unable to pay significant reparations because the country was bankrupt by the war.
Many books have been published about Nazi looting and economic conspiracy, records of Japan's looting and economic conspiracy have been removed from Western archives and remain under secret classification. Millions of victims who were robbed, enslaved and abused by the Japanese cannot get records on what they know to have happened to them. Read GOLD WARRIORS by the Seagraves exclusively available at www.bowstring.net.The Seagraves have uncovered one of the biggest secrets of the Twentieth Century......

The fighting in Europe was at his fierce around the end of 1944 beginning of 1945 in the Netherlands,  and my husband was 4 years old. He remembers that one evening he did not like to stay in his bed, and walked down the stairs and cried and cried. His mother did not know why he was crying and thought he must have had a bad dream, because he told her that there was something in his bed.She took him upstairs again to his bed and to her biggest surprise their was a burn mark and a bullet in his bed.It must have entered through the open window. He was lucky to be alive.
He can remember very vividly, standing with his grand father in a park and seeing hundreds of fighter  planes going over his head.As of today he can still hear the sound.This must have made a big impression on him.As a child of only 4 or 5 years old you do not know what is going on, but somehow you feel something important is happening, which makes you never forget that moment.

My husband was born in Zandvoort the Netherlands. Zandvoort is a big tourist place. It is lying on the North sea, a big beach place. Before world war 2 important people stayed in Zandvoort during the summer months. "Sissi" the Austrian princess.( remember the movie with "Romy Schneider") spend time in Zandvoort quite often.

When the Germans occupied the Netherlands they build all these bunkers along side the beaches of Holland.Across the North Sea from Holland lies England.

Everybody always biked passed this bunker on the blvd. on their way to Zandvoort to Riche Bad,( a swimming pool on the beach)

the beach in Zandvoort during world war 2

Another bunker on the Zeeweg, through the dunes near the beach.

In order to strike a decisive blow against Nazi Germany, the Americans planned to concentrate Allied power in England and then launch a drive across the English Channel into mainland Europe.
Early in 1942 plans were made for such a cross-channel operation, to take place in April 1943, and possibly as early as September 1942. The British, with some reluctance, agreed to the plan"in principle" in April 1942, whereupon the Americans began to pour supplies and troops into the United Kingdom.
In the end, the cross-channel attack did not happen until 1944.
In June 1944, the Allies had accumulated in Great Britain the largest number of men and the greatest amount of material ever assembled to launch and sustain an attack. D-Day was June 6,1944
In December 1944, Hitler made an ambitious last-ditch effort to halt the Allied advance. America suffered about 75.000 casualties in The Battle of the Bulge. Germany suffered close to 100.000 casualties.

In late April 1945 the Soviets reached Berlin. Hitler killed himself and the last of the German resistance gave up a few days later. Mussolini had been killed by Italian partisans on April 28 1945 while trying to escape into Switzerland.

May 8,1945 was declared V-E Day.

Tribute to Piet Siffels, Junyo Maru, Hellship

Piet Siffels was only 29 years old when he perished along with 5382 other men off the western coast of  Sumatra.His sister Adriana Bisenberger-Siffels never saw her brother again. For years they did not know what happened to him.
Piet Siffels was with the merchant service Amsterdam. His rank was 5e sergeant mechanical engineer.
Piet was taken prison by the Japanese when the war broke out in the pacific.

On September 15 .1944. Piet with 5619 Dutch, English, Australian and American POWs and Javanese slave laborers boarded the "hell ship" Junyo Maru. On September 18,1944 this Japanese cargo boat the Junyo Maru was torpedoed off the western coast of Sumatra.The prisoners were on their way to Padang to be put to work on the Pakan Baru-Muara Railway line in Sumatra. Not as famous as the Burma Railway line, but just as deadly.

On board were cramped, 2300 Dutch, British Americans and Australian POWs and 4200 Javanese slave labourers (Romushas)

Of the 6500 reluctant passengers, some 5620 perished in the waters, the biggest disaster of World War II.

For the 880 that made it to shore the 'price for survival' was to work as slaves for the Japanese on the railway line in Sumatra.

About 100 Dutch nationals survived the sinking of the Junyo Maru, and 10 of these men died on the railway.

The Junyo Maru left Tanjong Priok the harbor of Batavia (Jakarta) on the 16th of September 1944.( the same harbor where my mother and I would board a ship two years later, to take us to The Netherlands). On the 18th of September 1944 the ship was torpedoed and went down(Remarkable the same date my father died on the infamous Burma railroad tracks, a year earlier, September 18.1943)

The red mark is the place where the Junyo Maru went down.

Remembrance Ceremony
________________________

At the site of the sinking off the coast of Sumatra.

On the 4th of June 2000 a moving ceremony took place to commemorate the sinking of the Junyo Maru. At the location where the incident took place nearly 56 years earlier, three Dutch frigates, a Belgian supply ship, and an Indonesian warship in formation, formally paid their respects to the victims of that tragedy through the laying of wreaths on the waves of the Indian Ocean. The wreaths, containing the names of the casualties, were lowered into the waves of the Indian Ocean.

I wrote this on my blog for a relative of us, who lives in France,and married a Bisenberger. Adriana this is for you and your brother. When we came to visit you in France, last year, you told me about your brother and that you knew very little what had happened to him.It is unbelievable that your brother died exactly on the same date, September 18 a year later then my father. The ship went down on the 18th of September 1944 and my father had died on the 18th of September 1943 on the Burma railway tracks. Still more a coincident that I (Thea) am born on the exact date as your brother was born, June the 3th, so was your brother; June the 3th 1915.May he rest in Peace.

There is a plaque at the "Ereveld Loenen" at Groenendaalseweg. Loenen(Apeldoorn) the Netherlands.
Apeldoorn is a twin city of Burlington Ont. Canada where I (Thea) am living. This I find a coincident as well.

Translation: In remembrance to all, who found a seaman grave in the Far East as a national from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

This is a poem from a son of one of the men who died on that fatal day. September 18.1944

A TRIBUTE IN HONOR OF A SOLDIER........

NOT FORGOTTEN!

Sea graves...graves at sea,

it's said my father's in one too;

so I'd like to lay some flowers,

but that I cannot do

so deep's the ocean, where is his?

this thought I often ponder;

a terrible thing to spend a life

on thoughts like this, and wonder

long ago, we were just kids,

he left to fight a war;

and left a family in shambles

when last he closed the door

I r'member boots...a green beret(?).

like a real soldier did he look,

but I'll always hate that ugly war,

'cause all of us it overtook

as great a soldier he might've been,

one day they all were caught;

in camps and slav'ry they were put,

then onto ships were they brought

who knows where to his ship had sailed,

'cause no one ever knows...

the ship had never reached its goal...

here's how the story goes...

it sailed the sea, the Java Sea,

in September of forty four,

as slaves they were to build the rails,

so the japs could fight their war

this ship, its name was Junyo,

a jap-owned merchant wreck,

the white-and-red-ball flag a'mast,

mean, sword-wearing men on deck

it crossed the water, this hell-bound

ship,

the weather good and clear,

with thousands of POWs down below,

in constant, awful fear

all cramped in there, for lack of space,

they stood there, knee to knee,

they often must've prayed to God:

"oh God, where, where art Thee?"

so..., treated worse than animals,

and often cruelly beaten,

thirst and hunger did they suffer,

as for days they hadn't eaten

then there was a change in scene,

a periscope down yonder,

a british ship, a submarine,

the "Tradewind"...warfare's wonder

the Tradewind's crew, all trigger-crazed,

...no questions asked..., took aim,

"Torpedo!...Launch!..." was

commandeered,

with cheers they left,...and took no blame

the Junyo sank and took them down,

who's to know the chaos then,

the panic and the horror that they felt,

there simply was no help for them

thousands drowned, in shark-filled

waters,

just few had luck and would survive,

I can't imagine what the scene was like,

so many died...devoured alive

bodies found, though many not,

they're chaulked off as M I A;

father was among the missing, too;

in seven years "he's dead", they say

my Moma, well, she rests in Peace,

she waited long in sorrow;

until the day that she, too, died,

she'd say "perhaps tomorrow|"

now I'm left here, old and bitter,

those japs not yet forgotten,

for all the misery that they've caused,

I think they're worse than rotten

those men with swords I can't forget,

we all know who they are,

they killed, they raped, and took away

and left us all with many scar

I know, our Teacher taught us so,...

to love and to forgive,

but distaste for them I'll always have,

for as long as I shall live.

we hoped that father's come back one

day

to help and raise the bro's and me,

but sad enough that was not so,

for that day was not to be

a cross I hold, an 'honor' thing,

it's small and made of brass,

'twas given to the family,

in hopes the pains would pass(?)

'Vader!', Pappie!', in grave at sea,

no flowers,...but I bring you these...

words..., along with tears we shed:

"May You, too, REST IN PEACE".

(by: manneke, 4th son- 4/21/2002)

"...by way of this writing I salute also

all those who perished there with him..."

'junyo maru disaster'....

For Piet Siffel, brother of Adriana Bisenberger-Siffel and for my uncle Tobias van Driel, 016

For my father Klaas van der Wal who died a terrible death on the Burma railroad tracks, Thailand. 

May they all rest in Peace......soldiers not forgotten!

All the above I found on the internet.There exist a list of all the names of the men, who died that day, when the Junyo Maru went down.

December 7. Why this day is different!

A lot of young people of today do not know about Pearl Harbor.
So why is this day so different then other days?


On December 7. 1941 our lives changed. On this day many people lost their lives. On this day the Japanese attacked without provocation the fleet of the USA in Pearl Harbor.This was the day that our lives changed drastically in beautiful Indonesia, where we lived.This was the day the Netherlands declared war to Japan, after this callous attack.
This is the day that I have to think about my father. He fought for our freedom and is lying in a grave in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. The Japanese tortured and worked him to death, with thousands and thousands of other men.

It's December 7, for my cousins, who's father lies beneath the sea, there is no grave to mourn him.

It's December 7, for another relative of my husband, the brother she had not heard from since he left for the Dutch East Indies .Piet Siffels was on the Junyo Maru. In the fall of 1944 he was taken on this hell ship, to be shipped with thousands of men to work as slaves for the Japanese.That day 5620 Dutch, English, Australians and American POWs and Javanese slave laborers died, when this Japanese cargo boat was torpedoed on September 18 1944. Ironically exactly one year before on the same day my father had died. Piet Siffels was only 29 years old. He has no grave and is lying on the bottom of the ocean off the South West coast of Sumatra.

Today is a day to think about all who gave their lives. Because of them we live in Freedom.

In a country where you are not free, remembering is not allowed. People who were thinking different, did not only disappear but also left no traces. Nobody is allowed to talk about them. Nobody is allowed to think about them and nobody is allowed to remember them.

But in a country that is Free, remembering is Free.

The traces of our loved ones will never be erased.Their names will never be forgotten. We are allowed to think about them. Some wounds will never heal, but they belong for ever to us, and are part of our history. This is what December 7 is all about. You cannot take freedom for granted. We all are responsible. This is the foundation of our existence and our values, which we hand over to our children.

This day December 7. 1941 we think about this war, which started with the attack on Pearl Harbor. We think about the oppression, the betrayal, the terror, the shame, the want of freedom.

That's why this day is different then all other days.

70 years ago!

Listen attentively, and remember that true tales are meant to be transmitted...to keep them to oneself is to betray them!


Seventy years this month the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and brought America into a war that had begun in Europe in 1939. Seventy years is a lifetime. But seventy years ago this date December 7. 1941 will be remembered as " A day which will live in INFAMY".
December 1941: The month that changed America and saved the world.
A date in history which changed the lives of many families forever. A date in history that started in stunned silence, unbelieving confusion and open grief, these were the reactions as the news of the war in the Pacific hit home.

A date in history that changed my parents life, and my life.

But the efforts by all people of the world....so determined to remain free will always ensure victory for the forces of justice and righteousness over the forces of savagery and barbarism.

So remember them, who gave their lives so we can live in Freedom.

Carla and Bert in Canada.Oct.4-Oct.18 2011

Carla and Bert arrived in Canada on the 4th of October to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. They stayed with us for two weeks, and we had such a great time. Lots of laughter! The weather was beautiful sunshine for two weeks. The first week we just relaxed and wandered around lake Ontario and had lunch on one of the many outdoor terraces on the Lakeshore.We just enjoyed the weather and their company.It was nice to be able to sit in the backyard and enjoy the fall. We enjoyed a couple of barbecues at night, lucky to be able to do at this time of the year.

A beautiful evening

enjoying a stroll along the blvd

Skyway bridge Burlington Ontario

clear water

View of Lake Ontario. in the distance Niagara Falls

We discovered a memorial plaque at the lake. I have to find out what it is all about.

Twin Cities

Just checked and found out that on May 6 2005 the city of Burlington signed an official twinning agreement in Apeldoorn. Burlington is a twin sister of Apeldoorn.

Two weeks ago my daughter and I were driving along on the roads in Burlington and were discussing these ridiculous bicycle paths.We agreed that this is very dangerous the way they have drawn lines on these busy roads. We said Burlington should have gone to the Netherlands to see how it is done there. Big was my surprise when I found out that a Dutch bike traffic engineer Mr. Wim Mulder -completed an update to their Cycling Master Plan but with a Dutch twist- their twin City Apeldoorn, the Netherlands - assisted in defining improvements to get more people cycling.We now have cycling paths through the whole city of Burlington. Which I personal find very dangerous. These cycling paths have taken over a part of the motorists lanes. My daughter and I agree that this is creating a very dangerous situation for motorists.We have enough space on the side of the roads where a pedestrian path is and a green space between the road and the pedestrian path. Why did they not construct the cycle path on that space. The way it is now, a cyclist is right on the road. This is not the way it is in the Netherlands. I cannot understand that this Mr. Wim Mulder designed it that way.It is ridiculous!.What I have seen lately, is that nobody is using these bicycle paths.I see bicyclist using the pedestrian paths and I do not blame them.

Anyway this is what this plaque means. Burlington has a twin sister in the Netherlands, so we can share idea's with each other.

I got side tracked again, which happens often lately. I start to do a story and then something else comes up. But I thought this was interesting so I had to put it on my blog. I will continue with the stay from my sister and brother in law here in Canada. As I said we had a great time while they were here.We went to Whitby were our son Dan lives and had Thanksgiving dinner at their house. Andrea our daughter in law made a lovely dinner.

Thanksgiving dinner

7 months??? How many are in there Andrea??

Madelaine

Let's start dinner!

This says it all!

After dinner we drove back to Burlington, all a few pounds heavier!

The following day we had cocktail hour at Monique and Wayne's house.Another beautiful day with lots of sunshine., and we sitting outside in the garden.We did not have to drive far, because they live right up the road from us.So we all had a couple of drinks and Monique made some lovely hors d'oeuvres.

Happy hour

Enjoying October weather

I think we all had a little too much to drink. So we went home and I have no idea what we eat after that. But we have a picture, that proves that we eat something. It was getting a little cooler and we eat in the sun room. What.....I can not remember.

What the heck is on our plate?

We decided that we would go to Niagara Falls and stay the night.So I booked a room in the Hilton Hotel overlooking the Falls. On the day we left I decided I would Google the Hilton and see exactly where we had to go. Big surprise, we were booked in a hotel 20 minutes from the falls. How was that possible. After numerous phone calls asking what the heck was going on and why in the heck were we not in the Hilton overlooking the Falls, we finally left around 2.30 pm in the afternoon. We arrived at the Hilton, of course very skeptical, because we had no confirmation. They had told us that the computers were down. So we said to the person on the phone that we were leaving and no matter what there better be a room for us at the Hilton overlooking the falls.On arrival Carla and I went to the reception and to our surprise they indeed had two rooms for us on the 6th floor overlooking the falls. So there we went up to the 6th floor and opened the door from Carla and Bert room,...a huge surprise....a whole apartment with two bedrooms, a kitchen a jacuzzi and.....overlooking the Falls. Now we were curious what our room would look like, so we went next door....another surprise.... same apartment with all the luxury what you could think off. I said to Carla we better go down to the reception and ask if this was correct. We did not like to end up with a huge bill.Off we went, downstairs. They told us because they had made a mistake this was what they liked to do to make up. Well of course we said that we really appreciated this. When we arrived upstairs we told the guys and had a drink, then I looked at the package we received and noticed that we did not get the special offer: the free drinks at the bar and the $75.00 voucher for dinner and the $10.00 discount for breakfast . So down stairs to the lobby we went again, and I said well it is nice from you that we get such nice rooms but you did not give us the vouchers. Big surprise again, they said sorry and handed us all the vouchers. We could not believe it. What a good time we had.We had a lovely dinner at the Hilton restaurant on top of the Hotel overlooking the Niagara Falls.

The next day we went on the tall Tower and made some nice pictures, overlooking the Falls and the USA. We had lunch and late afternoon we drove back to Burlington. This was a nice treat. Here some pictures we took, from the view from our window.

All lit up at night

Dinner with a view

View from our room in the morning

After our breakfast we walked to the tower and took the outside lift and went to the top. What a view!

This picture was taken from the Skylon Tower

The Rainbow bridge to America. in the background on the right the Hilton Hotel

The Maid of the Mist

We had a great time. We have been to Niagara Falls so many times, but it still impresses us, it is one of the most beautiful sites in the world.

All in all we had a fantastic two weeks with Carla and Bert.Hope they come to visit us again very soon! We miss you!