Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts.

FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBTS
NGO,STATUS ROSTER

His Excellency Yoshihiko Noda
Prime Minister of Japan



The Hague, July 10,2012
Petition:212
Subject: Japan shares in Dutch art history and pays for it.


Excellency,


Dutch museums with their priceless collections of paintings by Dutch masters are lending these to Japanese museums and media organizations on a regular basis. It generates interests in the Dutch ability to paint long lasting images of their lives and their people. For the museum it is a welcome extra income needed to maintain the paintings and to present the collections to the general public. The Japanese public has taken great interest in these exhibitions both at home and abroad. Names of Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh are well known in Japan.


We much appreciate the Japanese interest in our art history and are happy to share it. But what do the Japanese visitors to the exhibitions know about the Dutch East Indies, sometimes depicted in these paintings. Do they know the history of the Japanese occupation of Dutch Indies during World War Two? In particular are they aware of the Japanese military terror and violation of human rights during that occupation? Would that knowledge influence their appreciation for Dutch Masters? Would they question why after so many years after the ending of the War, the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts continues to insist that the present Japanese government acknowledges and accepts moral responsibility for that military conduct?

Prime Minister,


We believe that these exhibitions offer an excellent opportunity for both of us to provide the visitors with a bridge to our history, and to the true story of what happened and why despite all legal arguments there is a moral responsibility to redress. We are willing and able to prepare, jointly with our experts, an information pamphlet that reflects on Japan's history relative to the occupation of The Dutch Indies. It would give you the opportunity to express regret and it would give the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts the opportunity to express its ill feelings and its aim: to progress towards acknowledgement and acceptance of responsibilities.

The Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts and its members have a long tradition to seek a redress in the relationships with the Japanese people of today, but it is firm in their demands that such a redress must be acceptable in its historic context.


On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts,


J.F. van Wagtendonk
President.

My father Klaas van der Wal was very good at drawing. One of his last drawing he did was of a photograph of me. He never was able to finish it. He died of  exhaustion and all kinds of diseases on that horrible Birma railroad track, as a POW of the Japanese.He was buried along side the railroad tracks in Kuiya. His friend barely survived and was able to bring some of his drawings back to my mother.

The drawing he was never able to finish.

The following is a drawing of the cemetery alongside the railroad tracks, where my father was buried. One of these crosses must have been my father's grave. His remains were transferred after the war to Kanchanaburi in Thailand. Rest in peace Dad.

                                            NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.

Japan except the blame, remove the shame.The drawings speak for themselves. When are you going to take responsibility., why are you in denial about the Japanese Army's atrocities during the Second World War?
It is a disgrace for Japan, it demonstrates that either Japanese officials do not know or do not want to know about the sufferings inflicted upon Netherlands nationals.
We will never forget, but we are able to forgive.

The drawing below was done of me in Japanese prison camp in Moentilan.I will never know who did this drawing. It is signed N.v.d.Nolen. I was only four years old, these eyes has seen a lot, and these eyes were not able to understand.

 A war brings nothing but eternal hate,
and a pain that never heals
wounds that never seal
A war brings sadness to my heart
a feeling that is so dark
It takes pieces from my soul
A war will never let go.
A war is pain
It is a loved one lost
A grave that never leaves
is a broken family,
A war is a fight
A child caught between the
crossfire of a battle called life
This is a war inside of me
A pain that will never leave
and a war is what it will always be.
A war is tears ran dry, a question asking always, why?
a loneliness a need for people that are never there
A war like any other war, brings pain.

This is a  Poem,
Written by: Richard Ferdin.

Slavery, Crimes, Slave Labor, committed by Japan

Inhuman Slavery Crime, POW. Slave Laborers,

Today I had to write again on my blog about the history of Japan. I cannot understand why Japan got away with all the atrocities they inflicted on men, women and children. They still will not acknowledge their brutal past.In May I was in a demonstration in front of the Japanese Embassy in The Hague. Japan cannot face the truth, they hide behind closed curtains as you could read on my former blog I wrote.

 In the back ground the Japanese Embassy, with the curtains closed. May 2012.

POW. Slave Laborers- Inhuman Slavery Crime.

This large scale of Slavery is definitely the worst war crime case of massive slavery violation against Humanity committed by a country in our Human History.

Japan has surpassed Nazi Germany in both the number and brutalities of using human beings in both "Before and During the war".

"The Japanese were running no less than the biggest Slave shipping operation since the middle passage, the African Slave Trade,"California based lawyer Barry Fisher said.

Millions of so-called "Romusha" Asians worked as Slaves, forced by the Japanese across Asia Pacific. It is estimated more than 15 Million Asian and POW's were used as Slaves and only a  fraction of the survivors may still be alive.

Although Japan had destroyed most of it's war documents to conceal it's crimes, what can almost be certain is that, Japan had surpassed Nazi Germany in both the Number and Brutalities of using the Slaves in both Before and During the war.

Most shocking is that the death rate in Nazi-run POW camps was 1.1%; but in Japanese prisoner camps it was a staggering 35.7% according to The Center for Civilian Internee Right.inc.

On August 6, 1945, Paul Tibbets flew the "Enola Gay, the B-29 Bomber" and dropped the atomic uranium bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, August 9 another atomic plutonium-239 bomb "Fat Man" exploded on Nagasaki.

August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered.

If the bombs had not been dropped and Japan would have been invaded, it would have been terrible. The Japanese people know more about that than the American public and the World will ever know.

Paul Tibbets, who flew the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber has been credited by thousands of former POW, soldiers and civilians including Japanese, in all Asian countries for saving their lives. 

The Atomic Bombs also prevented the utter destruction of the Japanese mainland, and the deaths of millions Japanese civilians who would have fought to their deaths.

My mother and I, her sister and two children were in a POW camp in Java, Moentilan. We were transferred to Banjoebiroe 10, with thousands of other women and children to be liquidated.

The Japanese were going to slaughter us all. The date was set for August 26, 1945.

"Thank God", for the A-Bombs. The Bombs saved our lives and all those innocent women and children held in POW camps all over Java and Sumatra and no doubt elsewhere.

"I am ever so grateful", 

Paul Tibbets you did the right thing.

Japan driven by the frenzy of Militarism, committed unspeakable war crimes and atrocities of such great magnitude and diversities never matched, even by the Nazi.

Many years have since past,

But memories forever last.

Women children in prison camps

Where nobody was able to give them a hand.

Put there by the Japanese Regime

With soldiers who were so terrible mean.

Although it is so long ago

My mind goes back to 1944.

How the women shed their tears

In that hell for three and a halve years.

These Japanese were brutal and vicious

Cruel and heartless and twisted.

Endless roll calls, just for fun

Everyday in the burning hot sun.

They screamed "Kiotskay,Kiray, Nowray" and waved their whips,

And the women knew better than to give them a lip.

They kept their wits together

Because their children was all that matter.

When they  think about those years,

They come back with so much fear!

Swamped by misery, grief and pain

They hoped God would hear his name.

They sang of his glory and begged to be heard,

They prayed, they pleaded, but never a word.

They reached for the last straw in despair,

And hoped somebody out there would care.

Why, oh why was it no help came

Did you not hear them calling your name?

Why was it you let innocent children die?

They will never forget you passed by.

There was thunder and lighting all around,

They were sure you would strike these Japs to the ground.

They were in so much agony, grief and pain,

They hoped for mercy, but it never came.

There in that horrible prison camp

"YOU" never offered a helping hand.

Most of us women lost their fate,

For thousands freedom came too late!

written by; Tetske Thea van der Wal.

 "Kiotskay" -attention "Kiray"- Bow and "Nowray"- stand-up.

The "Nowray"-stand-up,  usually came after hours standing in the "Kiray"- bow position. It was hard to stand up strait, your back would hurt so much.

in memory of my mother Sietske who survived the horrors of Japanese prison camp and protected me from all the atrocities the Japanese inflicted on women and children, during world war 2.

One would never know the price they paid and how they suffered. They never gave in, although they often lost hope. They survived in a frantic effort to stay alive, to be there for their children. Their courage against diversity we must honor and believe.With their gentle strength they took care of their children. Love has no equal.They gave of themselves desperate to survive, a will so strong to keep their children alive.

Memories can never be erased. Remembering the heartache, the pain and the tears, we hope MAN will never sink to such sorrow and shame again.

With one breath at a time, the mothers left their stamp on history with bravery so sublime, it will shine in history forever.Their Victory should always be told,their lives so hard and bleak as prisoners of the Japanese do not require the written word: their actions for them speak.

Love you Mom.

Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts.

 FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBTS
                                  ______________________________________________

                     His Excellency Yoshihiko Noda

Prime Minister of Japan


The Hague, June 12, 2012.
Petition:211
Subject: Responsibilities stemming from the past continue in the future.


Excellency,


The Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts was established in 1990 with the purpose to provide on-going protection of the interest of the Dutch from former Dutch East Indies. At that time more than 100,000 individuals registered with the Foundation, agreeing to form an union to obtain acknowledgement and redress from Japan. This group, being around a third of the Dutch population of Dutch East Indies at the beginning of the Japanese military occupation in 1942, felt that Japan- regardless the San-Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951- has the moral responsibility to them as individual victims. In protecting the interests of the individual victims it is clearly stipulated in the Articles of Association of the Foundations that these are extended to the next of kin of the victims. They are the second and further generations.


Prime Minister,

Many of the actual victims, the first generation, who suffered inside and outside the concentration camps, did not want to burden their children with the brutal experiences they had to undergo at the hands of the Japanese military. They kept their stories to themselves and tried to rebuild their lives again. As a consequence their children, the second generation, were hardly aware of these experiences and got on with their lives in The Netherlands. However the third generation, the grandchildren, demanding to know what had happened are increasingly informed by the actual victims. They are astounded and aghast. They cannot understand Japan's refusal to acknowledge responsibility for their military and in particular for the denial of the violation of human rights. These grandchildren question the morality and integrity of the present Japanese government.

They confront Japanese citizens they happen to meet anywhere in the world with the war time facts and with hard questions demanding what they know. Many of the younger Japanese generations are not aware of these facts, but are shocked, ashamed and cry for the conduct of Japanese military. They apologize for what their military on behalf of their country did to the Dutch and express hope to rectify the shame.

You may believe that Japan's moral responsibility will go away in time as the victims die. However the succeeding generations of the victims will take up the issues and will continue to demand acknowledgement and redress. The Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts will continue as well. And it will in due course hand over the management to the next generations in order to protect the interests of the Dutch and their next of kin from former Dutch East Indies.

Please be aware that the Foundation does not allow the passage of time to offer Japan an escape from its responsibilities.

On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts,


J.F. van Wagtendonk
President.

                                             The next generation.How they protect their young.

Face the past, open your curtains.You can't hide from the past... we will not go away!

                                                     Japan make the clouds go away!!

Japan; as long as you forget about your past, there will be no peace for the future!


A little boys Quest.

When the little boy's daddy went off to war
Mommy he says, what has daddy gone for?
How can one explain, to one so young?
Atrocities of war, and how it all begun.
In his time one hopes it will never come again,
A determination to achieve remain.
A lad in time becomes a man with hope,
That war in his time hopefully will not have to cope>

Win Rainer, 
A Fepow's wife.



Third generation is protesting!

In Seoul a Chinese man threw a fire bomb to the Embassy. The man explained that his Oma (grandmother) was forced to be a prostitute by the Japanese military in World War 2. He said that he had done this before at a monument where Japanese military are honored.

              Nos teletext January 8,2012.

                                                                  Next of kin.

This drawing was done in February 1945.

Prison camp Moentilan.

The eyes of a child, only 4 years old. I saw it all, but could not understand. 

Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts.NGO,Status Roster

His Excellency Yoshihiko Noda
Prime Minister of Japan


The Hague,may 8,
2012 Petition: 210
Subject: Political will to keep lasting peace in South East Asia.

Excellency,

Many politicians focus on an ideal, one which they can present to voters and which will also continue them in power.Lasting peace is such an ideal, in particular if it furthers the economy. The United States has in their global strategies the ideal of lasting peace, and was quick to protect their commercial interests with their military might.After World War Two Japan, not so long ago the second economic power in the world, contributed to lasting peace with their economic successes. The favorable conditions Japan obtained with the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty provided the basis to that success. However economic powers are shifting and the United States of America needs to seek alliances with the new powers in China and India. Both nations, who remember Japan's past vividly, will question the United States of America's close military cooperation with Japan and how this relationship will maintain lasting peace.

Prime Minister,

We believe Japan has the political will to keep peace in Asia between the growing new powers and must continue to stress this to all parties concerned. those parties, including the Dutch from former Dutch East Indies, will however only see Japan's efforts towards this in the context of how Japan acknowledges its past and deals with it moral obligations stemming from the conduct of Japan's military during the last World War. Despite the difficult economic conditions globally it is now the time to demonstrate that Japan did not forget its military past. Come forward with lasting plans to bridge the gap between verbal proclamations and doing, in fact, nothing. If there is a genuine political will to keep lasting peace invest in a genuine resolution of the past and in a truthful account of your country's history. In knowing your countries history one will more likely accept the moral obligations stemming from violation of human rights, unnecessarily harsh treatment of prisoners of war and in concentration camps, racial discrimination and organized compulsive sexual exploitation.

It takes courage for a politician to take the long term view in particular in a country where history is glorified and misconduct is neglected. We believe that you have that courage and look forward to your actions.

On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts,

J.F. Van Wagtendonk
President.


Website www.jesinfo.org

This petition was handed over on May 8, 2012, and I was happy I was part of it.On Tuesday May 8, my husband Ruud, my girlfriend from England Sheena Tuffs, my sister in law Carla Hoogendijk drove to The Hague to participate at the demonstration in front of the Japanese Embassy. Mr. Wagtendonk and Brigitte van Halder handed the 210 petition over to the Japanese Prime Minister.
After they returned from their meeting with the Ambassador we sang THE CAPTIVES' HYMN.
It was so nice to see everybody, particular my friend Elizabeth van Kampen. Elizabeth turned 85 years old this year.

After the demonstration we went to a nice restaurant and were offered a nice lunch.All and all a very fruitful day and we were thankful to be part of it.

The gathering of the former Dutch East Indies prisoners of war was a joy to see,
We are happy to live in a world now free.
Years have gone by and memories stay
We cannot forget the price we paid.
The atrocities of the past,
Of those who suffered, in memory last!
Those hopeless days of pain and fear
One day one month not knowing the year.
We survived through starvation and brutality
Men, women and children dying without hope of reality.
Now old and getting frail we try to find peace at last,
PLEASE Japan let us come to terms with the past,
Can we in modern time appeal?
The prison camps from then, it's mortality seal?
Accept the blame,
Remove the shame!

As soon as we arrived in front of the Japanese Embassy, the curtains closed. Why?

I know why, because your are ashamed. Why can't you accept the blame? If you do; there will be no more shame!

Here we are, in front of the Japanese Embassy. Carla my sister in law, my friend Sheena from England and me, Thea.

Ruud and his sister Carla hanging up the signs.

The Japanese Embassy in the background. The curtains stayed closed.I wonder; are they ever going to face the truth? Accept your wrong doings!

Here we are with mrs. Elizabeth van Kampen.85 years old and still traveling by train to participate at the demonstration every month.She and her mother and two sisters were in Banjoebiroe 10, where my mother and I were taken on August 1, 1945 to be liquidated by the Japanese.Thanks to LITTLE BOY FATMAN (the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki) our lives were saved.

This poem by Win Rainer, wife of a FEPOW.

Can one ever come to terms with the past?
One has to, To move on, although memories last,
There is not perfection in man alone
But a strong ability to atone,
Strength of mind and heart is why
A future with faith of oneself lies.

----------------------------------------------------------

Conclusion of Three men against Japan.

Jan did not wanted to wake up. He was dreaming about walking through the forest his horse by his side.A flock of parrots in the trees.The beautiful sunset behind the mountains. This is heaven, this is paradise.

Sunbeam of hope.

A flock of parrots at dusk.

Beautiful sunsets over the mountains.In this world no war exists, here this word does not even exist in the dictionary.Only Mother Nature, we sometimes have to fight.


He could not wait to try to escape.The only difficulty was that Tuindersma's condition , already weakened before he arrived in this hellhole,had even more deteriorated through the ill-mistreatment and malnutrition.
One evening the Japanese guard arrived again, for a visit with the Chinese guy. He sat down and laid down his gun in front of him on the floor.
Without being perceived Jan got closer, where the two of them sat. When Jan lifted his hands to grab the Japanese by the throat, Tuindersma suddenly yelled:"No!..don't do it,..Jan!"
The Japanese jumped up. Although Jan had taken on an indifferent posture, the guard felt the strange and strained atmosphere.He took his weapon and disappeared.He never came back.
At the last moment Tuindersma had changed his mind.He was afraid that the Kempetai, if the escape would succeed,would take revenge, and punish the other prisoners. That's why at the last minute he decided against it.This decision would cost the brave and gallant officer his life.A few days later all prisoners had to assemble in the courtyard.Eleven names were called; the one who's name was called had to get ready..... Everybody knew what this meant.
There they stood, eleven of them, in the middle of the courtyard, including Tuindersma and Kelter.They stood there with their heads high, their faces white and serious.For the last time they gave their friends a handshake. It was the worst sad day since they had met, and had gone through months of resistance,terror,tension and danger together.The condemned men got into the standby motor-cars, a tarp hid them from the glances of their stunned friends.Jan tried to contain himself, but suddenly he burst out in sobs, when the cars with his friends disappeared from the gate, towards a senseless death.

Shortly after Jan was taken back to the internment camp; his two friends stayed behind, because of inexplicable reasons,they had to stay in prison. He only was back at the internment camp for two days, when he was ordered to get into a waiting truck.To his surprise the Tall guy and the Pimpel were in the truck, they were handcuffed to each other.They drove up to the building of the Japanese council of war and were interrogated by a Japanese officer. Jan took the stand and talked for the three of them.He had a good feeling that he had convinced the officer of their innocents.A few days later when they were waiting for their verdict in an internment camp in Batavia,where the leader was the notorious commandant Sonei, they heard their sentence: three years in prison.
Jan and the Pimpel where physical in decent shape, were taken to Sumatra, to work as convicts on a railroad track. The Tall guy's physical conditions was so weakened after all the abuse he received while in prison that he was not able to be used for slave work.They locked him up in a prison in Ambon.Here he met his destiny. Somehow somebody had been indiscreet, and the Kempetai on Java became aware of their illegal actions, which the three of them committed.A new criminal case was opened and all three got the death penalty.The Tall guy was dragged from his prison cell in Ambon and died in front of a firing squad in Batavia.As a hero he gave his young life.
The other two,Jan and the Pimpel, thanks to poorly administration from the Japanese, where not to be traced.
This is where the story ends about the three friends. Jan Luxinger returned to the Netherlands and worked at an large firm in Amsterdam.
The Pimpel was not able to say goodbye to the Dutch-Indies; he went back in the army, and as a corporal with the cavalry, he became active in the police force.

This is the man, who was called the Pimpel. After the war and his precarious adventures with his friends, during the occupation of Java, he went back in the military and became a Corporal with the cavalry.


This story is dedicated to all the Dutch men, who carried the load against the Japanese, under the heat of the tropical sun. This story had to be told as a thank you for those who lost their lives on Java and elsewhere in the archipelago,and died for the Dutch East Indies.
This story is for those who's battle, suffering and death, often only witnessed by the rustle of the palm trees or the walls of their prison cell.May they rest in peace, whether in a war cemetery,or never be found, or some where in the jungle, or in an unmarked grave.
May they rest in Peace.
With hatred they were murdered by the usurper, their houses plundered and destroyed, their family pulled apart,often not even one single photograph was spared.
But in the rustle of the paddy and the wave of the palms in the breeze, they will live forever and they will never be forgotten.
May their father-land realize what they owe their sons, their country will be forever in debt!
They cannot remunerate those who died, but to those, who were their loved ones,and who they thought off in their last moments of their life, are still in our midst.They are the ones who are in need of support.

It's very sad to say, but that never happened!

Palm trees standing guard.

A War Cemetery in Indonesia. May they rest in peace.

The sky turns into the color red, on the cemetery in Indonesia.

A lonely seagull keeps guard over the cemetery.

My father and my uncle died for their country, my mother and my aunt with their children, suffered terrible in Japanese prison camps,they never received support.All they heard was:" Get on with your life, look at the future, forget the past!"

Now can anybody tell me how you do that?

They never did...yes they got on with their lives, but for the sake of their children.They never were able to leave that part of their lives behind.They forgave, but they could never forget.

Many people today still say; oh get on with it, forget it!

Just let me remind you what George Santayana said:

George Santayana reminds us that the lessons of history are invaluable"Those who forget the past, are condemned to repeat it".

CONCLUSION.

After the war captain Sonei was tried for war-crimes, and executed by firing squad. He was tried before the Dutch Council of War in Batavia.

Captain Sonei appeared in front of the Dutch Council of War and takes a humble bow.

Captain Sonei listens to the Dutch Council of War in Batavia.

The number of people who could testify to this monster was so overwhelming that nothing could save him.

This Japanese man was one of many Japanese who committed war crimes. Even their own men admitted being scared of him. They described him as a psychopath.
Captain Sonei described himself as a civilized and cultured man.
He was a brutal and sadistic man, who delighted in humiliation and torture of his victims, a maniac who outdid himself in cruelty and perversion.

There were many of them. Often being very mean to their own kind. The military had chosen them well.They would do anything for their emperor of Japan.

On their way to the Council of War. Japanese war criminals. The roles are reversed. These two were taken from Tokyo to Singapore and were guilty of ferocious crimes against military and internees from different countries in South-East-Asia

Three men against Japan brings the horror and losses of World War II in Java off the battlefields and military POW camps back to my past. My mother, was separated from her husband and my father taken away from me.We never saw him again.Forced into Japanese prison camps in 1942, where my mother and her sister, with their young children would suffer until the end of 1945.We endured starvation, disease, isolation and uncertainty for three and a half year.
Civilian suffering in war is an under-explored topic but nothing illustrates wartime anguish more than the stories of innocents.
Three men against Japan is an inspiring story about the human spirit and the resiliency that can be found in families.

LEST WE FORGET!

Soekaboemi,a picturesque mountain village, suffered tremendously during the war, in the hands of thugs and after the capitulation of Japan it was destroyed and looted by the extremists.

Houses and buildings destroyed.

Soekaboemi,a picturesque village.

A school for girls in Soekaboemi before the war.

A cultivation school in Soekaboemi, before the war.

A Wedding-procession in front of a Mosque in Soekaboemi, before the war.

Hospital of the Police in Soekaboemi, before the war.