Our Twenty Years in Jamaica.

It was 1990, August 1st, when we moved in our house in Jamaica in the town of Runaway Bay.We spend many happy years in this house. We and the house went through four Hurricanes while we were living there.I just like to put some pictures in this book for keepsake for spending twenty years in this house. Thank you for giving us so much pleasure and thank you for keeping us safe.You are still standing and we hope the people who are living in the house now, will enjoy you just as much as we did.

The name of our house. Windblown

First I like to write about our move to Jamaica and why it was we ended up in Runaway Bay. In January 1989 we went on a cruise with friends. Our friend Bruce Hood, who used to be a well known ice hockey referee, had just retired and had opened a travel business.We played tennis a lot with his wife Joanne and that's how we got to know them. We have so many good memories, they lived in Milton.Our kids were very young, so we visited each others home often. We had lunches after tennis and at Joanne's house we enjoyed an indoor pool and jacuzzi. We had a wonderful time, playing tennis being together with this group of women. I will always have fond memories how happy we were.Some of us are not with us anymore. One of our dear tennis friends passed away last year. Now we are getting older we realize how fortunately we were to be able to have those years.. Life was good to us.Bruce had organized that our whole group would go on this cruise.It was January 1989 and we had to travel to Jamaica, to the harbor of Montego Bay, where we boarded the Britanis, one of the cruise liners of the Greek Chandris group. My husband Ruud and I and twelve of our friends including Bruce and his wife Joanne had a wonder full time.This cruise is a story on it self, which I will write about too. I have so many things I still like to do and I hope I find the time to do all the things which I still like to write down.
Lets get back to our story about the cruise;
On the way back we decided to top our cruise off with a stay at Club Caribbean where we owned one of the cottages at the Hotel Club Caribbean in Runaway Bay.

We were told by the owner of Club Caribbean, Richard Salms, that we were welcome to stay, but that the Hotel was damaged by Hurricane Gilbert and all cottages were under construction.Hurricane Gilbert had struck the island on September 12, 1988 and had caused a lot of damage. We had no idea how much damage this storm had caused. But he told us that he was able to provide us with a couple of cottages and that we had to take care of our own food. He supplied us with a large barbecue, and what fun we had, between all the rubble which Hurricane Gilbert had left behind when it had hit Club Caribbean on September 12, 1988 full force.

Jack McKay and John looking after the barbecue.

Friends from England, Sheena Hartley and her husband Joe, who we would meet every year at Club Caribbean decided to come over and spend the week with us.They owned one of the cottages as well.We both were share holders.

Picking-up Joe and Sheena up from Mo-Bay airport.

 

 Sheena had gone back into the airport, cause Joe had lost a shoe. Never found it.

We see Sheena still every year and we became friends on one of their holiday stays at Club Caribbean some time in 1980. When we arrived at he Hotel from our ten days cruise we were shocked to see the Hotel.

Camping at hotel Club Caribbean Feb.1989

Dinner is ready!

 Sheena on the left, Thea in the middle and Joyce on the right. Don't we look like we have done this before?

We were playing horse shoe.Sheena was the best.

We had no idea that Hurricane Gilbert had caused so much destruction.  I cried my eyes out when I saw it, we had no idea.This was our second home,here we spend our vacation every year with our children. We had come to Club Caribbean since late 1976, and would spend some wonder full times with our children Monique and Dan for many weeks every year.. They almost grew up here, both speaking the language patois. Specially Dan our son is very good at it.Oh how sad it was to see the cottages like this...

Here some photographs of the destruction of the cottages at Club Caribbean.

With our friends, camping at Club Caribbean 1989.

Ruud in the middle, left: Thea, Moira Graham, Sheena Hartley. Right: Stewart, Carl Hageman, John Clifton.

Hurricane Gilbert was an extremely powerful tropical cyclone. It was the most destructive in history. This hurricane was the first in 37 years that hit Jamaica directly. It was the most severe storm since Hurricane Charley in 1951.
Because of its devastating impact, the name Gilbert was retired from the list of hurricanes names. We had seen destruction from hurricane Allen in 1980 when we were vacationing in Jamaica but the damage from Gilbert was not to describe. The entire island was ravaged and Club Caribbean had received a lot of damage. It was closed for more than a year, but it was rebuild and we spend many happy years at this beautiful property in Jamaica on the North coast of Jamaica.
When we were invited to stay at the Club in 1989 during the reconstruction of Club Caribbean, we were approached by the owner Richard Salms and were offered to open a dive shop on the property. We were ready to take on this challenge. Building it from the ground up. In May four months after we had spend a week at the club between all the rubble Ruud stepped on the plane and started our new adventure in life. Opening our first dive shop in the Caribbean on the island of Jamaica. Not knowing that we soon would owe four dive operations all over the island and a sand pumping business, building beaches for hotels. Hotels who had lost their beaches in this horrible hurricane.What a life experience. Not many people in their life time would have the chance to do what we did. Of course it took some guts, but we did it, and no regrets. Twenty years we spend in Jamaica and our kids Monique and Dan worked along side with us. What more is there to wish in life, having your children helping you to set up a business in Jamaica.Both Dan and Monique are divers. Monique became a dive instructor in 1990.Dan became a dive master and we had numerous dives together.

So much destruction.

This is how we found the dive shop after we took over.

In just five months of hard work the dive shop was in operation.

Our fleet ready to take guests out  to make their vacation a memorable one.

Our crew, second from the left our son Dan.

More crew members. 

On the left is me Thea, third from the left is Wayne our son in law, Monique our daughter first on the right and Ruud second from the right.Our dog scuba, which Monique found.When she brought it home it looked like a rat, so terrible scruffy. We did not think it would live.But she nourished it and this dog was such a nice dog.She..this dog... would swim every morning with Ruud out to the boats and would sit on the bow pretending she was the captain when Ruud would pull the boats to shore. It was hilarious. This was every morning Ruud's exercise, swimming the boats in. Scuba that's how we named this dog would already wait for him on the beach, ready to swim out.

Our crew at work at the rinsing basins.

 Wayne painted the wall mural, and wrote it in Patois, the language the Jamaicans use.
Patois is a dialect of the common people of a region, differing in various respects from the standard language of the rest of the country. Like we have in the North of The Netherlands, like Friesland, where the people speak Friesian, which people from the other states can't understand a word of what their own countrymen are saying.

Our youngest crew member.

Our grand son Sam and our grand-daughter Saska grew up in Jamaica. They both went to school and it was one of their best time in their lives. What an experience to be able to grow up on an island in the Caribbean.

Saska's first school uniform in Jamaica.

In Runaway Bay at school. Saska middle row third from the right.

Saska, you can't miss her in this picture. At school in Montego Bay.

Sam  with his friends at school in Jamaica, Third from the right.

I love this picture.This picture says it all. We can learn a lot from our children, they do not see color, they only see what is inside. How very fortunate that our grand children grow up in Jamaica, what an experience for their rest of their lives. An experience they will forever cherish and when they become sentimental like Ruud and I are now, they will look back and will say to themselves, "How lucky we were. What good memories we have for the rest of our lives".
We got to know many Jamaicans while we were living there. Jamaicans we still keep in touch with and are on face book. Many of them are living all over the world, England, Germany, Holland, Canada, and America. How nice is that. We share many stories with them. Some of them worked for us and at the time were only twenty years young. They now have their own children and with them we share many, many memories.Children who are growing up in a different country , and hopefully they are able to visit the country where their parents came from. A country called Jamaica, a country which the Jamaicans will tell you, a country out of many, one people.

Coat of Arms of Jamaica.

The coat of arms says it all:: Out of many, one people".

We did not only do the diving but also provided the quests from Club Caribbean with windsurfing, sailing, glass bottom boat rides, snorkel trips and water skiing.To rebuild the club took quite some time but one year
after the monster hurricane Gilbert, the Hotels cottages were ready to be occupied again and the hotel reopened.

See picture below, from the swimming pool.

Slowly the cottages were repaired.

Club Caribbean in full operation again.

It's absolutely amazing how people rebuild their lives after a disaster and start all over again as if no hurricanes exist. We won't be beaten by nature. We will get up and pick up the pieces. Which I had learned from an early age, when we went through World War 2 and lost every thing. The only things we had left, were the clothes on our backs, when the war was finally over and the Japanese surrendered.For three and half years behind barbwire and high fences, almost starved and beaten to death by the Japanese military, her husband (my father) killed , my mother picked up the pieces and started all over.
It's therefor we are thankful that our children are not taking life for granted. While we were living in Jamaica we went through four hurricanes as I wrote in my blog before.We learned many life's lessons. Lessons and memories we should preserve, memories which should be transmitted. If these memories are not shared, they will be forever lost. People often do not understand how breakable ones memory is. It's very important to listen attentively, true tales are meant to be transmitted to keep them to oneself is betray them. Once we reach adulthood, most of us assume we know all there is to know about our parents and other family members. However, if you take the time to ask questions and actually listen to the answers, you may find there is still so much to learn about the people so close to you.
Every person has a story to tell.

We lived on the Runaway Bay golf course.

 At the end of the road lies the Hotel Jewel Runaway Bay which was called before Breezes Hotel. The ocean is across the road, where we had together with the Cardiff Hall association a private beach for the members of this association.  It was nice to there and meet with our neighbors when they were in town. Many of them live in the States and are only in town for three or six months at the time.Some times for me during the summer time it would be a little lonely. I would miss the dinner parties and my friends. The summers would be extra hot.

Our drive way .

Our road in front of the gate.

I loved working in the yard, but sometimes it was too hot.

The front of our house.

A large Almond tree was growing in the middle of our drive way, which was nice because we parked our truck under- neath this tree. It was a perfect shade tree and a perfect place for my many orchids When the orchids were blooming it was so beautiful. Below one of my many Phalaenopsis hybrid orchids.

A Phalaenopsis orchid on my Almond Tree in our drive way.

We loved the design on our gate, which Thea designed.

Our front yard.

Other part of the front yard.

Our living room.

Our kitchen

Our kitchen

Our Den, an extension of the living room.

It was nice to sit here, the breeze blocks would give you some relieve when the evenings were hot.

The master bed room.

We had four bed rooms and each bed room had it's own full bath room. What a luxury was that.

Our house had a wrap around terrace by the pool.

Many nights we would sit on the terrace listening to the sounds of the tropics, with a nice ice cold drink. Our fan would give us some relieve from the sometimes hot evenings in the summer months.

Many, many nice evenings we have spend here serving dinner, with our family and friends. I wonder how it is now. We sold the house in 2011 to two brothers who live in England. They bought the house for their mother. The amazing part is that these brothers are film makers and had just made a documentary of the lives of the mafia in The Netherlands and the mafia in Jamaica.Since we are originally from The Netherlands and were living in Jamaica we found this really amazing and an unbelievable coincident.

Watching the sun sets from the terrace.

Sun is going down. It's around 6 PM

At the end of the pool we had an Orchid house, with many different orchids.

I was a member of the orchid society in Jamaica. We met every month at each others house and talked about new species we had found. Twice a year we showed our orchids at various hotels and many people from all over Jamaica would come to these shows. Compared to some of my friends I was an amateur,  my friends had the most beautiful orchids. Some of the pictures of my orchids I will show here..I have too many to put them all in this album, but here are some of them.

Just clinging to a tree in our front yard.

This white phalaenopsis just grows on the tree by our driveway.

I really can go on and on with my orchid pictures, but these are just a few of them. Have to see if I can find the pictures from inside my orchid house, because I have a beautiful Parrot fountain in my orchid house I like to ad in this album.We also had beautiful hibiscus growing all around the patio by the pool, which I like to show in this album as well. Here are some of them, hope this is not boring.

Parrot fountain in my orchid house.

At the side of the house we had another beautiful fountain.

Everywhere in the garden we had Hibiscus bushes growing. I loved the colors and many of them were double or even triple flowers. My friend Diane Fairchild and I were always looking for other species.She loved flowers as much as I did. Sadly to say she passed away, too young. We have so many memories. Every Wednesday we were doing something else. Many trips to Ocho Rios and many into the mountains.We must have eaten every Jamaican dishes you can think of. The food in Jamaica is to die for. How I often think back on all the trips we made together, either it was Hugh (Teacher) who drove us or Jozef. Later in my story I will go more detailed into it. I have some wonderful pictures from those trips. Often friends who came to visit us would join us on Wednesday.But I save it for later.I am still in my yard now, showing you all the Hibiscus flowers we had.I am showing just the ones which were my favorite.

One of my favorite color.

Okay enough pictures of flowers, but now I am going to the yard, which is very color full as well. We had a gardener and his name was Jack. He took pride in his work and was forever pruning, cutting, and sweeping around the house. Sometimes he got pruning happy and once I came home and noticed some strange things at my orchid house. It was getting dark so I could not have a good look at it, so we turned on the lights. Ruud had made a spot light in the orchid house which was a really nice feature shining on my orchids, so when we came home from work we could enjoy them.
Well, when we turned the spot light on I nearly had a fit!! Most orchids breed from their roots which are hanging down, some roots are one meter long, these roots are their breathing and feeding mechanism.

Roots from my Vanda orchids.

Showing the roots.

I nearly died when I noticed that all the roots from my orchids were missing.
Jack the gardener had been scissor happy, I nearly lost it.Most of my orchids did not make it.  He some times did the weirdest things, and at the end we had to let him go. He was a very simple man with not a bad bone in his body but this was a little too much. We once came home and he had painted the whole front gate black. Now you would say what is wrong with that, but if you look at the picture below..  you can understand why we were mad!

Can you imagine this gate painted all black??

When we asked him why he had done that, he answered, well,,, boss ( he called Ruud )there was only black paint in the shed and I decided that the front gate needed painting.It took Ruud a couple of weeks to get it back to the way it was.We know that many pictures have been taken from our gate..When Breezess Hotel, which was down the road from us, had a wedding the bride and groom drove bye in a horse and buggy, they always stopped in front of our gate and made pictures.


One day we found out that Jack our gardener used the back yard as his toilet under the Poinciana tree. Not only to pee but also to do his big job, as you know what I mean. I noticed one day a funny smell under the poinciana tree and noticed a lot of poop. Now you have to know that we had two dogs, but I wondered why all that poop was laying under the Poinciana tree, and why Jack had not cleaned it up.
The next day when Jack arrived at work I asked him about it. He told me that it was his toilet where he did his doo-doo...he called it.I asked him why he was not using our bathroom, for pete's sake we have four in the house, and one of them was designated for the helper (Annabella was her name) and Jack.He told me that he did not know that he could use the bathroom in the house and I told him in future that's where you go. The next day I get a phone call from Annabella telling me that she and Jack had a fight and if I please could come to the house, because Jack had pulled a moonie at her and she was scared. I jumped in the car and drove home. Jack greeted me at the gate and told me that Annabella had refused to let him use the toilet because he had to do a major doo-doo.She had chased him out the house with an umbrella which she poked at him.So I pulled a moonie at her; he said. I asked Annabella what this was all about and why she did not let Jack use the bathroom. She told me that she used that bathroom and her good clothes were hanging there and that she did not liked Jack to smell up her clothes when he had to do his doo...doo. This is really hilarious, but that's why she did not let him in and told him to go to the Poinciana tree where he always did his job.
We already had a couple of arguments with her, because when she broke something she never told me. Once she broke one of my wine glasses and had put it back together . She had put it back in the cupboard and when I picked it up a big piece of glass fell of and cut my hand. When I asked her the next day why she had put the broken glass back in the cupboard she was showing me how she broke the wine glass and by showing me how she broke a piece off she broke another glass right in front of me.A few days before I had come home and noticed a big piece of glass broken off from one of my cupboards which had a glass top.  When I asked Annabella what happened' she told me that she was dusting and the glass moved and the corner broke off. She then proceeded to show me how it happened.....hmmmm yes.. ....she broke another large piece of the other corner, and told me ...."See missus"....(that's how she called me)..... "that's how it happened".
Needless to say when I found something broken in the house in future,I didn't asked Annabella anymore. She also did not dust under the bed, because she told me "missus I have bad knees so I can't clean under the beds". One morning when I happen to be home I noticed how she dusted. She did not pick up any thing but dusted every where around it.I asked her why she did not move the picture frames and why she dusted all around it. She told me...."missus"....I am afraid to brake these things". I was losing it a bit and told her that she had to be careful and don't be so ruff, pick it up very careful and put it down again very careful.  When we had bought a new electric stove  I had bought dust covers for the burners because our house  has open shutters,this makes the house very dusty. So I had told her that  before you start cooking you have to remove the dust covers.. Annabella decided to cook on top of the dust covers and called me at work that she had trouble with the stove. She said 'Missus' I can't cook today because the stove is setting itself on fire. Well the covers had become so hot that it burned a big hole in my brand new stove. When I asked her why she had not removed the covers, she told me that she thought if she cooked on the covers the burners would not get covered with food, because Annabella had a tendency to let every thing boil over. I had enough of it so I looked for another helper. So after the episode with Jack and the arguing what was going on between Jack and her, I decided to let her go. After Annabella we had Lauraine for 16 years and we believe she is still with the new owners of our house.

Jack our gardener's bathroom under the Poinciana tree.

This is how the tree looks when it is in full bloom.

You never know when the tree will be blooming, it depend strictly on the weather. Some years it was loaded with beautiful blooms and some years we only got lots of leaves.The seed pods on these trees are sometimes 18 to 20 inches long. When they fall from the tree you better do not get them falling on your head.

The flowers are beautiful.

The inside of the seed pods.

Our garden was beautiful, We had banana trees,an orange trees,an avocado trees,a lime trees,a bread fruit tree, a papaya tree and a grape fruit tree and a key lime tree.. We also had a lime tree with enormous large limes, it makes the most delicious lemonade.

Here the banana's are just starting to bloom.

Our breadfruit tree.

When the breadfruit was ripe we roasted them in the oven and cut them in large slices and put them in the freezer. When you fry these slices in the frying pan it's delicious with a little bit of salt and pepper.

Our Papaya tree.

Our papaya tree was growing to close to the house, we had to chop it down, which was a shame.

Our avocado tree.

Our avocado tree was huge, and every year we had lots of avocado's. One year we were gone to The Netherlands on vacation for a month and when we got back all the avocado's had disappeared. We found out that our gardener had taken them all and had sold them to the stores. Oh. boy, were we mad! Same would happen with the banana's.

Our lime-tree.

.

We also had one plant with scotch bonnet peppers...hot..hot..spicy!!

Our delicious sweet juicy oranges, our tree near our pond.

We loved the yard and so did our dog Jessie.

Will continue.....

Our Monthly Demonstration; Petition:239

                                     FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBTS
                                                                                    NGO, Status Roster

His Excellency Shinzo Abe
Prime Minister of Japan

The Haque, 14 October 2014
Petition:239
Subject: Royal State visit to Japan by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands.

Excellency,

Our King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima will be visiting Japan on an official State visit, 29th to 32st October 2014. In the past visits by our respective Royals have been controversial, accompanied by anger and demonstrations. Not this time. The Dutch from the former Dutch East Indies hope that in this visit you and your government find the opportunity to reflect on and to acknowledge the war time history between Japan and the Netherlands. Our countries centuries" old relationship was based on commerce and mutual respect. The relationship during World War Two however was bitter and sour. It never regained the trust and regard as before.

Prime Minister,

Despite the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty and subsequent Ysohida/Stikker protocol of 1956 Japan did not acknowledge its moral responsibility for the terror and dishonorable behavior of the Imperial Army against the Dutch during the occupation of Dutch East Indies during World War Two. We informed His Majesty King Willem Alexander that whilst in Japan he should not forget what his mother, former Her Majesty Queen Beatrix said at the occasion of her State visit to Japan in 1991: 

Many of my compatriots did not survive the war.
Those who returned are traumatized by memories.
That is why their sufferings as yet did not come to an end.

Prime Minister,

The State visit by his Majesty King Willem Alexander and her Majesty Queen Maxima should prompt you and your government to consider what her Majesty Queen Beatrix said and meant. A voluntary gesture by the Japanese government in acknowledging its moral responsibility, including individual excuses and a meaningful solatium for those who are still alive is long overdue. Next year it will be 70 years ago that World War Two ended in Asia. Since then Japan became prosperous and paid many Asian countries a form of reparation. The surviving Dutch from Dutch Indies lost everything during the war but were neglected in Japans generosity to the Asian countries.

Prime Minister,

The State visit of the Dutch King and Queen is an opportune moment for Japan and in particular for you to reflect on the past and amend the Yosida/Stikker protocol with an additional solatium.

On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts,

J.F. van Wagtendonk
President

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This petition was handed over on our monthly demonstration in The Haque, which has been held every second Tuesday of the month for almost 25 years.

 

Office hours, Japanese Embassy,The Haque, the Netherlands

Its a disgrace that on Friday, October 10, Japan's Foreign Ministry removed the July 18, 1995 document announcing the Asian Women's Fund. This was a direct response to the ultra conservative Next Generation Party Hiroshi Yamada's demand in the Diet on October 6th that the Ministry amend or remove the document to reflect the 2007 Cabinet Decision and the Asahi Shimbun retraction of the Yoshida stories that women were not coerced or forced to become comfort women. Yamada objected to the sentence:"Particularly brutal was the act of forcing women, including teenagers, to serve the Japanese armed forces as "comfort women," a practice that violated the fundamental dignity nof women." He did not believe they were forced to do anything.

This move is an unequivocal statement by the Government of Japan that there was no evidence of "coercion" thus no need for apology. It confirms that the Kono Statement was gutted in 2007 and that the Government of Japan is "upholding for now" something quite different than understood by other governments.

Its sad to say that the Dutch Government is very naive in accepting the present Japanese Government 'reassurances" regarding the Kono Statement. The present Dutch Minister of Foreign affairs Mr. Timmermans will soon be appointed EU commissioner. His successor is not known yet, but will most likely continue the policy of commerce first and then political issues including Japan's wartime history. 

Further Mr. J. van Wagtendonk writes to Mindy Kotler; that he hopes that the US government is not so naive and continues to put pressure on Japan to acknowledge Japan's war time history including the war atrocities and crimes such as Comfort Women and military and civilian concentration camps.

How many more proof does Shinzo Abe and his administration like to hear. Are all the people who came forward with their stories made out as LIARS by this government of Japan.Are you telling me that these stories are not the truth?
I am asking Japan how many more lies are you able to tell your children, your children of Japan.Are you too ashamed what your fathers and forefathers inflicted on innocent human beings? Is that why this Japan of today keeps denying the atrocities from their fathers and forefathers.
These war victims who suffered not only during this horrible war, which you Japan started in the first place, still suffer every day.This War was never over for them. They relived it every day and every night.A war is never over for a war victim. I am asking you Shinzo Abe; "Have they not suffered enough? This will be the last nail in their coffin".
I admire these women and men, yes boys were raped too in these horrible so called protection camps, as your military called it.These boys who came home after they were liberated from your filthy camps, totally traumatized, trying to make a life for themselves, while the monsters who had raped them, went home to their wives or girlfriends, and lived happily ever after. I wonder how they felt when they became fathers and when they looked at their little girls or boy. Would they have shuddered at the thought that this could have been their little girl or boy, who were raped over and over again, their virginity taken by monsters.Yes Shinzo Abe, many young girls and boys were raped, by your fathers and forefathers, who called themselves soldiers. Japanese military Homosexuals raped boys as young as 10 years old in these concentration camps. I would suggest you read the book from Toni Harting, who sadly passed away last November 2013, at the age of 86. He was able to just finish his book in March of that year.His book is called:

" THE DEVIL'S GRIN" Toni was able to finish his book in March of 2013 at the age of 86 and passed away November 22,2013.The book portrays the story of a young Dutch teenage boy developing into an eighteen-year-old man under brutal circumstances as a civilian prisoner of war in Japanese concentration camps in the Dutch East Indies. He sincerely hopes that his effort of writing this book, will be an example to many other "old-timers" and maybe encourage them to tell their own stories and memoirs, so future generations can learn more about what happened in the Pacific War.
 This is what he writes on page 107: and I hope that Shinzo Abe and his government will take notice, and will be prepared that hopefully many more stories like this will surface in the future. Because I assure Japan that this will not go away. You cannot just wave away the atrocities your forefathers and fathers have inflicted, during World War Two. You Shinzo Abe was not even born. You are 60 years old and do not know about the past of Japan,or for that matter, you do not want to believe what those monster soldiers have done to innocent human beings during that time. These innocent civilians were put behind high walls and fences and were being used for slave labor to work your military vegetable fields, while they were starving, beaten and tortured..In our world soldiers are trained to protect people from evil when their is a conflict.Soldiers are trained to protect their homeland when an enemy is attacking their homeland. That's what's being a soldier is all about. Below I am writing what Toni experienced in these so called protection camps.

Homosexuals among the Japanese guards ordered young boys from among the internees to report to them after eight o'clock in the evening. Internees tried to foil these activities as best as they could, but often did not succeed. After a while, it was deemed necessary and appropriate that one Protestant minister, (Dr. C.L. van Doorn), and one Roman Catholic priest,(Pater Ruygrok), from among the internees should make a properly phrased representation to the Japanese camp commandant. This was done_ and resulted in one of the most brutal beatings I have ever witnessed. It was carried out in front of the guard room, in full view of the internees. No matter how justified the complaint had been, it was supposed to be an effort to the Japanese Army, which had thus lost face. At the same time, we felt, the occasion was seized in an attempt to make the clergy lose prestige with their fellow internees. When the Japanese were through with the two victims, their faces were utterly unrecognizable masses of torn and swollen tissue. They were totally incapacitated for weeks.

We will remember them, these little boys.

                                                            LEST WE FORGET!
And so there are many many more stories, about the brutal atrocities the Japanese military inflicted, all in the name of the emperor Hirohito of Japan during World War Two. 

In our camp in Moentilan on the island of Java, a similar incident happened on January 25, 1945, which I will write on my next blog.

Dutch Comfort Women and the Consequences.

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Sunday, August 24, 2014

DUTCH COMFORT WOMEN AND THE CONSEQUENCES

On July 30th two Korean former Comfort Women had extended meetings with White House and the State Department staff.They had traveled to Washington to celebrate the 7th anniversary of House Resolution 121 recognizing their sexual slavery to Imperial Japan's military and asking for an unequivocal apology from Japan's government.

As the Abe Government protests that their tales are fabricated, the rest of the world believes them more. This is reinforced by more scholarship and efforts of daughters and granddaughters to tell their mother's story.

Little however, is said of the non-Korean victims of Japan's Comfort Women scheme. Most of the women, girls, and boys pressed to service and "comfort" the Imperial Japan's military were opportunities of war and occupation.The victims came from every city, plantation, territory and island occupied by Imperial Japan's military. The accounts of the brutal subjugation cemented by rape and pillage are amazingly similar whether they are told by Andaman Islanders or Singapore urbanites; Filipino peasants or Borneo headhunters.

None were more vulnerable than the women and girls who became prisoners in Japanese concentration camps in the Dutch East Indies.In the camps the Japanese officers chose at will, yet with deliberation, the women they wanted. Some, mainly British and Australian women, were survivors of ships torpedoed by Japan off the coast of Java. They recall being given a choice: starve or submit.

Moentilan, Xavier College

Most however, were Dutch girls and young mothers who had been forced from their homes into squalid and overcrowded locations, often former convents or schools. They were shut off from the world, with little food, limited sanitation, and surrounded by guards and barbed wire. The men and boys over 10 were sent off to slave on the Burma-Thai Death Railway or other military projects. It was never clear what was the intent or when would be the end of the internment. In late July and early August 1945, the consolidation of these internment camps and rumors from sympathetic guards suggested that the internees were all to be killed.
With some notable exceptions most of the hundreds of women forced to prostitute themselves for the Emperor never spoke of their experience or came forward to ask for compensation.The shame was too raw, too deep, it is therefore impossible to confirm the numbers of women subjected to this sexual abuse. Only 35 women were included in the 1946-47 Batavia War Crimes trial that charged 12 Japanese Army Officers of having committed war crimes that included, for the first time "forced prostitution". The full records of these proceedings are sealed as are the names of the women involved until 2025.

Thus, the following news is unusual and deeply from the heart,

Dutch Woman Speaks About Mother's Experience of Sexual Slavery

By Chang-Jae-soon, correspondent

Washington, August 18 (Yonhap) _ Thea Bisenberger-van der Wal says she still remembers sitting on the steps of a church in Indonesia back in 1945 while waiting for her mother to come out. Her mother always cried but only told her, then aged 4, that she had fallen.

The mother never spoke to her of what really happened in the church for the rest of her life until she died 10 years ago, Bisenberger said, though she constantly suffered from nightmares because of the indelible experiences; sexual slavery by Japanese troops.

Bisenberger now living in Canada, provided some details of what her mother went through in a letter to the Asia Policy Point, a nonprofit research center studying the U.S. policy on Northeast Asia. Mindy Kotler, director of the center, disclosed the letter to Yonhap News Agency on Monday.

Bisenberger has been calling for an apology from Japan.

It is not new news that Dutch women were among the victims of Japan's sexual enslavement during World War Two, but the case shows the issue still remains unresolved not only for Korean victims but for victims of other countries as well.

At least 65 Dutch women were believed to be among the victims, known euphemistically as "comfort women."(NB:79 women and men were willing to accept Japanese medical payments in the late 1990s)

"Not all the comfort women were Korean,"Kotler said."They were pressed into service on every island and territory invaded by Japan. The rapes were proof of victory and power for the Japanese and loss and humilation for the conquered people."

Monthly demonstration at the Japanese Embassy in The Hague

Bisenberger said she learned of her mother's experiences in 2009 when a younger sister of her mother told about it. The aunt was the only one to whom the mother revealed what happened because she wanted to spare her mother about the tragic story, Bisenberger said.

"My mother and her sister were raped while in a concentration camp in Moentilan. There was a church on this property and it was the former Xavier college. In this church happened the most horrible things during our captivity."

Bisenberger said in the letter of what happened in 1944.

The horrible experiences left deep scars on their hearts, she said. Her mother's sister even attempted suicide while in the concentration camp, but her mother saved the sister, Bisenberger said.

Bisenberger said that once a year she attends a rally that a group of Dutch people hold every second Tuesday of the month in front of the Japanese Embassy in The Hague.

"After the war, my mother always had nightmares, which never went away." she said."When a war is over, it's never over for the victims who survive, which is very sad. Even the children will always wonder if the things they have in their heads were real. My mother always tried to erase them."

APP Editor: You can read more about Thea Bisenberger van der Wal experiences on her blog, coconutconnections


My personal comment:

Thea said:

Thank you so very much for posting my story. I hope a day will come that Japan takes responsibility about the atrocities their military committed during World War Two. Its sad that the real victims were forgotten. The real victims who suffered for three and a half year at the hands of these barbaric Japanese Forces. Hundreds of thousands lost their lives. Please I am asking to honor those who gave their life and those who are still alive today and still suffer and relive the most horrendous atrocities which the Japanese inflicted on them. Lest we forget! We need recognition from Japan, and not denial. Take the blame Japan for what happened during World War Two and remove the shame!

August 26,2014.


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


JUSTICE FOR COMFORT WOMEN

ARTICLES


UN HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICIAL BLAST JAPAN OVER COMFORT WOMEN ISSUE.

United Nations High Commissioner  for Human Rights,

                                                                     Navy Pillay

The United Nations' top human rights official blasted Japan for what she described as its failure to "provide effective redress to the victims of wartime sexual slavery."

"It pains me to see that these courageous women, who have been fighting for their rights, are passing away one by one, without their rights restored and without receiving reparations to which they are entitled," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in a statement Wednesday.


Ms. Pillay, a South African national whose tenure as commissioner will soon come to an end after six years, criticized the lack of "any public rebuttal by the government" of Japan against "denials and degrading remarks" by public figures.

 This year, Tokyo conducted a review into how a 1993 official apology was drafted. The review, prompted by conservative lawmakers who have long questioned the Japanese military's direct involvement in recruiting World War Two "comfort women'" said it couldn't be confirmed whether the women were "forcefully recruited."

Ms. Pillay said the issue was "a current issue, as human rights violations against these women continue to occur as long as their justice and reparation are not realized."

When asked Thursday about the newest U.N. condemnation-just last month, the U.N. Human Rights Committee advised Japan to investigate and prosecute wartime perpetrators-Japan's top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, reiterated the government's longstanding view. "Our country's consistent position has been that the issue of comfort women has been settled between Japan and South Korea."

Mr. Suga said Japan has provided aid to the women "from a moral standpoint." Japan will "continue to patiently explain its position," he said.

Ms. Pillay's comments were the latest to keep the comfort-women issue on the front burner, nearly 70 years after the war ended. This week, South Korea said it would publish its first comfort women white paper- in English, Chines, and Japanese.

Additionally, Japanese conservatives claimed vindication this week when the liberal daily Asahi Shimbun retracted some stories it ran in the 1980s and 1990s that seemed to back allegations about the imperial army abducting Korean Women.

By Wall Street Journal Asia
=======================================================================

Oh, how angry I am at the Japanese government of today, how they handle the atrocities their forefathers committed. Don't they feel any shame for what their military forces have done to human beings, specially to women and children, during World War Two? How can this government be in denial? Is Japan a nation that believes their own lies? 


The following story confirms my story I wrote a couple of years ago. I just purchased a book, written by Dr. Mark Felton,who gained his PhD in American history from the University of Essex. He currently lives in China with his wife and son and lectures at Fudan University, Shanghai. He has contributed to many historical periodicals and is the author of
Yanagi: The secret Underwater Trade Between Germany and Japan, 1042-1945. The Fujita Plan: Japanese Attacks on the United States and Australia during World War Two. Slaughter at Sea: The story of Japan's Naval War crimes,The Coolie Generals: Britain's Far Eastern Military Leaders in Japanese Captivity Japan's Gestapo: Murder, Mayhem and Torture in Wartime Asia, The Real Tenko, The Final Betrayal and  21st Century Courage (all published by Pen & Sword Books).

The book: Children of the Camps....JAPAN'S LAST FORGOTTEN VICTIMS was published in 2011 one year after my book was published "I THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW" under my maiden name Tetske T. van der Wal is my memoir about our camp life, during that horrible time in captivity and under the rules of the Japanese military.
The following story which is written on page 103 of Mark's book confirms my story of an event I wrote.

On 25 January 1944, KEMPETAI  troops arrived at Muntilan Camp in Java in a bus, bringing with them a copy of a list they had previously forced the women camp leaders to draw up recording suitable young women and girls. A tenko was immediately called and the women on the list were ordered to go to the church (the camp being situated inside a monastery) for an inspection. The camp leaders and the camp doctor followed behind, protesting loudly to the Japanese officers that this was illegal and against the Geneva Convention. Their protestations were pointedly ignored until the Japanese tried to remove a group that they had selected from the camp. Resistance was strong. A large crowd of women and teenaged boys had gathered outside the church while the Japanese were inspecting the women. When the church door was flung open and the Kempetai tried to escort the women to their bus, violence broke out. The furious internees, their patience already exhausted by the inhuman treatment that they had all suffered from the Japanese,hurled clumps of dirt and stones at the Japanese soldiers. In turn the Japanese reacted violently, Kempetai officers even slashing at the unarmed women and children with their swords. By these methods, the Japanese managed to force their way through the crowd and the young girls were roughly bundled aboard the bus and driven out of the camp, many of the mothers left behind screaming and tearing at their clothes in anguish as their daughters disappeared to an unknown fate.
Three days later the Kempetai came back to the camp Muntilan. Another tenko was called and the remaining prisoners were offered a deal. The Japanese would accept volunteers to replace the women they had taken by force vefore. A handful of women, mostly respectable married, but a few of whom had been working as prostitutes before the war, raised their hands and volunteered in order to spare the younger girls from multiple rape. On 28 January 1944, thirteen young women from the camp were taken to Magelang.


My mother always talked about this story. She always told me this story in a real funny way, and she would laugh almost to the point of hysteria. She told me that when the women were throwing the clumps of dirt and grass and stones whatever they could lay their hands on, it was the most funniest thing to see these little yellow men trying to avoid getting hit. It was the most hilarious scene to see them ducking..Oh how mad we were at these "JAPS" she would say. She never told me the reason. She told me:"One day the Kempetai came to our camp in Moentilan and we were called for a roll call (Tenko) We stood their with our children in the hot sun, for a very long time and we had to bow over and over again. The Japanese picked out some women and girls who didn't do it right and took them into the church. When after awhile the women and girls came out the church and were crying, we knew they had been punished and we women got so angry, that's why we threw clumps of dirt and grass and stones at the Kempetai. And she would laugh again, thinking about it. She told me that they had been very brave to stand up to these rotten Japs. Of course we were all punished and did not get any food that night. But oh what a satisfaction was it to us that we had stood up that day and showed them that you do not mess with us.
She never told me that these young women and girls were taken for forced prostitution. Whenever she told me something about her camp experience it always was a funny story. I think she tried to spare me from all the atrocities she and her sister had experienced during that horrible life in captivity of the Japanese military.I often tried to confront her with a question I thought I had remembered. She always told me that things like that I described to her, had not happened, because bad things like that do not happen in real life.People do not do things to each other like that.Now I understand she tried to erase these things from my mind, the bad things which must have taken such an impression on me that it had been stuck in my mind deep inside, tucked away. So I believed her, and never spoke about it, not even with my husband, until after my mother died and we were retired and had more time on my hands I started to think.Than I knew that what was deep hidden in my mind were true events, things I had seen, and had made such a lasting impression on me. It's amazing what a four, five year old can remember. Sadly to say, these were only bad things I remembered. Never in my wildest dream I had any idea that my mother was raped in that church in camp Moentilan, while I was waiting outside for her. Always telling me that she had tripped in the church and fell, that's why she cried. She always told me that I was such a very good girl for waiting so patiently outside, she told me that she had to clean the church for the "JAPS". How my mother, her sister and all these women must have suffered at the hands of these barbaric Japanese military.

After the war, my mother was first taken to Semarang and from there we were taken by military plane to Bandoeng. My mother was very sick to the point that they thought she was not going to make it.We arrived in Bandoeng somewhere in the middle of January 1946 and we were taken to the (Java straat),where during the former Dutch Indies the Java center was, where it took my mother three month's to recuperate from all what these Japanese military had done to her. Her life would never be the same. She passed away in 2003. As long as I live I will fight for recognition from the Japanese government of today, for all the atrocities their forefathers have done to us, and to so many others.

The other day I received some pictures from a nice young man from Indonesia who lives in Bandoeng.I had asked him if he knew where the Java straat no 14 was. He right away went to the (Java straat) and took some pictures of the buildings. He told me that the street was now called Jawa street almost the same, and that the building where my mother had been was still there and that there was an orphanage a couple of doors from the building, where they had taken me.When I saw that picture of the orphanage I cried. I recognized the white pillars, where I had fallen asleep. One day I had runaway to look for my mother., and that's where they found me outside the building in the bushes beside the white pillars. It's funny how you can remember white pillars.For some reason I always thought that these white pillars were underneath the building.

The building now.  Jawan street 14, Bandung. Indonesia.

This young man; Erik is his name, told me that it's now an empty warehouse. He also made a picture from the orphanage , where I stayed during the time my mother was recovering. It was a few doors down the road at number 18, which he told me is still an orphanage run by Salvation Army.

All I remember are the white pillars, where I fell asleep.

 A very happy young woman.

1946 Just recovered from three months of being hospitalized

.

Our Montly Demonstration. Petition:238

                                  FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBTS
                                                                                 NGO, Status Roster

His Excellency Shinzo Abe
Prime Minister of Japan

The Hague, 9 September 2014
Petition:238
Subject: Honoring war criminals. how disgusting!!!

Excellency,

Your message sent to the annual ceremony honoring class A and other war criminals is truly disgusting! You appear to have no consideration for all the victims, Japanese and others, who suffered so badly from the atrocities caused by these war criminals. They induced the Imperial Army and their agents to bring terror and fear in the occupied territories and bullied their own people into war. Many of the survivors and the next of kin of those who died are shocked by your message.
How can you as a private person and as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party say that the war criminals
"sacrificed their souls to become the foundation of the fatherland"?

The people of Japan must now realize and recognize the true colors of their Prime Minister:
He honors Japan's convicted war criminals, forgets their atrocities, and glorifies them to cover up the role and activities of his ancestors. The Japanese citizens will realize that the war criminals are not "the foundation of modern Japan", but gives Japan a lasting bad name.
Prime Minister,

As Prime Minister you must take responsibility for your acts as a private person and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party. You cannot but acknowledge Japan's past wrongdoings and stop backpedaling on former apologies. If not, Japan's stand in the world will continue to deteriorate and the young people of Japan will continue to be blamed for not knowing their country's history. Your so called peace agenda is wrought by the past and lacks repentance.

Germany's example in acknowledgement and apologies and reparations  for all its war crimes against its people, the Jews, Sinti and other Europeans, brought the respect and admiration.An honest apology recognized by the government and conveyed directly by the Prime Minister to the surviving victims and the next of kin will bring peace and better onternational relationships to Japan.
Respect must be earned and paid for!

Prime Minister
Accept in the long term interest of Japan and its people this responsibility.
Come to terms with the past!

On behalf of the Foundation of Honorary Debts,


J.F. van Wagtendonk
President

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

  Part of a message from our President J.F.van Wagtendonk,


                                         UNTIL WE ALL ARE DEAD. 

"Politics is a refractory phenomenon": Mr. van Wagtendonk says in a letter to our donors and to those who have sympathy for our cause.Our stories are like a gramophone-record, played over and over again,turning grey for the media..The matter of the former Dutch Indies is very difficult for them to understand. The moral responsibilities of Japan has been credulous taken on for granted, and has been dump founded put aside as a dossier "intractability". For us it is very frustrating, but we will never give up.
The moral responsibility of Japan, asked for understanding, when they hear about the physics and physical damage which the Dutch from the former Dutch-Indies experienced during the Japanese military occupancy.
Recognition, Excuses, and a compensation, is a very painful political question.For the Politicians in Power the daily problems are a priority, and losing face is a no....no....!And so we keep plugging along since the surrender of Japan in 1945. Nevertheless, the media is starting to react to the politics of the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and are starting to question his principals.Politicians and well known persons like Angelina Jolie are asking the world and emphasize to the subject to better protect women in war situations.To batter integrity of the Kono Declaration, regarding the forced prostitution by the Japanese military, by the so called verification team.This lead to officially protest against their editorial commends.
Prime minister Abe Shinzo doesn't believe in organized forced prostitution of young women and girls to pleasure their Japanese military during their occupancy of many territories during World War Two.
We keep argue about their great injustice to Human Rights. We keep insisting about a moral recognition, excuses and a compensation from Japan. On the basis of the Yoshida-Stikker agreement, Japan can and must fulfill their Debt of Honor. Special now as the result of the San Francisco treaty, they have the means to honor their individual war damage.
We will not give up,as long as we live.This unbreakable combination of Recognition, Excuses, and a Compensation can only come to an end through a final solution.
Mr. van Wagtendonk ends this message to wish that we should never give up hope, and that we can say one day:" we found peace and are able to bury the past".

J.F.van Wagtendonk,
president.


I translated some of the segments from his message as best as I could, and would like to thank him for all the good work he has done over the years.

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

DARK CLOUDS HANGING OVER JAPAN.

This Prime Minister Shinzo Abe doesn't seems to know its history of Japan. Maybe because he is ashamed of it. I hope the latter.
Prime Minister stop denying the atrocities your country, your military and agents, your Emperor Hirohito, brought to the world.
It was your country JAPAN who started it all. Your country brought destruction and sadness and anger in China, then your country attacked Pearl Harbor in a very sneaky way.Then your country attacked and occupied other territories. How many innocent people, like women and children were murdered and raped by your country Japan during that horrible time in World War Two.It was your country's military army who brought destruction all over Asia, with false pretenders to free Asia.That was a lie and the lies have since then never stopped. You and your government are still lying now. It will haunt you forever, and it will haunt your people.
To refresh one of the atrocities your military inflicted during the rampage of the occupancy of Manilla. Your military slaughtered thousands of women and children, before raping the women and young girls no older than 10. To refresh your memory and remind you of Japan's military past; 111.000 civilians alone were massacred in February 1945. That is an estimated 35.0000 more than either Nagasaki or Hiroshima.Inform your new generation about the real facts of World War Two. The new generation should be informed of these darkest hours in history. The whole city of Manilla bombed and burned beyond recognition. Its civilian population murdered, women raped and killed, people burned to death, and babies bayoneted by Japanese soldiers, ( no they were monsters who did this). Women mutilated, and people drowned. The Japanese military were told not to waste ammunition. This was a cold planned purpose of the Japanese high command. Certainly Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have never occurred.
Your military raped my mother and her sister, while they were helpless.All these women and children taken captive by your military were told that they were the property of the Emperor Hirohito of Japan. They were only numbers, my mothers was 546 and I being only four years old was 547.We had to obey by your rules, we were told we had no Homeland anymore and the flag we had to respect was the white flag with the red ball in the middle (The rising sun). Well my mother told me how all these women hated this flag, and all your people, in my mothers heart there was no sunshine, while the Japanese Officers raped her.. How your nation misinterpreted this flag.It should have been a flag with tears.We were looked upon as not being human beings. We were white thrash in the eyes of your military army.How my mother and her sister have suffered, not only during that horrible time when they were held captive in that Monastery in Moentilan but when the war was over and your military army capitulated, the victims suffered for the rest of their lives.
I will try with this blog to honor my mother, her sister, and all the women, children and men who suffered tremendous atrocities during your country's occupancy.It should never be forgotten how men can turn into monsters, pushed on by your Japanese government.Your military murdered my father and many of his friends.All what they wanted to do was protect their country, from evil. And evil it was, what your country's military army did.I can and will not forget how my mother and her sister suffered the rest of their lives with nightmares, the nightmares in which they were raped over and over again,how they tried to protect their children from starving, how they were beaten in front their children's eyes and in all places in a church on the property of this Monastery Xavier college in Moentilan raped, on the island of Java.This place was Hell on earth, and the devils were your Japanese military brought up by your government.And you Prime Minister Abe Shinzo are honoring these monsters in the Shrine. Shame on you.

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo;
This is only one of the lessons of history, which seemed to be forgotten by you and your government.

How can you as a Prime Minister not know about the history of your country Japan.How can you glorify these barbaric war criminals. How can your nation ever expect to be respected by the rest of the world.

TAKE THE BLAME AND REMOVE THE SHAME!

Its time to accept the past, make it go away like Germany did. Prime Minister I ask you not to keep telling lies to your younger generation. Sooner or later they will find out and that's when you will be made out as the biggest Liar who ever was prime minister of Japan. 

                                                 LEST WE FORGET!

Our monthly demonstration. Petition:237

                                         FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBT 
                                                                                          NGO, Status Roster

____________________________________________________________

His Excellency Shinzo ABE
Prime Minister of Japan

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

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

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

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

On behalf of the Foundation of Honorary Debts.

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

________________________________________________________________
Established April 4 1990
Zoutmanstraat 23X, 2518 GL, Den Haag Tel: 070 306 37 42 Fax: 070 306 23 88
Website: www.japanse-ereschulden.nl Mail: info@japanse-ereschulden.nl
===============================================================

Attachment:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 15, a day to remember.

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

Lest we forget!