By Humphrey de la Croix – Indischhistorisch.nl The loss of the Indies after handing over sovereignty to Soekarno’s, Indonesia in 1949, must have affected Dutch political leadership, business, and veterans to such a degree that two generations of historians and political scientists considered the postcolonial era as a ‘no-go area’. The third imperial nation (after…
We are happy to report that because of YOUR interest and support, The Indo Project was able to accomplish much this past year! The organization is truly becoming the portal for Indo history and culture worldwide, especially representing Indos outside of the Netherlands. This is reflected in: The growing number of people who sign up…
By Susannah Palk First Published in The Underground The Hague, Edition#4 May/June 2015 Smiling seductively as she winks playfully at the camera, the fresh-faced image of Dido Van Soest betrays little of the audacious woman underneath – the young, charismatic model turned resistance fighter, whose life would ultimately end in tragedy during the devastation of…
While Japan has received considerable and positive media attention with the latest agreement between Japan and South Korea, with regard to the compensation of the last surviving Korean sex slaves of the Japanese Imperial Army, this is, like the recent gesture of the Dutch government with regard to the last 1,100 survivors of the Dutch…
3,322 Dutch POW’s worked as slaves in the Mitsubishi mines and shipyards. Published in TROUW newspaper, July 25, 2015. By Griselda Molemans Now that the Japanese company Mitsubishi Materials has offered an apology to all US prisoners of war who had to work as slaves in Japan during World War II, the Dutch government has…
The following speech is by Jesse Eijsbroek, given at the commemoration ceremony in San Francisco on August 2nd, 2015: In June of 1942, the Japanese Empire launched an ambitious military logistics project to connect the existing railways between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon, Burma. The line was considered difficult—navigating through hilly jungle terrain and around many…
By Inez Hollander Lake. Aug 20, 2015 — Dutch Prime Minister Continues to Ignore the Dutch East Indies Community. After 70 Years of Empty Promises the International Dutch East Indies Community is Waiting for Action from the Dutch Government. August 20th, 2015, Boston, USA – Thousands of Indos in the US were eagerly awaiting the speech…
by Inez Hollander This week we received an e-mail from Mindy Kotler at the Asia Policy Point in Washington DC, concerning Japan’s continued historical revisionism with regard to slave labor by POWs at Japan’s foremost industrial sites. The Indo Project is joining a number of POW-organizations in writing a letter to the UN cultural organization,…
Join us for the 2nd annual event by The Indo Project at the University of California Irvine. Based on his best-selling memoir, The Railway Man tells the extraordinary and epic true story of Eric Lomax, a British Army officer who is tormented as a prisoner of war at a Japanese labor camp during World War…
A Book Review of Op klompen door de dessa by Hylke Speerstra (Amsterdam: Atlas, 2015) When growing up in The Netherlands, I never realized that part of my family history ran parallel with the rise and demise of the Dutch East Indies. I explored the colonial part of that history in my book Silenced Voices…