By Bianca Dias-Halpert USS Wichita (CA-45) Ship’s Chief Petty Officers listen to the radio broadcast of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s address to the Congress requesting a declaration of War against the Axis powers, circa 8 December 1941. Note phograph of President Roosevelt on the bulkhead. The Good and the Bad They’re in the same…
By Sylvia Boon Couto, daughter Name: William Boon Born: December 17, 1917, Java, Dutch East Indies Died: June 10, 2011, California, USA POW: Camp Tjimahi, West Java, Nov 20 , 1942 camp 4e Bataljon The Early Years Dad was born on December 17, 1917 on the island of Java, Indonesia to a…
By Jan Krancher, California, USA Overview of the Japanese Imprisonment Experience The Japanese High Command on Java attempted to coerce the Indo-European members of the former Royal Netherlands-Indies Army, Navy and Air Force to enlist in the Japanese army. A goodly number of Indos who refused were summarily executed and many ended up in camps. …
By Bianca Dias-Halpert, Washington, USA An article appeared in the magazine NOW! Bali August 2010 about a Dutch lady who has lived in Indonesia her entire life. They were kind enough to let me share their findings with you readers. Milly On the outside she looks Dutch but on the inside she is Indonesian. Milly…
[Featured photo: Doc Hekking Reunion with former POW’s 1957 Texas Courtesy of Lost Battalion Association] By Bianca Dias-Halpert, USA Heroes are lost in the annals of history. Doc Hekking and the incredible bond with his fellow POW’s is an inspirational story that awaits rediscovery in the Indo community and beyond. The boys from America…
By Joyce Kater, New Mexico, USA LITTLE MOMENTS OF HUMANITY AT WARTIME Although this incident happened a lifetime ago in the Second World War in South East Asia, it still lingers in my memory. It took place in the months before our family was torn apart and put in different Japanese concentration camps on Java…
By Tamara Fielding, New York, USA ADEK CAMP – BATAVIA (Jakarta) – August 1945 My mother was clairvoyant. She always seemed to know things before they happened and had telling dreams. News had penetrated Adek Camp that the Japanese had lost the war and freedom was near. A rumor which we had heard before, but…
By Maartien Van Genderen, Washington, USA Winds of change were unmistakably headed for my homeland, the island nation of the former Dutch East Indies. They came foreshadowed by foreboding events. The Netherlands, our fatherland, fell victim to the unbridled war of the expansion of Hitler’s Third Reich in May 1940. Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl…
By Bianca Dias-Halpert After WWII ended in 1945 there was a power vacuum in the Dutch East Indies as the former Japanese captors were disarmed and the Indonesian revolutionists picked up momentum. Because of the lack of manpower in the Dutch military the Allied Forces sent British-Indian troops to stabilize the situation and aide…
By Frans Krajenbrink There was a lot of confusion in our neighborhood about what we were supposed to do. My grandpa went throughout the neighborhood to ask if people wanted to evacuate. Two families agreed to go; our next door neighbor Mr. and Mrs. Schwab and their daughter Ilse, and Mrs. Folkeringa and her four…