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…
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 Bianca Dias-Halpert It was with great pleasure to interview Jeannette Lambert from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Our Skype connection but for one tiny glitch went smoothly and we had a nice chat about our mutual heritage. Jeannette is a jazz singer, artist, mother, wife from Canada who was born in Leiden, NL. Her father, Walter…
[Featured photo: March 1952 Family Buiskool on board Johan Van Oldenbrneveld] By Helen Buiskool, North Carolina, USA I’m so excited to now be able to learn more about my heritage, thanks to The Indo project. It is long overdue for many of us of my generation who have hungered for more information now that our…
[Featured photo: Merriman’s] By Bianca Dias-Halpert It was with great pleasure to finally talk with Kimo Huybrechts, a diverse musician from Hawaii of Indo heritage. His music group Ranga Pae was formed in 1995. Ranga Pae means “encircling the earth” in the Maori language. The name came about when Kimo and a team from…
By Bianca Dias-Halpert Title: Memories of ‘The East’ Author: Fridus Steijlen, KITLV Press ISBN-10: 906718199 4 ISBN-13: 9789067181990 This book offers a window into the past without having to wade through a lot of facts and data. Between 1997-2001, over 700 interviews were conducted of those who had lived through the end of colonialism…
By Robert Vanderwaall, nephew Name: Pieter Hendrik van der Waall Born: July 3, 1921 Dutch East Indies Died: July 5, 1993 Zoetermeer, Netherlands POW: Thai-Burma Railway Pieter Hendrik van der Waall July 3, 1921 to July 5, 1993. He was the brother of my father Charles. During the war he was a mechanic in the…