by Benjamin Jacobs The Story Behind the Indo Girl Logo Before the war, my father was an art and engineering student. He was also in the Dutch army. My father was an artist at heart and was creative in everything he did. More importantly, he was a husband and father. Here’s his story and the…
by TIP volunteer Sylvie Waxman Definition Cultural identity is the identity of belonging to a group. It is part of a person’s self-conception and self-perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality, or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture. (Wikipedia) The following are short descriptions for…
Most people commemorate the end of the Second World War in the Netherlands on May 4th and 5th May, but in fact the war only came to an end on 15 August. Then the Japanese domination of the Dutch East Indies stopped. Each year Dutch people with roots in the former Dutch East Indies come…
The annual commemoration ceremonies ‘herdenkingsceremonie,’ was held on Saturday, August 12th at the National Cemetery of Los Angeles. Around 50 people came together out of respect for the fallen forces and civilians, who lost their life in the former Dutch East Indies during the Japanese occupation and the bersiap period. Unfortunately, the number of attendees…
By Kathryn Pentecost Introduction In this series of monthly essays, I hope to help the readers understand the great complexity that is the story of the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. I write as both an ‘insider’ (an Indo) and an ‘outsider’ (an Australian). Having just completed my PhD on my own family history in…
The end of WWII came to the Netherlands on 5 May 1945. This was not the case for their former colony, the Netherlands East Indies. While most of Europe was celebrating the end of German occupation, the war in Asia raged on until the atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and…