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 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…
By Nicole Maureen Vanderwaall In the living room of a small American ranch-style house in suburban Phoenix, a little girl sat at her Grandma’s feet, munching on a cookie. She tilted her head back, looking imploringly up at the sweet, elderly woman who told such wonderful stories. “Grandma, tell me a story, please. I want…
[Featured photo: Hut Where Anne Frank Stayed in 1944] By Patricia Tiber, Arizona, USA In September I took my annual trek to the Netherlands and decided to spend some time in Drenthe, a province I had never visited before. My request for exploring the ancient “Hunebedden,” (burial mounds-50 centuries’old megaliths); the old Saxon village of…