I am going to share the story of my family as I find out more about it.
I will start with the indonesian/japanese story that ive been recently hearing about since meeting my nephew from australia.
My greatgrandparents moved to the Dutch colony of Indonesia at the end of ww1 where they ran one of the few, probably the only car garage on the emerald isles.
They had a fantastic time there, the locals were hapy to work for them or succeeded well in hiding their discontempt.
This is rather common, many indonesians were very friendly and happy and many Dutchg had no idea these people hated being colonised and dominated and exploited by the Dutch.
So my grandmother and her brother Dirk grew up in a paradise, they had servants, money, freedpm and just lots of freedom.
Not realising anything about politics, indonesian rebels, what was happening in the world.
They were just very happy children.
When the war began they were in their late teens, about to become adults.
My grandmother married a Dutch soldier but then the Japanese came.
Everybody was locked up in prison camps but, and im not quite sure what happened, my grandmother managed to hide with two girls who looked dark.
They stayed hidden in a house, my gran remained hidden because she was so european, the dark girls managed to get food now and then.
Things were becoming very difficult as my gran was pregnant by her husband and they had to take even bigger risks.
Of course this couldnt last, they were discovered.
Some or all the girls were then raped by japanese soldiers.
We are not sure if my gran was raped as at that time as she was already heavily pregnant and it was a subject never talked about in the family.
Something we only found out when meeting one of the other girls many years later.
After this ordeal they were taken to a prisoner camp or went their themself because of what happened.
In the camp my gran had her baby, my aunt Annemarie.
Life in the camp was terrible, my aunt as a toddler had a nightmare all her life of a woman beaten to death by the guards, also my gran was beaten a few times.
Gran later confirmed that my aunt had seen such things as a toddler.
Other family members didnt survive the camps.
My uncle dirk became a POW as he was a soldier when the war began, he was ordered to work on the Birma railroad, a experience that broke him for ever.
He was and still is a strong and proud man but he never got over it.
He still hates eveything japanese, he caused a big row when his son went to Japan on a journey.
He never talked about what he went trough.
When the war finally came to an end my grandmother, my aunt and my uncle were close to death.
Although we all hate the bombs that fell on Japan we also realise that nobody in our entire family would be alive today without them.
My grandfather though was somewhere on the other side of the country when he was released because the war was as good as finished.
He heard where his family was being kept prisoner and decided he couldnt wait any longer.
First I didnt believe this story but its now been confirmed.
My grandfather escaped from the POW camp (not difficult, few guards left, war pretty much over), he went to a japanese airfield and highjacked a plane!!!
He got on board of a plane and forced the pilot to fly him to the other side of the country.
Knowing my granddad he would have snapped the japs neck in a second if he wouldnt have listened.
At this time the survivors of my family were hiding inside the camps, now the indonesians (fuelled with hate by the japs) stood up against the Dutch, probably (rightfully) fearing they would take over again.
In a strange reverse situation the japanese guards now had to defend their former prisoners from the indonesians.
My family witnessed fellow ex-prisoners dissapearing at night, being found the next day brutally murdered.
Then in a convoy they went to the harbour, being shot at by indonesian rebels, knowing very well that they were shooting at women and children who had just survived years in a camp.
When they arrived on a british ship my aunt remembers a very young british sailor looking after her while the rest of my family sort of collapsed.
He was very sweet to her, treating her as his little sister.
Singing to her, giving her sweets, etc.
My aunt still gets emotional when she thinks about how nice he was, the first nice man she had seen in her life as there had been no men in the camp besides the japs.
Many years later she would marry a sailor, she told him that she wouldnt even had talked to him if he hadnt been wearing the uniform... heheh some things run in the family.
My family left indonesia in a plane with no door, probably a dakota used for airdrops.
They never went back.
In the Netherlands they simply couldnt get used to normal life, nobody talked about what happened and the dutch had their own war traumas to handle.
My grandmother died very young, probably because the shock her system got in the camp, she nearly died several times and her body sort of gave up.
My greatuncle Dirk left the Netherlands and went to australia, he only came back once.
So far my family history in the east, i will tell more about other family stories soon.
I've found a old family photo, I'll post it here so you can put a few faces to the names.
The young boy on the front row all the way at the left is my uncle Dirk if im not mistaken.
The girl sitting right behind him is his sister, my grandmother.
This man is a great great uncle.
I know little about him but on the back of the photo it says that he as shot dead in Semarang in 1945 shortly after being liberated from the jap camps.
The indonesians shot him and his dog, the indonesians wouldnt allow his wife to go outside to be with him as he was dying.
Editors Note: Would you Europeans PLEASE add line breaks! Us short-sighted Yanks can't read these long blocks of text! :eusa_doh:
I will start with the indonesian/japanese story that ive been recently hearing about since meeting my nephew from australia.
My greatgrandparents moved to the Dutch colony of Indonesia at the end of ww1 where they ran one of the few, probably the only car garage on the emerald isles.
They had a fantastic time there, the locals were hapy to work for them or succeeded well in hiding their discontempt.
This is rather common, many indonesians were very friendly and happy and many Dutchg had no idea these people hated being colonised and dominated and exploited by the Dutch.
So my grandmother and her brother Dirk grew up in a paradise, they had servants, money, freedpm and just lots of freedom.
Not realising anything about politics, indonesian rebels, what was happening in the world.
They were just very happy children.
When the war began they were in their late teens, about to become adults.
My grandmother married a Dutch soldier but then the Japanese came.
Everybody was locked up in prison camps but, and im not quite sure what happened, my grandmother managed to hide with two girls who looked dark.
They stayed hidden in a house, my gran remained hidden because she was so european, the dark girls managed to get food now and then.
Things were becoming very difficult as my gran was pregnant by her husband and they had to take even bigger risks.
Of course this couldnt last, they were discovered.
Some or all the girls were then raped by japanese soldiers.
We are not sure if my gran was raped as at that time as she was already heavily pregnant and it was a subject never talked about in the family.
Something we only found out when meeting one of the other girls many years later.
After this ordeal they were taken to a prisoner camp or went their themself because of what happened.
In the camp my gran had her baby, my aunt Annemarie.
Life in the camp was terrible, my aunt as a toddler had a nightmare all her life of a woman beaten to death by the guards, also my gran was beaten a few times.
Gran later confirmed that my aunt had seen such things as a toddler.
Other family members didnt survive the camps.
My uncle dirk became a POW as he was a soldier when the war began, he was ordered to work on the Birma railroad, a experience that broke him for ever.
He was and still is a strong and proud man but he never got over it.
He still hates eveything japanese, he caused a big row when his son went to Japan on a journey.
He never talked about what he went trough.
When the war finally came to an end my grandmother, my aunt and my uncle were close to death.
Although we all hate the bombs that fell on Japan we also realise that nobody in our entire family would be alive today without them.
My grandfather though was somewhere on the other side of the country when he was released because the war was as good as finished.
He heard where his family was being kept prisoner and decided he couldnt wait any longer.
First I didnt believe this story but its now been confirmed.
My grandfather escaped from the POW camp (not difficult, few guards left, war pretty much over), he went to a japanese airfield and highjacked a plane!!!
He got on board of a plane and forced the pilot to fly him to the other side of the country.
Knowing my granddad he would have snapped the japs neck in a second if he wouldnt have listened.
At this time the survivors of my family were hiding inside the camps, now the indonesians (fuelled with hate by the japs) stood up against the Dutch, probably (rightfully) fearing they would take over again.
In a strange reverse situation the japanese guards now had to defend their former prisoners from the indonesians.
My family witnessed fellow ex-prisoners dissapearing at night, being found the next day brutally murdered.
Then in a convoy they went to the harbour, being shot at by indonesian rebels, knowing very well that they were shooting at women and children who had just survived years in a camp.
When they arrived on a british ship my aunt remembers a very young british sailor looking after her while the rest of my family sort of collapsed.
He was very sweet to her, treating her as his little sister.
Singing to her, giving her sweets, etc.
My aunt still gets emotional when she thinks about how nice he was, the first nice man she had seen in her life as there had been no men in the camp besides the japs.
Many years later she would marry a sailor, she told him that she wouldnt even had talked to him if he hadnt been wearing the uniform... heheh some things run in the family.
My family left indonesia in a plane with no door, probably a dakota used for airdrops.
They never went back.
In the Netherlands they simply couldnt get used to normal life, nobody talked about what happened and the dutch had their own war traumas to handle.
My grandmother died very young, probably because the shock her system got in the camp, she nearly died several times and her body sort of gave up.
My greatuncle Dirk left the Netherlands and went to australia, he only came back once.
So far my family history in the east, i will tell more about other family stories soon.
I've found a old family photo, I'll post it here so you can put a few faces to the names.
The young boy on the front row all the way at the left is my uncle Dirk if im not mistaken.
The girl sitting right behind him is his sister, my grandmother.
This man is a great great uncle.
I know little about him but on the back of the photo it says that he as shot dead in Semarang in 1945 shortly after being liberated from the jap camps.
The indonesians shot him and his dog, the indonesians wouldnt allow his wife to go outside to be with him as he was dying.
Editors Note: Would you Europeans PLEASE add line breaks! Us short-sighted Yanks can't read these long blocks of text! :eusa_doh:
