My father

[jdmcm]

Hanno

I must apologize, being caught up in my own life and not to have seen this sooner. I lost my father unexpectedly in 2011. It is always a shock even though, like your father he was in his mid eighties and had lived a full life. My apologies for my tardiness in my condolences to you and your family.

Best Regards
John

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Bob and John,

Thanks for your sympathies. We all have to go through events like this in our lives. The merry go round of life doesn't stop spinning, but those who are affected step off for a while. It is best to just step back on again, because the world around us does not stop. At least we still have the fond memories!

Hanno

[lynx42]

Hanno, I am sorry but I had not seen this sad news until just now. Jill and I extend out sympathies to you and your family. 86 is a good age, I lost my father when he was 57 from war related injuries. He was a commando in New Guinea and suffered for a long time. On a better note, I just received a phone call from one of my sons to say I will be a grandfather again either tonight or tomorrow the way things are going. Anyway we are thinking of you. R'n'J.

[Terry Witiuk]

Hanno. Sorry for your loss. Please accept my condolences.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

When he heard about the Japanese surrender in August 1945, he fled the camp to travel to the last known camp of his father. He was picked up by a British convoy driving trucks with those peculiar back-slanted windows...

An exposition about the MS Oranje (see link below) triggered a recollection of my late father, Rob Spoelstra. He lived in the Netherlands East-Indies (now Indonesia) from 1931-1945. After V-J Day, he fled from a Japanese interment camp and went looking for his father, mother and sister. Note: his family was separated: his father was in a mens camp, his mother and sister in a women and children camp. At 12 years of age, he was taken away from his mother and put in a boys only camp.

So, in August 1945 they hear the war is over and as a 14 year old boy my father and a friend decide to go and find their family. They had some letters via the Red Cross so they had a clue where they could be, not knowing if they were still alive. They traded some clothes for a couple of goose eggs, made a knapsack and crawled under the barbed wire and headed in the direction of their father's camp.

Out on the road they were stopped by a Japanese patrol (who were now tasked with protecting the Dutch against the Indonesians). They were about to be taken back to the camp, when a column of British-Indian Army trucks passed by. A British officer asked what was happening and after his explanation, my father and his friend were taken along by the British-Indian troops as they were heading in the direction of their father’s camp.
My father told me they “drove in trucks with peculiar back-slanted windows”, identifying them as Cab 13 CMP trucks. My father told me this story when I first showed him my Ford F15A CMP.

Luckily, my father was reunited with his father, mother and sister and they were repatriated to the Netherlands very much in the same was as can be seen in the link below.

https://www.facebook.com/24315614237...61874503832943

65384696_879973159006560_386998264429281280_n.jpg

[Keith Webb]

Great story Hanno!