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VJ 75 - Lest We Forget
The 75th anniversary of the end of World War 2 triggers the recollection of my late father, Rob Spoelstra. He was born in the Netherlands East-Indies (now Indonesia) and lived there from 1931-1945.
During the war, the family was separated and sent to internment camps.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. After V-J Day, he fled from the Japanese interment camp at Tjideng and went looking for his father, mother and sister. When they hear the war is over, my father, as a 14 year old boy, 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. First by trucks and a flight in a PBY Catalina, then back to the Netherlands by ship. All their belongings fitted in a single trunk. When they got back in The Netherlands they were given some clothes and some money. They had to move in with my great-grandmother and build up a new life. My grandmother passed away some years after the war, she never fully recovered from the malnourishment and ailments contracted in the internment camp. The rest of the family went on to live a good life.
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Regards, Hanno -------------------------- |
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Here is a link to the Commemoration ceremony today at the Australian War Memorial, the Master of Ceremony is my good friend Warren Brown.
https://www.facebook.com/7NewsAustra...6646634881364/
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Richard 1943 Bedford QLD lorry - 1941 BSA WM20 m/cycle - 1943 Daimler Scout Car Mk2 Member of MVT, IMPS, MVG of NSW, KVE and AMVCS KVE President & KVE News Editor |
#3
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Repatriation
Hi Hanno
I remember some of these repatriated kids coming to my school when I was a kid living in Hillegome. There were also some kids of mixed marriages and that were also been sent to my school. I worked with a lady in my office whose grandparents were repatriated to Lisse. They later immigrated to Australia. They endured a lot of hardship, cruelty and degradation. There was a Dutch lady living here in Adelaide South Australia who was interviewed on the radio and had her story printed in the newspaper some years ago telling her story living as a16 year old girl in the Japanese Camp. She explained she was taken from her mother and used as a comfort girl for Japanese Soldiers until the end of the war. There are so many stories of Japanese atrocities committed by the Japanese military on civilians and soldiers that would fill volumes. But that was 75 years ago, most people born after WW2 know very little about those times, apart from people of my age and older that can still remember. WE WILL REMEMBER THEM - LEST WE FORGET. Cheers Tony
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Anthony (Tony) VAN RHODA. Strathalbyn. South Australia |
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Thanks for that. I have a hard time blaming current generations for the sins of their ancestors. This goes from the recent WW2 horrors to those hundreds of years past.
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#5
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Lest we forget
Hi Tony, thanks for sharing that story.
WW2 - and other wars - are horrific and leaves deep scars in societies, both with those who serve in the forces, as well as civilians. After enduring the hardships in the Japanese camps, my Father's family returned to Holland with very little posessions. They were given some clothes suitable for the Dutch weather, and then had to make ends meet themsleves. My Grandfather got a government job to go into Germany and find back and reclaim Dutch assets (the Germans had robbed the country clean), like factory equipment but also an elephant which had been stolen from a zoo. Everyone tried to pick up their lives, there was very little compassion as everyone had endured hardships and lost relatives and friends. If it wasn't fighting as a soldier or in the resistance, it were the German and Japanese concentration camps. Or the hunger winter in Holland. Or forced labour on the Burma railroad, in German factories being bombed by the Allies - and the list goes on. Both my parent's families survived the war relatively unscathed, albeit with some losses. My Father's family was lucky in that they all survived the Japanese camps, although my grandmother came out very weakened - she never fully recovered and passed away a few years after the war. My father could talk about his experiences and did not hold a grudge against the Japanese. Though when we went to see the movie "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence" in 1983, it did bring back some bad memories. So there was more than he told us. Despite his experiences, my Father never felt a real hate towards his former oppressor. But never wanting it to happen again, he always emphasized the importance of international peace and stability. Like Bruce said, we should not blame current generations for the sins of their ancestors. AND we should never wipe out history as we can learn so much from it. Even more, we must learn from the bloodshed of our ancestors and do better ourselves - we owe it to them, otherwise their sacrifices would have been in vain.
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Regards, Hanno -------------------------- |
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Three veterans attend commemoration
Three Burma Veterans attended the Covid reduced annual Cobbaton Combat Collection VJ event. Here they are here still full of life, with our local Burma Veterans Standard Bearer, and the local RBL representive.
Last edited by Preston Isaac; 19-08-20 at 14:50. |
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Good to hear you were able to run the VJ event. regards, Richard
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Richard 1943 Bedford QLD lorry - 1941 BSA WM20 m/cycle - 1943 Daimler Scout Car Mk2 Member of MVT, IMPS, MVG of NSW, KVE and AMVCS KVE President & KVE News Editor |
#8
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Civilian Detainees
Hanno's posts reminded me of some research I did several years ago concerning diplomatic and civilian detainees and the one exchange conducted between the Empire of Japan and the British Empire in 1942. The research was published in the Great Circle journal in 2014.
Readers may be interested to learn something of this little-known undertaking, so I have inserted the article text below. I don't know why, but the article has lost its footnote reference positions in the text, but you'll get the drift. Mike Quote:
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#9
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VJ Day
Today is the 76th anniversary of the end of World War 2. #VJDay always triggers the recollection of what my late father’s family had to go through. Lest we forget!
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Regards, Hanno -------------------------- |
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