Personal essays

How I lost my best friend

Elizabeth van Kampen

When you drive from Jakarta through Bandung and Yogyakarta to Surabaya over the island Java, you will pass from one little village into the next one. And all along that road you will see the Bougainvillea showing her beautiful flowers, you will see those nice rice-fields with the volcanoes in the background. Words are not enough to describe this picture of beauty. Indonesia, the country where I grew up, the country I always find back in all my dreams, the country where I lost my best friend.I feel very privileged to have had the chance to grow up in those wonderful paradisiacal surroundings. My father, was 22 years young when he went to Indonesia in 1920, he was an engineer working for the Dutch KPM/ Java-China-Japan Line. He studied furthermore in Indonesia and  partly in Holland.

In 1925 he went for his study to Holland and there he met my mother. They married in June 1926, in April 1927 I was born and in 1928 the three of us went to Indonesia. My father had found a job on a coffee and rubber plantation on the island Sumatra, as the technical adviser. Much later my father told me that he was very surprised about how quickly I had adapted myself to the life in Indonesia. I had come from Holland as a little Dutch girl spoiled by her grandparents, into a totally different world.

Sumatra is one of the most beautiful islands of Indonesia. Or must I say was?  Because today thousands of trees are cut or burnt down.The Sumatrans never worked in our houses so in those days the Dutch imported the Javanese to become their home-servants. It must have been  lonely and difficult for them, Sumatra is different from Java.

In 1934 the whole world fell into a big economic crisis. The firm in Holland my father worked for had to close down, all employers were discharged. My mother, my younger sister and I went to Holland, my father went to Java to look for another job. Luckily he found one right away. My mother stayed for 10 months in Holland which was very bad for my school-life, since I had to switch over from one school to an other in such a short time. First in the town where my mothers parents lived and then to the town where my fathers parents lived. And all the time I missed my father. When at last we were going back home, my grandparents stood there very sad waiting for the boat to leave,  taking us away from them. My grandfather (fathers father) asked me if I wasn’t sorry to leave Holland and I answered: “No, I am going to my daddy”   He said; “ Oh that is very sweet of you, I will write this to your daddy”. On the ship to Indonesia I celebrated my 8th birthday and I was going home, this time to the most wonderful island in Indonesia, Java!

Of course I had to go to school again, so I had to leave my parents and had to stay in a boardinghouse in Tasikmalaya. The plantation was too far from school.  This lasted only 6 months but to me it seemed much longer! But after those long 6 months we went to the most loveliest town ever, we went to Malang. Going to a boardinghouse was no longer a problem. I could come home every Saturday afternoon and back to Malang every Monday morning at 5 a.m. Our schools began at 7 a.m. and ended at 1 p.m.  The schools in Indonesia were very good, we learned much more about Asia than the children in Holland and at the same time we also learned the same as the Dutch children. So our Basic School took us one year longer than in Holland.

My life between Malang and the plantation was a real paradise on earth. In Malang I had my friends, my schoolmates and my swimming-pool. I became a good swimmer. On the plantation I learned horse-riding on my mountain horse.  I went to the Kampung ( a small Indonesian village in a town or on a plantation).  I loved to listen to their Indonesian music, some played guitar and others sang. And I always received something sweet to eat. Indonesians are very generous and hospitable!

I used to walk for hours over the plantation with my father. We talked a lot, he was my best friend, the best friend I ever had. My father was born in Holland but he knew a lot about the Indonesians and their country. Oh yes, he loved Indonesia, but unlike me, Holland was his motherland. To me Holland was just the country from my parents and grandparents. I had become a part of Indonesia, to me it was my mother country.If there had not been that terrible World War, I know that I would still be living in Indonesia.

In 1940 Germany occupied Holland. My parents, all our parents, were extremely worried about their motherland and specially their family. They were frustrated for they couldn’t do anything to help them.

And then Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Our lives in Indonesia began to change slowly but surely. Together with our Dutch Army we saw British and Australian soldiers everywhere.

Our parents and teachers told us that the Dutch would fight till the last man, never would we give Indonesia to Japan.

I was almost  15 years old  when the Japanese soldiers walked into Malang. My sister and I were at our boarding-school when we saw them walking in. We had lost the war against Japan.

　

We went to the plantation , the Japanese had closed all our schools and Dutch became a forbidden language. The Indonesian police came to put seals upon all the radios from the Dutch living in Indonesia. We were completely cut off from the rest of the world for 3½ years long.  All the Dutch soldiers and marines were put into camps. Later on many of them were transported to Burma and Sumatra to work on the infamous railways. Others were transported to Japan to work in the mines. Thousands men died of hunger or malaria. They all died in deep misery. Some of them were bombed by accident by the Americans or the British, most of the those poor men drowned. 

My father had to bring his car to the nearby police-post. It was no longer his car, it belonged to the Japanese Army. My father did not receive any papers telling that he had delivered  his car. Some Indonesians were laughing. The white master had to handover his car to the Japanese Army. My father and I had to walk all the way back home, my father with tears in his eyes. He was very worried what was going to happen to his wife and his daughters! My father, like all Dutch, had to pay 150 guilders for his “new” Japanese identity card and 80 guilders for my mothers card, in those days a fortune.  This was of course pure theft. My dad had to work for a very small salary but at least we were still free.

In February 1943 my father had to leave the plantation. He asked me to look after my mother and my two younger sisters until the war was over and he could come back.16th of April 1943, it was my sixteenth birthday and I was allowed to visit my father in his camp in Malang.  Of course I was not allowed to go inside but we could speak in Malay under the surveillance of an Indonesian guard who kept a distance between my father and me of two meters. We were allowed to speak 10 minutes. I told my dad that everything was still fine on the plantation. It was the last time I saw my father. The Kempeitai (Japanese Gestapo) killed him March 25 in 1945. A last gentle smile on his face was his present for my 16th  birthday .

Only 8 years earlier I had  told my grandfather that I was going back to my daddy. June 1943 my mother, my two sisters and I, had to leave the plantation.Rasmina our beloved old cook started crying, Karto the head-superintendent who was from now on in charge of the plantation Sumber Sewu stood at attention and all the other Indonesians around us did the same: “ Hormat ( respect) to Mr. and Mrs.van Kampen” he said.

My mother started crying and I had tears in my eyes, she handed Karto the keys of our small but oh so happy house. We left with four rucksacks.  We had to leave everything behind us, also my mountain-horse, the two adorable little white dogs Molly and Dolly, our sweet cats, the birds, the rabbits and the fowls. We lost everything. This cosy small house was no longer our home. My poor mother couldn’t stop crying. We were brought into a camp for women and children in Malang. This camp was not really bad.  November 1943: my mother received the message that my father had been taken out of his camp and was brought to the Kempeitai prison in Malang. He had been hiding weapons and munitions. My father had been  appointed as a Land-guard for several plantations through the Dutch East Indies Army. Since he was very technical I guess that he also helped with blowing up some bridges. My father was like all the others optimistic about the war against  Japan. America would win that war. Of course, but when ?

We never received any papers about a legal process or anything else telling us what happened to my father. Also the Red Cross couldn’t  give us any information.February 1944 we ( mother, sisters and I ) were dumped into trucks and we drove through Malang to the station. All along the road were many very young Indonesians laughing and were calling us names. Of course the white masters were now nothing more but slaves to the Japanese Army.  I bent my head , my eyes were full of tears.I felt terribly sad that very day, because all this happened in Malang, the town I loved so much, my school, my friends, the town of my youth. The train would take me further away from my father. What a horrible world.

We were brought by train, in good vans, but without food and without anything to drink 24 hours long in the sun, to Ambarawa, Central Java. From there we were transported to Banyu Biru. Our concentration-camp Banyu Biru camp 10 was an old prison full of dirt and vermin.The four of us had to go into a one person cell. We received extremely little food, we could hardly wash ourselves nor our clothes, there was not enough water for so many people.I had to work outside the camp, as from now on I was a slave from the Japanese Army .

All day long I had to load and unload heavy big stones. I had to work on the land. I had to bring heavy cases on cavalry wagons to the station of Ambarawa about one hour walking from Banyu Biru  and of course one hour back. It was a very hard job.Most of the Indonesians we passed on the road felt sorry for us, but of course there was no contact, that was strictly forbidden.Every two weeks I had a malaria attack, I had tropical abscesses underneath my feet and in the end I also suffered from oedema. My mother too had malaria and an other type of oedema, my younger sister had jaundice and the youngest one also had malaria and she became completely apathetic.  She lost a part of her memory,  she can not remember my father or the places where we used to live before the war.

And daily I prayed in myself, asking God to protect my parents and my sisters. We really wanted to see this horrible war to come to a speedy conclusion, because the whole situation was so inhuman. I have seen very brave women who gave me reason to stay optimistic. I have seen little boys been taken away from their mothers and been sent to a camp for men only. They stood there on a truck, 10 years old leaving their mothers while their fathers were somewhere else maybe in Burma or maybe dead. I have seen women losing their minds through all their grieves I have seen some girls and young women been taken away as “Comfort women” to the Japanese brothels. I have seen how women have been beaten up so badly that almost all their bones were broken. I can still hear the screaming in my head, we all had to stand there to watch. I have seen three women been hanged 12 hours long under the burning tropical sun, with their hands tied up on their backs. We had to watch all the time with  tears in our eyes .I have seen it daily how little children died of hunger and mothers who stood there with no tears left in their eyes when their dead children were carried out of the camp.

Also my mother, my sisters and I became sicker every day,  specially the last 6 months.We were the victims of hatred of racism and sadism and that is very difficult to understand when you are a teenager, nothing more than a schoolgirl.We couldn’t understand Japanese, so they screamed louder and louder, only sometimes we had a interpreter.Every morning we had to bow for the emperor Hirohito, bow for the Japanese Army and we were so terrible tired, many of us could hardly stand up straight.During the last six months about six to seven people a day died in our camp. In our concentration-camp 5500 women and children were kept as prisoners, although the prison was built for 500 persons.

And each time there was less to eat, less place to sleep, and we tried so hard to get those lice out of your hair, tried to kill all those bugs. We tried to sleep as much as we could. But every two weeks I was also on night duty from 2 a.m. till 4 .am. several women had to walk through a part of the camp, two women together, it was quite cold at night, our clothes were worn out, and of course our shoes too. Most of us walked barefoot.

During one of those nights a woman, completely naked, was running through the camp while she couldn’t stop screaming, she had lost her mind. We had to wake up our Dutch camp-head Mrs. Eigeleberg. Two Japanese took the poor woman away out of the camp and we never saw her again.

We were punished for each battle the Japanese Army lost against America.And Japan was losing very badly, we could feel that by their behaviour towards us.And slowly but surely we all became indifferent, all we were interested in was food! Food for our loved ones and for ourselves.Our meals: breakfast: a small plate with starch; lunch:  one small cup of boiled rice, some small pieces of cabbage leaves and a teaspoon of sambal  (hot spices);supper: a small plate of starch with some tiny cabbage cuttings, some sort of a soup.We never had any meat and no fruit either.This menu never changed, 1½ year long.

And then all of a sudden the War was over. A terrible bomb fell on Hiroshima and another one on Nagasaki.  Our Japanese torturers quickly left our camp. Other Japanese soldiers came and we received more food.

Three weeks later our next war began. The young Indonesians were stimulated 3½ years long by the Japanese propaganda “Hate the Dutch”.  They planned to kill all the Dutch who were still waiting in their camps for better days. They killed thousands of Eurasians in Java for these had been  free during the war with Japan. Many Dutch leaving their camps have been killed by those young Indonesians. The Japanese Army can be proud of their so thorough propaganda work.

Lord Mountbatten ordered the Japanese Army and their Kempeitai to protect the Dutch prinoners of war (POWs), because he could not so quickly send his own troops to Indonesia.After the War, America divided us in “The Pacific War” and “The South East Asia War.  So we came under the protection of Great Britain and Australia.

History has forgotten most of those from outside The Pacific War for they did not fall under America. That is why so very few have heard about the civilian Dutch war victims, 80.000 men, women and children from whom 10.500 died during WW II in Indonesia. It were the Japanese soldiers from the infamous Kempeitai who came to rescue us from the young Indonesians full of hate against the Dutch.

When the British soldiers came,  they took us out of those dangerous camps to a protected town Semarang, from there we were transported by ship to Sri Lanka.

I stood there on that ship that took me away from everything I loved, my father and from Indonesia that was no longer  my country  . The French say ; “Partir, c’est mourir un peu”, and that is so right for leaving a place you really love is dying a little and that was exactly how I felt.  I had to leave the most happiest part of my life behind me in Indonesia.I was like a young uprooted tree.

In Kandi, Sri Lanka we received the bad news that my father had died in the Kempeitai prison from Malang.  I became completely indifferent for what happened around me, the shock of my father’s death was too cruel.  I had lost the best friend I ever had. Often I thought that it was all a mistake, and that my father was coming back home to us.

It took me 10 years to get myself out of this nightmare.  I began to realize that this was not what my father had expected from me.  I slowly found myself back. Only talking about that dirty war or about my father I just couldn’t. Until in 1995 one of my friends, also from Indonesia, ( but she was in Switzerland during  the Second World War ) asked me to write something on paper about those terrible years.  I did!

“You must go back to Indonesia and fast” she said.

And so we decided to go to Indonesia in 1996 where we arrived  the13th of September, on my father’s birthday, on the island Sumatra. Indonesia has healed my wounds. The most beautiful island Sumatra fascinated me completely! I fell in love with Sumatra just like my father had so many years ago. I hadn’t felt so happy since ages. It was an absolutely coming home, the Sumatrans are charming people.

When our plane landed on Java’s ground I had tears of pure joy in my eyes. I had left the Dutch East Indies  in 1946 and now in 1996 I was back home in Indonesia. My friend and I went of course to Malang the town we both knew so well. I have taken the courage to visit the prison where my beloved father was killed, to pay him my last respect .   My father has no grave, his body lays somewhere in under the soil in Malang.

I have been told during this visit, that all the men were tortured once a week in that prison. I saw the place, the cell, where my father had to live. In the cell was just on a bed of cement without a mattress and above his head a lamp, burning day and night. There was also one hole in the floor, which was used as a toilet. During the monsoon water from the toilets, including the vermin, was all over the place.  Very unhygienic! That someone you love so much has died in such horrible circumstances is almost too much to bear. And then not even a grave where I could bring some flowers.  Nothing !! Just empty nothing ! My father lived almost two years long in this prison he has most certainly fought for his life, he wanted to come back to us. But he lost this fight, he died in pure misery.

I went to the plantation Sumber Sewu where I was received very warmly. The people of the plantation brought my father back to life . It was an absolutely wonderful and a deep emotional experience. My Indonesians, my mother country Indonesia, gave me back what I had missed so much: “Sunshine in my heart”.  I have taken it with me back to Holland.

In the year 2000 I went with a group of other Dutch war victims to Japan. We have visited Nagasaki, we have seen what the A Bomb has done to the innocent people of Japan. But I have also made friends in Japan ! No, I cannot forget the cruelty from the Japanese Army that I have experienced in Indonesia during WW II. But of course I  will never blame the Japanese people for what Japanese war criminals have done in Asia. I do understand very well that the Japanese people suffered too during WW II.

This was a long story to tell you how I lost my best friend, my father!

Elizabeth van Kampen E-mail

　

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INTERNERING

WAAROM, HOE EN IS TOENADERING HAALBAAR?

Een compilatie van voordrachten gehouden tijdens mijn reis in 2003 naar Japan

door drs A.A. Fermin

 

 

INTRO                                                                                                    5

 

WAT DREEF JAPAN NAAR NEDERLANDS-INDIË           .                    6

1.1              Japanse dreiging                                                                     .8

1.1.1           Hoe is de Westerse invloed ontstaan?                                    10

1.1.2           Waarom  Westerse invloed uitschakelen?                              11

1.2              Groot Aziatische Welvaartsstaat                                           11

1.2.1           Territoriale uitbreiding                                        　　　　　12

1.2.2           Uitschakelen invloed                                                             15

 

INTERNERING EN HOUDING JAPANNERS                       　　　　　16

2.1              Internering                                                         　　　　　16

2.1.1           Organisatie                                                         　　　　　19

2.1.2           Voedselvoorziening                                                               20

2.1.3           Onderlinge verhoudingen                                                       21

2.2              Houding Japanners                                                                 22

2.2.1           Wrede handelingen                                                                24

2.2.2           Vriendelijke handelingen                                                        25

2.2.3           Respectvol optreden                                                              26

2.3              Nasleep                                                                                 28

 

TOENADERING                                                                                     32

3.1              Is toenadering haalbaar?                                                        33

3.1.1           Wat deed ik en hoe?                                                              33

3.1.2           Reacties                                                                                 34

3.1.3           Afweging van de reacties                                                       38

3.2              Nuttig effect van de reis                                                        42

3.3              Wederzijds begrip?                                                                 44

 

EPILOOG                                                                                                45

LITERATUURLIJST                                                                               48

 

 

 

INTRO

In 2003 maakte ik een “pilgrimage of reconcilia-tion” of verzoeningsreis naar Japan. Daarheen vloog ik met vier Britse oud-militairen die krijgs-gevangenen waren geweest van de Japanners in de tweede wereldoorlog. Er waren ook vier vrouwen wier vader, broer of echtgenoot in Japanse krijgs-gevangenschap waren bezweken. In totaal reisden eenentwintig mensen, inclusief partners en een vier koppige begeleiding, naar Japan.

Die “pilgrimage of reconciliation” of verzoe-ningsreis werd georganiseerd door de Britse, Christelijke organisatie AGAPĚ [Grieks voor: “broederlijke liefde”]. De reis en het verblijf werd gefinancierd door het Japanse Ministerie van Bui-tenlandse Zaken en andere sponsoren, zoals All Nippon Airways en Sumitomo.

Doel van AGAPĚ en haar verzoeningsreizen is tweeledig. De eerste doelstelling is Britse oud-militairen te helpen bij het psychisch verwerken van traumatische ervaringen die zij hebben opge-daan in Japanse krijgsgevangenschap. Door de ex-krijgsgevangen in Japan een verhaal te laten ver-tellen over hun oorlogservaringen kunnen zij hun gemoedservaringen van zich af praten. Het tweede oogmerk is verbetering van onderlinge menselijke verhouding tussen de Britten en de Japanners.

Aldus vertelde de ene ex-krijgsgevangene over zijn slavenarbeid aan de Birma-spoorweg, de an-dere over zijn dwangarbeid in een kolenmijn van Japan. De derde beschreef zijn arbeid in de Chan-gi gevangenis te Singapore en de vierde over de aanleg van een vliegveld op Ambon. Zo kon ook ik, als enige Nederlander in het gezelschap, mijn verhaal doen over de Japanse bezetting van voor-malig Nederlands-Indie; de internering van bur-gers en de houding van de Japanse bewakers je-gens de geïnterneerden ten einde mijn “kwetsin-gen van de psyche verduwen”. Metterdaad heeft de reis mijn gevoelens van haat gelouterd[1][1].

 

Ten aanzien van de verbetering van de intermen-selijke verhoudingen meende ik door de hand te reiken aan hen die om vergiffenis vroegen, tot verzoening met de “de Japanner” te komen. Meer pragmatische dan de evangelische AGAPĚ meen ik “niet te moeten omzien in wrok, maar te moe-ten zoeken naar bezinning op het leed dat is geleden en om de conclusie ervan door te geven aan de volgende generatie”[2][2].

Je kunt immers niet blijven haten.

De stuwende factor achter mijn bezoek en het schrijven en vertellen van mijn verhaal, is de gedachte aan mijn moeder, die in het Jappenkamp is overleden. Zij had mij toen, als jongentje van zes of zeven jaar geleerd: “haat hen niet, wij zijn allen kinderen van één Vader”. Aldus hoopte ik tot toenadering, dialoog en wederzijds begrip te komen. Dit doel heb ik daar niet geheel bereikt. Het opwekken van wederzijds begrip in Japan stuitte op een muur van formele ontkenning van schuld.

 

De reis naar Japan was als het beklimmen van een berg. Niet gemakkelijk, maar het resultaat was louterend. Voor mij, ja, maar voor “de Japanner “ betwijfel het.

 

 

Na terugkomst uit Japan, ben ik mijn verhaal gaan omzetten. In de eerste plaats ten behoeve van fa-milieleden, vrienden en kennissen in Nederland. In tweede aanleg voor gebruik bij ontmoetingen met de naoorlogse generatie Japanners, zoals de Japanse studenten die hier een studie volgen of jonge bestuursfunctionarissen bij Japanse bedrij-ven hier te lande.

Bij de bewerking van mijn verhaal ben ik gaan inzien dat de term “verzoening” onjuist gekozen is. “Verzoening” komt in het Oude testament [Lev.17:11] enkel en alleen tot stand via het Opperwezen. In het Nieuwe Testament doelt het woord “verzoenen” eerst op de verandering in de verhouding tussen partijen en dan op Gods zegen [Matth.5:24]. Een uitleg over de verschillen tussen het Hebreeuwse werkwoord “verzoenen” [kafar] en het Griekse werkwoord apokatallassō evoor gaat mij te ver. In dit opstel versta ik onder ver-zoenen: het terugbrengen van een verstoorde relatie in de rechte verhouding door middel van toenadering, dialoog en wederzijds begrip. Vandaar mijn vraag of toenadering haalbaar is.

 

Dus, zonder er een bijbels verhaal van te maken, wilde ik in Japan vertellen waarom en hoe de be-zetting en internering was. Dat wil ik nu nog in Nederland doen. Tevens poogde ik in Japan toena-dering te bewerkstelligen, tot overeenstemming te komen en wederzijds begrip op te wekken voor elkanders doorgemaakte ellende. Ook dat wil in Nederland blijven doen want met het opbouwen van een vriendschappelijk gezindheid lever ik mijn bijdrage aan het herstel van de verstandhou-ding tussen Japanners en Nederlanders. Niet tus-sen de staten Japan en Nederland, dat is een zaak voor de overheden, maar tussen Japanners en Ne-derlanders. Deze relatie bestaat al sinds 1600, maar is verstoord door de bezetting van toenmalig Nederlands-Indië en de internering van de burgers daar [1942-1945].

 

Wel nu, het eindproduct bevindt zich in uw of jouw handen. Dit product is beslist niet bedoeld als een litanie van of klaagzang over nare ervarin-gen, de dood van mijn moeder of de schrammen op mijn ziel, maar als een nuchter opstel. En om mijn verhaal zo objectief mogelijk te laten zijn heb ik gekozen voor een indeling in drieën:

 

  1. 1.       Wat dreef Japan naar Nederlands-Indië?
  2. 2.       Hoe was de internering en de houding van de Japanners?
  3. 3.       Is toenadering haalbaar?

1.           WAT DREEF JAPAN NAAR

NEDERLANDS-INDIË?

 

De tijd vanaf mijn geboorte in 1936 tot de in-ternering in 1942 was voor mij alleszins prettig. Ik speelde de hele dag buiten en zorgen maakte ik mij niet. Mijn ouders daarentegen wel. Voor hen was het een moeilijke tijd.

De dertiger jaren van de twintigste eeuw werden namelijk gekenmerkt door een wereldwijde eco-nomische crisis. In vele landen namen regeringen maatregelen om een eind te maken aan de finan-ciële wantoestanden. Die maatregelen overstegen soms het sociaal en economisch element. Zo streefde Hitler in Duitsland naar een “Groot-Duitsland” als een politiek en economisch cen-trum van de wereld. Ook in Oost-Europa was er een streven naar een wereldmacht, een “dictatuur van het proletariaat” onder toezicht van de Com-munistische Partij. In West-Europa daarentegen hadden de regeringen hun beleid gericht op het behoud van de democratische rechtsorde. Tevens op herstel van de economische en financiële toe-stand door middel van bezuinigingen.

 

De wereldwijde economische crisis was eveneens in Azië merkbaar. Zo was in Nederlands-Indië de uitvoer gedaald van 718 tot 133 miljoen gulden. Hierdoor waren de inkomsten en lonen gedaald. Vooral de lokale bevolking, die haar inkomsten direct aan de export ontleende, werd zwaar ge-troffen. Het algemeen besteedbare inkomen was er nog maar 55 miljoen gulden, terwijl dat 199 miljoen was in 1930.

Die terugval was reden voor het Nederlands-Indisch Gouvernement om ook in Indië de Ne-derlandse bezuinigingsmaatregelen in te voeren.

In Japan zocht de Japanse regering eveneens naar wegen voor verbetering van de slechte econo-mische toestand in dat land. De Japanse overheid trachtte met subsidies de productie van goedkope artikelen te verhogen in de verwachting dat daar-door de uitvoer zou toenemen.

Metterdaad nam de Japanse export van die goed-kope producten naar landen, waar de koopkracht minder was geworden toe. Zo steeg de Japanse uitvoer naar Nederlands-Indië van 11 tot 30%. Het gevolg was dat er meer Japanse schepen Indië binnenkwamen en met grote hoeveelheden grond-stoffen naar Japan terugkeerden. De Nederlandse export en import nam daardoor af, waarop het Gouvernement maatregelen nam ter bescherming van de eigen handel en handelsvaart.

Door deze tegenmaatregelen in 1935 veranderde de gunstige toestand voor Japan opeens. Mede doordat zulke handelsbeschermende maatregelen ook door andere koloniale machten in Zuid-oost-Azië werden genomen, ontstond er in Japan een groot tekort aan grondstoffen. Hierdoor stagneer-de de industriële groei daar.

Die situatie benauwde Japan.

De Japanse regering reageerde daarom fel op al de belemmeringen. Zij dreigde de invloed van alle koloiale machten uit te schakelen om zelf over de grondstoffen in die gebieden te beschikken[3][3].

 

1.1         JAPANSE DREIGING

De ernst van die dreiging werd duidelijk toen Ja-pan in 1937 het veroverde Mantsjoerije ging uitbreiden door de inname van de steden Peking, Nanking, Sjanghai, Kanton. Deze expansie lever-de wel terreinwinst op maar niet een grotere aan-voer van grondstoffen. Daarom richtte Japan zich op Zuidoost-Azië. In het bijzonder op Nederlands-Indië. Daar bevonden zich namelijk de grootste hoeveelheid grondstoffen [bauxiet, kapok, kinine, koffie, palmolie, rijst, rubber, ruwe olie, thee en tin] die Japan nodig had.

Die Japanse dreiging in de richting van Neder-lands-Indië werd steeds grimmiger naarmate het Nederlands-Indisch Gouvernement meer en stren-gere tegenmaatregelen nam en de Japanse voor-raad aan grondstoffen kleiner werd. Hierdoor dreigde Japan steeds afhankelijker te worden van de grondstofleverende staten in Zuidoost-Azië.

Dat wilde Japan niet!

De onafhankelijkheid van Japan probeerde de Japanse regering in eerste instantie via diploma-tiek overleg. Daarbij persisteerde de Japanse rege-ring in gunstige handelsvoorwaarden. Toen echter dat volhardende beleid niet direct resultaat ople-verde, begon de regering te dringen en te dwin-gen.

Japan begon daadwerkelijk zijn invloedsfeer over Zuidoost-Azië uit te strekken. Heimelijk maakte Japan plannen om de “door Westerse machten bezette gebieden in Zuidoost-Azië te bevrijden” Doel was het “bevrijde” gebied tot een Japanse nederzetting te maken en over de grondstoffen daar te kunnen beschikken. In dat kader kwam er in de dertiger jaren opeens een stroom[4][4] van mi-granten op gang. Onder de talrijke middenstan-ders, zoals fotografen, kleermakers, restau-ranthouders, naar Nederlands-Indië bevonden zich vele spionnen. Deze hadden tot taak het gezag daar te ondermijnen en vitale onderdelen van het bedrijfsleven te saboteren. Als voorbeeld noem ik de “leuke kiekjes van de kust” door Japanse “fotografen” gemaakt. Feitelijk bleken het indi-caties te zijn van plekken die geschikt waren voor een invasie of landing van Japanse troepen. [In dit respect neem ik de huidige groei van het aantal Japanse restaurants en winkels in Nederland met argus ogen waar.] Verder moesten deze, als Ja-panse handelslieden vermomde spionnen het poli-tiek bewustzijn voor een onafhankelijk Indonesië activeren. Ook moesten zij de lokale bevolking “japanneren”. De bedoeling daarvan was dat de bewoners van de Indonesische Archipel een pro-Japanse mentaliteit er op na zouden gaan houden.

De Japanse spionageactiviteiten riepen uiteraard contra-activiteiten op, maar de Japanners lieten zich niet weerhouden! De Japanse regering hand-haafde haar buitenlandse politiek.

De Japanse regering schroefde zelfs de druk steeds meer op. In 1939 deelde zij het Nederlands-Indisch Gouvernement, en ook andere koloniale machten, mee “zich daadwerkelijk verbonden te voelen met de onderdrukte landen in Zuid-oost-Azië”. Op deze missive volgde een diplomatieke mededeling waarin de Japanse regering op niet mis te verstane toon aangaf “bereid te zijn een oorlog te riskeren om de bezette landen te bevrij-den”. Begin 1940 liet de Japanse regering nog eens heel expliciet weten dat de grondstoffen van Zuidoost-Azië het doel was van haar buitenlandse politiek[5][5].

Japan onderstreepte de ernst van zijn diplomatieke boodschappen door metterdaad Frans Indo-China te “bevrijden”. Een Japanse legermacht bezette het Franse gebied van Cambodja, Laos en Vietnam alsook Thailand en het Britse Birma. Die inval viel samen met de bezetting van grote delen van Europa door Duitsland in 1940. De inval gebeurde overigens met toestemming en steun van de pro-Duitse Vichy-regering in het door Duitsland be-zette Frankrijk. De Japanse bezetting van Indo-China leverde niet alleen grondstoffen op maar diende ook, meer nog, een strategisch belang. Het bezette gebied bood bij een verdere militaire ope-ratie richting Zuidoost-Azië een dekking in de westflank. In een rugdekking had Japan zich al voorzien door middel van een niet-aanvalsverdrag met de Sovjet-Unie. Aldus konden de Japanners oprukken naar de door de Verenigde Staten be-heerste Filippijnen, het door Groot-Brittannië ge-koloniseerde Malakka met Singapore en de door Nederland bestuurde Indonesische Archipel waar, zoals gezegd, de meeste grondstoffen waren.

Hiermee is verklaard dat het gebrek aan grond-stoffen de directe aanleiding was tot de Japanse oorlog in Zuidoost-Azië.

 

Maar als zo vaak maakt de directe aanleiding deel uit van een reeks eerder plaatsgevonden gebeur-tenissen. Eén van de meest medebepalende oorza-kelijke factoren was de Westerse kolonisatie, en de invloed die de koloniserende machten hadden op in Azië. Daarom ga ik nu eerst, beknopt, in op: “hoe de Westerse invloed in Azië is ontstaan”, en “waarom Japan die Westerse invloed wilde uit-schakelen”.

 

1.1.1      Hoe is de Westerse invloed ontstaan

Ruwweg geschetst voeren Europese machten naar Azië, landden daar, pikten gebieden in en gingen die overheersen en uitbuiten.

In 1488 kwamen als eerste de Portugezen, daarna de Nederlanders. Zo voer in 1598 een Neder-landse handelsvloot uit Hoorn. Dat eskader van vijf schepen [de hoop, het geloof, de liefde, de trouw en de blijde boodscap] voer langs een nieuwe route, rond de zuidkaap van Amerika] naar Azië. [De zuidkaap van Zuid-Amerika is sindsdien kaap hoorn genaamd.] Een van de schepen, de liefde, strandde op de kust van Japan[6][6]. Die landing resul-teerde in een eeuwenlange relatie tussen Japan en Nederland. De factorij Decima werd “het venster voor Japan naar de Westerse wereld”[7][7]. Daarna zorgden de Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie [VOC] en de Nederlandse Hand