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Thursday, May 15, 2014

Our monthly demonstration. petition:234


                                         FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBTS
                                                                                           NGO,STATUS ROSTER

His Excellency, Shinzo ABE
Prime Minister of Japan

The Hague, 13 May 2014
Petition: 234
Subject: Meaningful formal apology by Japan for its wartime atrocities.

Excellency,
The Netherlands remember their war dead on May 4th. Each year it is a very moving moment when the King and Queen lay their wreath in remembrance, thus paying their respect to all Dutch who died during World War Two and during peace keeping missions. It is also the moment to reflect on how Japan remembers World War Two. In particular how Japan has dealt with the atrocities by its Imperial Army, its poor apology to the victims and their next of kin and Japan's disregard of world opinion.

Prime Minister,
The Kono statement and the Murayama statement are limited apologies as they deny Japan's liability for the consequences of the Imperial Army's violations of human rights. They do not involve the victims and their next of kin in a gesture of penance. The actions of current Japanese politicians demonstrate time and again that the apologies are not made sincerely by the Japanese nation and continue to haunt Japan. The suggested revision of the constitution proves that the Japanese apologies in their present form cannot be taken seriously. Formal government apologies have to be meaningful and state the facts in order to be acceptable now and in the future. It is essential that Japan issues a meaningful apology in which:
     -     Japan acknowledges the wartime atrocities by its Imperial Army,
     -     Japan accepts responsibility for these atrocities,
     -     Japan sincerely apologizes and incorporates the surviving victims and their
            next of kin in formulating the apology,
     -     Japan promises that its military nor any other government body in future
           are involved in atrocities and other violations of human rights,
     -     Japan offers concrete reparations to the victims and their next of kin,
     -     Japan formally remembers in wartime ceremonies the atrocities,
            involves the victims and their next of kin and educates its people
            on the importance to remember the past for a better future,
     -     Japan's apology is by an act of Parliament, in which it accepts both legally
            and morally liability to the victims and their next of kin and penalizes denial
            of  the atrocities by politicians.


Prime Minister,
We are not alone in requesting Japan to apologize for its wartime atrocities. In formulating our request we made use of the concept of apology by Calvin Hancock for Toronto ALPHA, Association for learning and preserving the history of World War Two in Asia.

We require a personal acknowledgement of the receipt of this petition.

On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts,

J.F.Wagtendonk,
President

==============================================================

The following is an article I read while in The Netherlands. It was written in the newspaper Haarlems Dagblad on April 26,2014. I will translate it as best as I can.


                                                 
                  American president wants a solution about the affair of the 'comfort women'

                                                  OBAMA IS ANGRY WITH JAPAN

From our reporter:

Seoul * The American president Barack Obama called upon Japan in strong words to get to a solution about the 'comfort women', foreign women who during World War Two were forced by the Japanese Military to work in brothels as sex slaves. He likes to have this business once and for all solved.
This was a terrible and injustice of the human rights", he said during a visit to the South Korean capital city Seoul. The matter of comfort women clouds the relation ship between Japan and South Korea. But also women from other countries like, The Netherlands, the Philippines and China, were victims of this terrible crime from the Imperial Army. They also are fighting for decades for recognition and excuses and compensation from the Japanese government. According to Obama the victims have the right' to be heard and have the right to be respected'."We have to come to an accurate picture from what has happened during that time", said President Obama. The Japanese prime minister Shinzo ABE has accepted the past, according to Obama and has agreed to recognize this 'honestly and sincerely'. "My hope is that we can come to an honest conclusion to bring these tensions from the past to an end and work on the future and the possibility for peace and prosperity for all nations."
The American president met during the top nuclear meeting in The Hague the government leaders of both Asian countries for the first time since their line of duty. They already had discussed earlier this month about the question of the 'comfort women'.
==========================================================

The Foundationof Japanese Honorary Debts was established in 1990 with the purpose of looking after the interests of the Netherlands-Dutch-citizens who, during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), were victims of the Imperial Japanese military during World War Two.

The Dutch citizens were interned in concentration camps, families were split up and men, women and children put in separate camps. No communication was allowed, smuggling of messages was impossible; if caught it cost your life, in the best case you were brutally tortured. Many men were transported overseas and forced to do slavery work on railroads (e.g. Birma railroad) the mines or do coolie work in harbors. War time conventions were violated despite acceptance of these conventions by Japan.

Those Dutch left outside the camps on racial grounds were terrorized and disallowed to work for a living.

All were subjected to organised terror by the military, including enforced sex slavery and other forms of slavery, torture, intimidation, harsh disciplines, systematic starvation and denial of medicine. Many died and the ones who survived cannot forget their ordeal. Many continue to live with traumas and other health problems.  Still now, more than 68 years after the end of this war people come forward with their personal stories, the memories that still haunt them.

                                                   
GENERAL ASSEMBLY


HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Twenty-fourth session
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development

Written statement' submitted by the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts, a non-governmental organization on the roster

The secretary-General has received the following statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.
                                                                                                           [ 18 August 2013 ]


*This statement is issued, unedited, in the language(s) received from the submitting non-governmental organization(s).

                                                  HAUNTING MEMORIES

One of these stories is an eye witness report of a then 14 year old boy who had only just moved into Women's Hospital camp Solo on the island of Java, together with his mother, his two older sisters of 15 and 18 and his younger brother of 10.

His story is about Japanese officers who, as announced several weeks beforehand, came to collect 30 Dutch girls from Camp Solo in 1943.

In his own words written down in 2013 at the age of 86.

Quote:"Led by a young female doctor, Dr.Engels, thirty girls had soiled themselves and some had inflicted small injuries to themselves, such as little wounds on their lips. These would fester and looked very unappealing. At the time, I didn't understand it. These girls looked terrible and reeked immensely. Hair was no longer cut and there was no more bathing. Dresses were torn and smeared. Rags were bound around legs and the girls were taught how to limp and squint.

Once in a while there was some giggling because of these smelly, dirty disguises, but in the hearts of the girls and their mothers was great fear and grief because no one knew what the Japanese were planning. It was clear however that, once the Japanese had made their choice, those girls would have to go with them. Tes, working in a hospital, getting an education and all kinds of other promises were made, but behind the scenes there was silent grief and great uncertainty.

And so the day arrived. Several girls had fallen ill because of all the misery and fear. There was vomitting and crying..

In my thoughts I saw my sisters standing there. What would happen to them? No one knew. There they were. Five senior Japanese officers, in full uniform with high hats, imperial samurai swords, gold stripes and shiny leather boots. There were they, on the steps of the hospital, our Camp building, in Solo. Everyone in the camp had to be present on the forecourt. About 1800 women and children were already waiting for an hour. It was dead quiet. My little 10 year old brother was sitting on the ground playing with sand and stones. My mother cried softly.

First a long story in Japanese translated by a Javanese interpreter in Malay: the beloved, benevolent and divine Japanese emperor Hirohito was pleased that 30 girls from the Women's camp were allowed to study in Japan, or would be trained as nurses, and could then go to work in various hospitals.

[In reality, girls, once selected in this manner, were forced to prostitution in brothels run by the military, as 'Comfort Women' for the Japanese forces.]
A spacious place in front of the steps of the building was kept free for the girls. There they would stand in a long line. Somewhere elase the girls must have been standing at the ready. But they didn't show up.

And then this happened.

The Japanese officers became restless: First murmurings, then profanities. They were not used to this. Our camp director, Mrs.Smith, was called forward. It took a while. Doctor Engels, a female doctor and the only doctor in the Women's camp, the one that had 'prepared' the girls, walked along with Mrs. Smith, onto the steps of the terrace. When asked where the girls were, the camp director told the interpreter in Malay that the girls were too young and were needed in the Camp. Doctor Engels continued that the girls were sick and weakened because there was not enough food in the camp. She added that the girls could not leave because they had to take care of their sick mothers and the smaller children.

Doctor Engels immediately got a hard slap in the face from a Japanese officer. She almost fell to the ground and just managed to prevent the man from hitting her with his sheathed sword by grabbing the sacred Japanese sabre. This caused her and the samurai to topple over backwards onto the floor. We knew what this would mean. This was a deadly sin to the Japanese. A holy Samurai was not to be touched by anyone, most certainly not by a woman!

Then all the officers went mad. Doctor Engels was kicked till she bled and beaten up completely, until she stopped moving. She was then dragged away to the hallway behind the terrace. We heard her screaming in agony a few times, and then there was silence. I remember that Doctor Engels lived another few days, but then died from her injuries.

She had had the courage to say NO and the died for the sake of the lives of 30 Dutch camp girls. All women and children present on the forecourt flew in all directions in a panic, back to their rooms and to the barracks, in desperate fear of what could happen now.

The Japanese officers retreated and got in their cars and left without having seen the girls.

A second attempt to pick up the girls failed to materialize and why......we do not know. Probably because soon the 'Military Command' of the women's camps was transferred to a Japanese Citizen Authority or Board.As far as I know there was never any retaliation, except that we received no food that day and all of the about 200 boys aged 10 to 18 were taken to the Boys Camp7 in Ambarawa 100 kilometers away in the week after the uprising."  End of quote.

Memories like these still haunt the victims of the Japanese concentration camps.

On behalf of these victims the board of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts continues to seek moral recognition and justice. The Japanese government, due to international pressure, will ultimately have to acknowledge that they have a moral duty towards the Dutch from the former Netherlands East Indies. The Japanese government claims that as a nation they "fight" for peace and justice, taking its responsibilities in the international bodies seriously, playing significant roles in human rights, conflict mediation and peace keeping forces. Before claiming this position however Japan must consider its past and rectify their wrongdoings.

The Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts requests the Human Rights Council to ensure that at last, after 68 years, Japan recognizes the facts and settles the damage by compensating the victims.
==============================================================

                                                              some camp drawings:



Boys have to go to separate camps, mothers crying saying goodbye.
These were heart wrenching scenes.Would they ever see their kids again? How cruel to take boys only just 10 years old from their mothers.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Our monthly demonstration. petition 233.

                        
                                        FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBTS
                                                                                                  NGO,Status Roster

His Excellency Shinzo ABE
Prime Minister of Japan

The Hague, 8 April 2014
Petition: 233
Subject: Murayama and Kono statements uphold!


Excellency,
Just prior to the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, the Japanese government wisely announced that they would continue to adhere to the apologies for wartime behavior made by past Japanese cabinets in 1993 and 1995. On behalf of the members of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts we are relieved that Japan will uphold the Murayama and Kono statements and, by implication, no longer put in doubt Japan's responsibility for the World War Two atrocities by the the Imperial Army.

Prime Minister,
During the Nuclear Security Summit in the Hague you visited the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam. A war memorial of a Dutch girl, famous for her diary, murdered in the Holocaust. You faced the historical facts in a humble manner. You said that you would like to pass on the lessons and facts of history to the next generation. We assume that you will do likewise in Japan. You are obliged to educate your people to recognize that Japan's Imperial Army also attempted genocide to the same extent as the Holocaust. Many of the Dutch children of Anne Frank's age in the Dutch East Indies did not survive the war. Those who survived remember and feel their sufferings at the hand of the Japanese military and their agents every day. It is time that you acknowledge those historic facts as well, as an Honorary Debt of Japan, to the world in general, and to the Dutch in particular.

The Anne Frank House and her diaries are monuments of war. Amongst others the Germans continue to visit the museum and are humbled and ashamed, despite their Wiedergutmachung. Your visit should have been in shame as Japan has not made its Wiedergutmachung to the Dutch who survived, nor did you attempt to open up Japans World War Two military history to the people of Japan. The Japanese educational textbooks ignore the facts and give false impressions. There are even attempts to destroy copies of Anne Frnak diaries in Japanese libraries, and yet you visited the Anne Frank Museum.

Prime Minister,
In your discussion with Prime Minister Rutte you indicated that the doors for dialogue are always open. You also stated that Japan will continue programs to cure the emotional pain of the Dutch people who were detained and mistreated by the now defunct Imperial Army. We would highly appreciate an immediate date to meet to open the dialogue on curing the emotional pain and conclude this issue, on mutually acceptable terms. An annual trip for 20 of the remaining 60.0000 Dutch victims of Japanese terror does not cure many. Acknowledgement with appropriate atonement will be a better cure.

We require a personal acknowledgemnet of the receipt of this petition.

On behalf of the Foundation of Honorary Debts.

J.F. Wagtendonk
President.

================================================================

We are all there, on the left Sietske my sister, Thea, Carla. Pic. taken by Ruud.

Hanging up the banners.

Carla my sister in law busy hanging the banners.
It was windy that day and not easy to hang the banners.
When we were hanging  the banners and I saw the writing on it again, it made me want to cry.Why do we have to do this every month? When is Japan going to admit they committed these atrocities. It surprises me every time that Japan shows no respect. Its unbelievable that they show no remorse. We will not ever  forgive those who gave the orders to maltreat and gave the order to kill us all in order to hide the war crimes of the Japanese military.
I am thinking a lot of my mother and her sister, how they were raped by these beasts who called themselves soldiers. It is sad that they had to live the rest of their lives with these horrible memories. How they must have suffered at the hands of the Japanese military and their agents.How my mother tried to erase all these horrible  memories from what was in my head.She kept saying that I suffered from bad nightmares and telling me all the time that things like that do not happen in real life.For my mother and her sister it was a nightmare.As long as I live I will write about Japan's past, until maybe one day they will recognize their past wrong doings during World War Two. I will not rest until they admit that my mother and her sister, and so many girls and women were forcefully abused by their officers in a church (of all places) during our captivity in a concentration camp in Moentilan.That day will be the day that my mother and her sister will rest in peace.
As usual the curtains close when we arrive.

We were happy to be able to participate on this day in The Netherlands at the demonstration in The Hague. At twelve o'clock we arrived in front of the Japanese Embassy. As soon as the Japanese noticed we had arrived for our monthly demonstration the curtains closed. It seems like they still do not like to face the facts, 'the facts of history'. It is very easy to close your eyes and curtains for the reality which occurred so many years ago.Japan thinks that one day it will just disappear and forgotten.

On the left General Bouman, 91 years old.
 General Benjamin Bouman has written numerous books. One of his books is called "From Three colors to Red and White". (Means the three colored flag, Red, White and Blue from The Dutch East Indies was changed into two colors into the Indonesian flag Red and White. The color blue was cut off). General Bouman fought first in Holland and was fighting alongside the Americans on the Waal in Rotterdam. Later he went with the Americans to the Dutch East Indies to help fight the Japanese.. It was very interesting to listen to him. He has some tales to tell.We are very fortunate to have met General B. Bouman. Thank you for telling us some of your stories. We are sure you have many of them.


J.F. van Wagtendonk. our president from Foundation of J.H.D.
He lost several of his family during that horrible time, when Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies. He has some heart wrenching stories to tell. Thank you for being our president and all the work you have done over the years for our Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts.

Here we are singing The Captives' Hymn.

Today was a historic day for the demonstration, as two Japanese Journalists were present . This Newspaper is being made out as being Anti Nationalist. Our president J.F. van Wagtendonk , secretary Brigitte van Halder and Jose Adriaansen-Smit were interviewed for an half hour and were asked if they could continue this interview on Wednesday April 9, for another couple of hours. We will hear more about this interview at the next yearly meeting from The Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts, which will be held
May 20.

We are not getting younger.
But as long as we can and able to walk we will be at the demonstration every second Tuesday of the month in The Hague. We will remind Japan of their past, as long as we live. Many of us have since passed away, hoping to hear  that Japan fully recognize their wrong doings during WW2.


STATEMENTS UN

Japan must remember its past. 
March 17th

On March 14, 2014 Mrs. Jose Adriaansen-Smit, read the following statement during the 25th session of The Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL,

                                   JAPAN MUST REMEMBER ITS PAST

Mr. President,

Japan must remember its past. It must honor the victims who survived the Japanese occupation of the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) during World War Two.

The surviving victims, who are in their seventies and eighties now, were children then. As children they had to endure the evil of the Japanese military occupation.They know and painfully feel their past. They know how it was to endure hunger, maltreatment, enslavement and to be forced to see the humiliation of their mothers, sisters and brothers. They cannot forget the deliberate barbaric treatment they had to endure at the hands of the Japanese military and their agents. The traumatic experience of slave labor, no matter how young they were, is still with them. They know how it feels not knowing what happened to their fathers, who were kept in separate captivity.

Of the surviving victims many suffered from incurable disorders. All cannot forget their ordeal and continue to live with traumas and other health problems.

It cannot be a surprise to you that we do not respect and cannot forgive those who gave the orders to maltreat them and ultimately ordered to kill them all in order to hide the war crimes of the Japanese military.

The Japanese leaders of the war period lost all respect for humanity. The present leaders must accept that and must not try to rewrite history. There is not and there never will be honor in glorifying the Japanese military behavior during World War Two. It would be honorable for the present leaders of Japan to admit and not to glorify the past.

Every year more of these victims, including Comfort Women, die of old age. This does not mean that their pain and their stories will be forgotten. It is up to the next generations to use their voices until the Japanese government listens and accepts the moral commitment from art.14 (a) of the San Francisco Peace treaty:"It is recognized that Japan should pay reparations for the damage and sufferings caused by it during the war."

On behalf of all the surviving victims of Japanese military terror, children then, the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts demands acknowledgement from the Japanese authorities of the gross violations of human rights and seeks redress for the damage done to the individual victims still alive or their next of kin for those who passed away.

                         Some pictures taken after the capitulation of Japan.


Behind barbwire.

Lucky to be alive.
Not many pictures exist from after the capitulation of Japan. But these photographs are a reminder how the victims looked like when the war with Japan was finally over. It was shocking how the victims looked like, it was not to describe. They looked like walking skeletons, men, women and children alike.

Our monthly demonstration in The Hague.petition # 232


                                             FOUNDATION OF JAPANESE HONORARY DEBTS
                                                                                             NGO,STATUS ROSTER


His excellency Shinzo ABE
Prime Minister of Japan


The Hague, 11 March 2014
Petition: 232
Subject: Review of the 1993 Kono statement.


Excellency,
The world is astounded by your government's decision  to consider the so called Kono statement of 1993. According to your chief Cabinet Secretary evidence given by "comfort women" is to be re-examined.Much of the information given has been verified by many and proven to be correct. Whilst considering the evidence it is opportune also to consider the evidence taken by the 1946-1949 Temporal Military Tribunal of Batavia. 356 Japanese military and their civilian agents serving in Netherlands East Indies during its occupation were accused of war crimes. Of the accused 59 (more than 20%) were sentenced to death and subsequently executed. Only 27 (less than 10%) were acquitted.

Prime Minister,
Among the cases considered by the Tribunal was the so-called Semarang compulsory prostitution case. Officers of the Japanese army and their Japanese civilian agents were convicted for removing, under force and threat, young European girls and women from concentration camps, These girls and women were coerced into prostitution for Japanese officers. The victims made sworn statements that they were not volunteers, but were abused and forced by camp commanders, systematically raped and forced into sexual slavery for Japanese officers in specially organized "clubs".
The Tribunal punished the Japanese offenders severely including the death penalty and long prison sentences.

Prime Minister,
It would have been more courageous if you had taken the opportunity of the revision to personally announce that you would bring the "revised" Kono statement to the Diet for approval. Then you should widen the scope of the apology to include the brutal and unacceptable and unlawful behaviour of the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces in the occupied territories of South East Asia during World War Two. Failing to do so will continue to question the sincerity of Japan in recognizing its past and apologizing for its war crimes. It will worsen Japan's global moral standing, Japan must accept responsibility and face up to its past. It must make good what it had failed to do so far, for the survivors and the next of kin. An obvious and weak willed attempt to undermine the victims of your country's military will only add to Japan's further shame.

We would welcome an acknowledgement of the receipt of this petition by you personally.

On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts,

J.F.van Wagtendonk
President.


================================================================


 This article I read on the website : www.powtaiwan.org/
                                                                 
Japan's Democracy At Risk-Japan under the new ABE regime. 

For the past many months we have featured articles on the homepage regarding the sweeping changes taking place in Japan under the new LDP government of Shinzo Abe and his Right Wing extremists.

We have shown from reports and studies, first hand news accounts and references, how the Abe government wants to return to the extreme Right Wing policies of former times, how they want the so-called apologies made by the former prime ministers and renounce the previous stand on the :Comfort Women", now saying that that they were simply prostitutes and that they were necessary and that they were not coerced or forced by the Japanese military to perform services for the troops. They want to re-write Japan's pacifist constitution in order to make it possible for Japan to wage war again, and more alarmingly, they want to limit or abolish human rights and freedoms, so they can persecute those who differ with their opinion or who want to peacefully gather in protests. If one looks back at the history of the 20th Century, one can clearly see that these were also the polocies adopted and propagated by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis when they came to power 80 years ago in 1933!


THE NOOSE TIGHTENS ON JAPAN'S DEMOCRACY -March 11,2014
Japan's new secrecy law will gag the media and limit Freedom of the Press...... 

Read the ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL report at-

http/www.japanfocus.org/-Lawrence-Repeta/40867utm_source=March+10%2C=2014& utm_campaign+China%27s+Connectivity+Revolution&utm_medium=email

Amongst us their will always be dictators like Hitler. Its sad but it seems like many of us forgot the past. I recently was in The Netherlands and one of my family members said: 'People should let go of the past , and forget.' This person is one of many people who are not interesting in history and mankind's history. These are the people who will  be condemned to repeat the past. Its very sad that they forgot how many died for them, so they are able to live in peace.These are the people who should see the thousands and thousands of crosses all over the world, with fallen soldiers who gave their life.These soldiers were not able to live their life to the fullest. They died for their country, fighting evil.Those who survived the war, had to live their lives with the terrible atrocities they had seen, with their buddies dying in their arms. Its something we should never forget, and should always be remembered and taught to our children. They should not have died in vain.



                                                           LEST WE FORGET!