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WWII attitude towards the "Gaijin"

gwendy85

~*Proudly Mestiza*~
30 Aug 2005
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Hi guys! Wow, I'm still alive! Haha! I actually lost the link to this site and I finally found it again. 😌
To those who remember, I'm still writing my novel on World War II, with a Japanese soldier as one of my lead characters. Going on three years now :p
I'm almost done with the book. Perhaps in the next few months, I'll be able to write "THE END". But while I'm still at another writer's block stage, I took time off to read and edit. Recently, I read Michael Chricton's "Rising Sun", and it contained a lot of information regarding Japanese customs that made me raise my brows. That's why I'll need to ask....
1. During and prior to the war years, what was the general Japanese opinion towards foreigners?
2. During and prior to the war years, what was the general Japanese opinion towards halfbreeds? (Half Japanese, Half non-asian, either Eurasians or Amerasians; this was pointed out in "Rising Sun" and the Amerasian character was mostly very much shunned)
3. During and prior to the war years, what was the general Japanese opinion towards non-Shintoists and non-Buddhists, esp. towards Christians?
Thank you for reading 🙂
 
Actually I do recall one tidbit. Some Japanese friends of mine told me that it was a death sentence to associate yourself with an American during the war. But even though that is coming from Japanese people, it is still hearsay, so I`d try to reference it.
 
yeah, I heard that one too. Thanks for the replies. Hopefully, I'll have more replies for this post :(
 
Thanks TOkapi! That does shed some light into how my novel should go. Gives me something to think about. I've read a lot about Tokyo Rose, even read about her death in the papers last September but haven't come across this article yet. thanks
 
gwendy85

I was almost 15 years old when the Japanese army occupied the the former Dutch East Indies, today Indonesia. I have seen how the leading giving Japanese hated the Dutch and also hated ,many of the Eurasians. I have been in a concentration camp, my father was killed by the Kempeitai, I have seen too many horrible things at a too young age.
But I have met one Japanese officer who didn't hate the Dutch, he has taught me that there are wonderful people all over the world. It happened when I had just turned sixteen and just before my mother, two younger sisters and I had to go to our first camp.

I wrote it down on my website page 32:

A Japanese visitor

We missed my father terribly and it didn't look like that he was coming home soon although he always wrote us optimistic postcards.
My mother was much less optimistic, she was very worried about the future.

One morning my mother received a phone call from Mrs. Sloekers, who told her that she just had a Japanese visitor, who was very polite and friendly so she told my mother.
The visitor had asked her if she could play the piano, she told him that she couldn't play well but that Mrs. van Kampen ( my mother) played wonderfully well. The Japanese gentleman was on his way to our house, she told my mother.

But my mother was not pleased at all, she was very angry with Mrs. Sloekers.
Cora and I tried to calm her down, because it wouldn't do us any good to be so angry before our Japanese visitor was coming.

A tall Japanese officer stepped out of his car when his Indonesian driver had opened the car door. I can still see him walking up the stairs greeting my mother very politely and he said that he liked her beautiful living room.
Luckily my mother wasn't angry anymore so she asked him what he would like to drink and I remember that he asked for a lemon juice.
While he sat down he looked at us all and asked my mother if we were all four her daughters.
"No, my mother said, she ( pointing at Cora) is my eldest daughter's friend and she stays with us for a while. I have three daughters".

He then asked my mother if she would mind very much to play something for him on her piano. "Yes, I hope that I may keep my piano, I have this piano since I was 8 years old." my mother answered. Our visitor just smiled and my mother started to play … beautiful as always.

While my mother played the piano our Japanese visitor closed his eyes now and then, he really seems to like the way my mother played. But he also looked at Henny several times and that started worrying me.
After a while my mother stopped playing and our Japanese visitor stood up and applauded for her. He said that she really played very well, he thanked her.

Then he wrote down something in Japanese on a piece of paper and gave that to my mother.
He said that he advised her to go to the Lavalette Clinic ( that was our hospital in Malang) with Henny. My mother could then hand over his note and they would call for him because he was a doctor working at this hospital. He told my mother that he wanted to examine my sister, he found her very skinny.
My mother asked when she could come and he told her that he would phone her.
He gave my mother a hand, thanked her again for the lovely music she had played for him, stroke Jansje over her hair, waved Henny, Cora and me goodbye and left us all astonished just standing there.
Within a week my mother had a phone-call from the Lavelette Clinic, they told her that Henny had to stay two weeks in the hospital, the Japanese doctor, our visitor had arranged that Henny should get artificial sun light since he had noticed that my sister had the beginning of rickety. My mother was advised to stay in Malang during these 2 weeks, and so she did.
She visited my father several times while she was in Malang.
Before Henny could leave the Lavalette Clinic again the doctor spoke one more time with my mother and he gave her a small box with all sorts of medicines, for instance quinine, aspirini, iodine and so on. I didn't know this of course, she told me that many years after the war, when I mentioned once that I had found our Japanese visitor that day in May 1943,a nice and friendly man.
This kind Japanese doctor has given my sister a chance to get through the war, by giving her those two weeks treatment and giving my mother a small box with medicines, he has most certainly helped us a little when later on the Japanese occupation became a real hell on earth.
I have often wondered … did the Japanese visitor know what was coming? Did he know that we were going to suffer terribly and that many Dutch children were going to die?

I don't know his name, but I like to say: "Thank you Japanese visitor, thank you very much for your help Japanese doctor".
 
Wonderful!!!

Oh, my God! Wow! Thank you so much for sharing Elizabeth!!! Can you please give me a link to your website? Thank you so much! This is wonderful material! 👍 I'll read it over and over!:)
 
About a residence foreigner of World War II.
Japan and the U.K., each American Ministry of Foreign Affairs person in charge negotiated through Switzerland and Portugal, a neutral country such as Sweden.
As a result, an agreement about exchange of a residence foreigner was concluded between the two countries in May, 1942.
In Japan and U.S.A.,
Twice of June, 1942 and September, 1943
Between Japan and the U.K.,
(Australia or New Zealand)
Once of August, 1942,
In the first and the second Japan and the United States repatriation ship,
The United States borrowed and used the Gripps Holm title of the Swedishu American line company in neutral Sweden.
Japan used Asama-maru of "Nippon Yusen".
交換船 - Wikipedia
Between Netherlands and Japan,
Why was not there exchange of a captive?
I do not know it.
The Netherlands was done occupation of in May, 1940 by Germany.
The government and the King did exile in the U.K.
 
Hi diceke,

You are right that most camps in Indonesia during WWII were internment camps, but alas not all.
may I ask you to go to page 42 of my website, is called: Christmas 1944. My camp was a prison for a 1000 prisonners, but at a certain time we were with almost 5400 women and children in this prison. My mother, two youn ger sisters and I slept in a cell for one person. Thank goodness I worked outside the prison every day, I was a workhorse, toiler, whatever, it was very hard work, but at least I left that prison every morning.
Diceke There were all sorts of camps all over Java, Sumatra and some of the smaller islands in Indonesia. Some were very others were not too bad.
The only camp well known to the world is Tjideng a camp of house in Jakarta.
It is well known because Lady Mountbatten visited this camp in September 1945.
I always say to the Tjideng people: "at least you had toilets, we just had a hole in the floor" The smell was just unbearable, the smell of 5400 women and children.

Some of the camps were much better than others, my family had bad luck, But as I said, I was outside that prison the biggest part of the day. I have no camp trauma at all.
I don't make things look worse than they were, why should I?
 
How do you say these words in Dutch: "concentration camp" and "internment camp"? Could it be that they are just one and the same in Dutch?

The camps where Dutch civilians were placed were "internment camps", and that's irrelevant to the actual circumstances of the camps, no matter how harsh or spartan. ☝
 
Actually, a internment camp is a type of concentration camp, just like a extermination camp is a type of concentration camp. At least by dutch definition
 
Thank you Halewijn!

Diceke We were no longer Dutch civilians as from January 1944, but POWs. We all fell under the Armed Forces. That is what I learnt after the war.

The D.E.I. government sent quite some Germans by boat to India in 1940 where they were placed into camps and the D.E.I. sent some Japanese to Australia (placed in camps)just before the Japanese army landed on the Indonesian islands.

Give all those camps the names you like to give them, I don't really mind.
But none of them were scouting camps.
 
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