E
Seth Paul: On the 6th of May three Liberators bombed the
air base Limbung behind our camp. Later six Liberators arrived, of which one was
totally black; probably to absorb the flood lights during night attacks. After
bombing Limbung they left. However, one of them returned and dropped pamphlets
that didn’t fall in our camp, alas. Still later five Liberators appeared and
engaged in aerial combat with Jap fighters above Mandai. At
Voskuil:
This morning he displayed the same attitude, as usual, he rode around on his bike, but it was obvious that nothing piqued his interest. I caught up with him at the pigpens and showed him the announcements of the day, but all he did was nod his head and told me that it was OK.
Halewijn told me that she accompanied him on his walk through the pens, but his mind was somewhere else and he said hardly a thing, while he could be quite funny at times. We watched him as he walked off, dragging his feet, as if it was too difficult to lift them up. I mentioned that it couldn’t be because of his illness that his attitude was so low. Halewijn agreed, saying that there was probably a political reason for his depression.
Yesterday it was said that pamphlets had dropped down behind the stone factory, and that a native, accompanied by two policemen, had turned them in. This morning Daantje burned them all in the fires of the Central Kitchen. He pushed them in with a bamboo stick until all of them were ash. People who were close saw that they were large white sheets with closely printed matter and a dotted line went through them.
Later it appeared that the pamphlets had not been burned in the kitchen,
but on a garbage dump behind complex A. After Daantje left, several women found
the charred papers and distinguished the words: ‘damai sama German’ (peace with
Germany-OY). The charred paper also showed a dotted line from the East coast of
The commandant, who was very down yesterday, told the pastor to make 6
megaphones, he had drawn a picture of what they were supposed to be like. When
the pastor brought him the first sample he roared that it was all wrong and
that it had to be soldered. But when the pasto
Valderpoort mentioned that it was hard to watch the commandant be so depressed, she almost felt like cheering him up.
Ans Herdes had a heart spasm and must be careful. She tried to get Noor to take over her work with the youths, but Noor wouldn’t do it. Ans had to resign as complex leader. Jamadji yelled that he didn’t want the wife of the commissioner for a leadership position, but Klay. He had first touted the commissioner’s wife for a leadership position. Klay was surprised and said that she went from garden coolie to her former position.
Seth Paul: Today, on the 7th of May at
Voskuil:
Jamadji said today that he couldn’t hope to get anymore kerosene.
On Saturday the club will be opened, and the performances at the theater
also must go on, and the tennis court must be finished soon. Jamadji wants to
delive
We continue hearing the sound of explosions and engine noise; a sea battle is taking place.
The letters from Pare are very cheerful. 1. There’s a chapel for play,
2. The garden delivers greens, (they must be outside Pare, because the garden
in Pare already provided crops), 3. They butcher, but not as often as before,
4. Students of the Seminary in
It seems that the letters were written in April.
Behind our latrines dozens of banana trees are being planted. Finally a
pig was butchered this morning and sent to
When Dieudonne had a coupon stamped by Jamadji this morning, he asked
her how many children she had and how old they are. Could this mean that the
POW’s are shipped out of
Tomorrow we’ll have a day off, and Jamadji said that we’re allowed to pray.
The prophecy of something happening on the 10th of May came
true; we witnessed a bombardment the likes of which we never saw before. It
lasted from
The commandant attended a party at the girl’s club and was dressed in a European suit. Long white pants, a shirt, tie, and open jacket. He looked like a dressed up gorilla, especially since he’s letting his hair grow. He wants to part his hair, but it is so thick that it stands straight up, like a brush.
The suit he wore was traded for one kerosene can full of sugar.
The camp received 2,800 guilders for the butchered pigs, they were sent
to three shops in
The 30 ladies, who were assigned to pass orders during alarms, now wear red armbands.
The day passed calmly. The rumors about the pamphlets were not confirmed. Another rumor stated that 2 Dutch planes were seen.
We now have to use coconut oil so that we may
have some light; Daantje went to
Seth Paul: On the 10th of May a P-38 appeared at
Voskuil:
This morning I visited Mrs. Deibler, it was her birthday yesterday. She
told me that it was just a year ago that the Gestapo took her to
Miss Kempf, who preceded her to
The car came, but they were not convinced that they would not return to jail until they entered the gate of Kampili.
For the first few weeks Mrs. Deibler had a rough time with her nerves, but she has recovered. She took over her duties as barrack leader, and celebrated her birthday yesterday in good spirits.
Miss Kempf too, after having been in the hospital for weeks on time, has recovered.
The megaphones were passed around, one fo
Tomorrow letters may be written.
The little tailor left with all his belongings by car; he had not been in the sewing room during the last week. Would we get another spy? I too, am one of the announcers during an alarm, without a steady post, it is an ideal position.
Saturday.
Max de Vos had just left the school when engine noise was heard; he passed the Post when the alarm rang. The commandant nervously called out to him to return to the shelter by the school, but the boy continued on calmly. This infuriated the commandant and he ordered Max to stand with his arms high and on one leg and hold a brick in each hand. Then he was being lectured; the commandant did everything in his power to avert an accident. He told Max to look at Bellemee, who was deeply tanned while she stayed at her post during the heat and he continued to walk on. Then Max made a disdainful gesture with his lips and repeated it. This made Jamadji even madder, and he asked Valderpoort, who had just arrived, what the whites meant with that kind of gesture. Valderpoort would not say that it was a gesture of respect and kept her mouth shut. Then the commandant ordered that Max would not work with the cows for two months, but he would be sent to the pigpens. Furthermore, he was not allowed to leave the barrack during his punishment. The mother of Max approached the commandant later to ask for forgiveness but he hissed at her to leave.
Today is the opening day of the Club. The commandant thought that the portrait of Queen Wilhelmina portrayed her as being too young. Why wasn’t she portrayed as an older woman, she was married, and to a German no less. Why didn’t he become king? Juliana too, married a German, and their children were girls, what a pity. Valderpoort said that they, the Dutch, were happy with the girls, and Jamadji thought it mighty odd.
During a confidential chat with Noor Jamadji confessed that if he had
stayed in
Seth Paul: On the 12th of May six airplanes bombed
Voskuil:
Seth Paul: At
Voskuil:
During his conversation with Noor he mentioned that he had seen the
beautiful houses in
Then Valderpoort gave a speech in his name, saying that he appreciated our coming and that he could see that we were full of good cheer and that he wasn’t considered to be a bogeyman but a friend. He wished the members of the royal family well, and he asked us to sing the song we liked to sing best. But he first wanted the pastor to say a prayer. Then we sang “Wilhelmus van Nassauwe” standing up and from the bottom of our hearts. After dinner there was dancing in the garden and everyone had a cup of coffee. Then the pastor read a poem he had made about the ringing of the bells that went on every day. When he heard several ladies talk about his ability to dance he danced with Marseille next to the piano.
Yesterday the commandant nabbed two boys who walked through the papaya plantation; he put his stamp on their forehead, which they weren’t allowed to wash off because they had to show him the stamp today. He’s very proud of his knowledge of the Dutch language and he admonished them in broken Dutch that they were not allowed to do what they did. But during the evening and nights several thefts of clothing hanging on the lines to dry took place. When Valderpoort discussed this with the commandant she mentioned that she was ashamed of her country folk. But he, unexpectedly countered that it was he who was ashamed, because it seemed that he didn’t give the people enough clothing. His way of thinking is typical of his race. While the men in Pare can write all they want about the kind of work they do, we aren’t allowed to mention it at all. When Valderpoort queried him about this he answered that if the women would write that they work with pigs, the men would start to worry about that, since they knew that their wives lived in relative luxury before.
The celebration on the 14th of May is remembered joyfully by
the commandant because the Japs repelled and Allied attack. It certainly seems
that way because, after all that aerial activity, it has become ghastly quiet.
It makes us downhearted. There is a rumor that the English and the Germans are
fighting
The shelter next to the Post has been made higher, the result is a large hill on top of it, so that the water pipe barely clears the surface.
Yesterday evening the commandant told Verhaef to make dinner for four, and he had the alcohol burner put to use. He used the best parts of the wild boar, which was carried in by the natives this morning and for which he gave each of them a sarong, to make a meal for just him and Daantje.
The tailor who was dismissed because of his laziness still has not been replaced.
In the afternoon the piano, which was put in the club for the 14th of May celebration, was carried back to the church building by coolies. Jamadji rode behind them on his bike. In earlier days 3 coolies and several ladies had to do it.
I went to the club this evening and enjoyed the ‘luxury’ of sitting in a rattan chair under a tree and smoking a cigarette with a cup of coffee and some candy.
Chabot:
When he discussed this with one of his trusted staff, he was asked why
we couldn’t have the same kind of food, and he answered that he would get into
trouble after the war, if it become known that
It was a bad situation, because lacking proper medication the doctors would put those patients on special diets. While those that did hard work almost couldn’t cope anymore because of the lack of food. And the weak stayed weak. Despite the rice shortage the camp stays relatively well, everybody recognizes the situation we’re in. Or maybe we’re preoccupied with the American’s presence. For almost 4 weeks now, hardly a day passed that we didn’t spend it in the shelter. The shelters are 2m deep gullies, about 1 m wide for about 50 people. It is covered with tree trunks and earth. They were built all over the camp. Bombs are dropped almost every day and night; some come pretty close. Pamphlets are dropped around the camp, but alas, not inside. Yet all kinds of rumors are heard, supposedly from people who have seen something.
It is better not to occupy one’s thoughts with the end of the war, because then it will take a much longer time to finally get here. When you don’t think about it, and keep on working, the time flies by.
One direct result of the bombing is that we don’t get kerosene anymore, so we sit in the dark at night. But after a few nights we have coconut oil to light our lamps and, thank goodness, because of my excellent eyesight, I can work on math problems again.
In the middle of the camp, next to the Post, a real bomb shelter has been built for the 3 Japs and the 2 ladies who take care of the archives. The3 Japs are the commandant, no. 2 Jap, and the tailor. It seems typical that the Japs think that they must account for what has happened during their occupation according to international rules. This is the way we explain the opening of the ‘club’ and the existence of a tennis field. Two brick houses next to the hospital have been decorated with curtains, pictures on the wall, rattan chairs, stoneware mugs, (you’re not allowed to bring in your own), etc.
Yesterday it was two years ago that the commandant took over command of this camp when we had been here for ten days. This event was commemorated with a dinner party that was attended by about 100 people, mostly the heads of different services, barrack leaders, and anyone over 60. The pastor had to attend while sporting a beard, the reverend was supposed to be his son, and Dr. Marseille his daughter, he dressed up like a woman. The commandant had ordered the camp leader to make a speech in which was mentioned that he hoped that we would have pleasant memories of Kampili, and he found it satisfying that more and more people considered him to be a friend rather than a foe.
Presently the commandant had put a lot of faith (no pun intended here-OY) in the father and the nuns, and asked the father to hold a prayer for all the dead in the camp. He advised Marseille to attend church services.
Last month a 7-year old died of rabies after having been bitten by a
rabid dog, several days later a plane arrived from Java with serum for all
those that also had been attacked by the dog. The commandant wanted everyone to
realize that it was not his fault that the dog had bitten several of the camp
members. Then our national anthem “Wilhelmus” was sung and a moment of silence
was observed to think of our Queen, whether she was in
Voskuil:
On order of the commandant Carla Huisman, Nellie Verhaef, Sarlientje Brand, and Olga Plevier cannot leave their quarters after school for 2 months, because of their bothersome screaming.
He also ordered that children of school age, including the high school
students, must be in bed by
Last Sunday 2 Japs came to visit on native horses, it was difficult to bow politely in the view of an obvious lack of gasoline.
A political meaning is given to the butchering of the goats; everything must be used up because it won’t last much longer. It is not only because of practical measures, the goats eat all the young plants and are of little use to us except as a possible source for much needed protein.
The mother superior was called in and again, he discussed with her the
possibility of having a nun as his house keeper. Later, sister Willemien was
called in to tell all the barrack leaders to assemble in front of the clinic.
Since a race is supposed to take place at
It took a very short time until all the pencils and papers were used up and To was sent to get more. All in all about 90 pencils and 450 sheets of paper were passed around, and that while we had to be so frugal with both paper and pencils.
When I called out to her she told me not to disturb her, but when I said that the commandant had sent me she stopped, then said that if I would tell him that she was practicing for tonight he would agree to let her practice. However, she had thought wrong because when I gave the commandant her message he told me to get her. An angry Jamadji who told her that she was needed to sit by the bell at this time received her, and the smoker’s coupon she had just received was rescinded for a week.
During the lecture of Dr. Marseille Jamadji hit Max. He had house arrest for 2 months, but the Father saw to it that he could attend services and bible lessons on Sundays and Mondays; but Max still left his quarters every night. The commandant had said that he had seen Max by barrack no 7, but Max lied and denied it. When he finally admitted that he had violated his house arrest he again smirked and an angry Jamadji smacked him left and right around his ears. When his mother wanted to interfere he hit her on the forehead.
Afterward Jamadji went to the church building to learn how to dance, but found that the party was in full swing. He called for Marseille who had left for necessary reasons. Then he saw me and told me to teach him to dance. When I told him that I couldn’t do it, he approached someone else and received the same answer. I told him to look for someone who was smart and he continued looking. Jamadji appeared as a short, heavyset body in pajamas, with very thick bristle like hair and without glasses, which gave him piggy eyes. It gave him a malicious, sneaky appearance. He is not malicious anymore; on the contrary, he chose Zus Klaus to be his dance teacher and she showed him good-naturedly how to hold his hands and she paid close attention to his foot movements without paying attention to the laughing around him. In the meantime Marseille had returned and Jamadji had him dance slowly. Marseille proved to be such a good dance instructor that Jamadji danced with him. Considering the fanatical way Jamadji approached this subject everybody agrees that he will know how to dance within a month.
He plays tennis everyday with Marseille against two ladies, usually
Tekelenburg and Hermie. Alas, we won’t have the day off tomorrow. This morning
when Valderpoort exited the clinic, Jamadji came by on his bike, but before she
could approach him about a free day tomorrow he quickly pedaled away. She said
that she wouldn’t chase him, and she’s right. However, at
All the people who receive coconut oil for their own lamps must put a drop of kerosene in with the coconut oil so that the oil cannot be used for frying. Pity.
Bellemee received a slap in the face when Olga wanted to play for the high school students tonight. Usually it is Bellemee who plays, she did it for the fun of it, but since Olga learned that a dinner would be part of the job, she thought that playing dance music would be worth the talents of a concert pianist.
Announcement: it has happened more than often that I didn’t catch whoever needed to sign the announcement book so that someone else would be named to make sure that the messages are passed along to the proper parties.
The commandant summoned Halewijn; he told her that Leo was going to be butchered. Leo was a piglet that almost died, but was raised on a bottle. He was taken to the clinic on a daily basis to treat his ulcers and other wounds. He grew into a strong and healthy animal, and became the mascot of the pigpens. Now he was going to be killed. Halewijn begged Jamadji not to slaughter Leo and Valderpoort interceded that another pig could be butchered. The commandant smiled and Halewijn interpreted that to mean that Leo would be saved. He did say that the people working in the pens had to be more careful with their gear, and not assume that, because they worked hard, tools were easy to get.
In the evening he summoned Joustra and asked her if Halewijn was too young to be leader of the pigpens. Joustra answered sagely that it was not a question of age but of judgment, and she thought that Halewijn was right for the job.
The commandant asks for sterling dessert spoons, knives, and forks; probably to trade for sugar. The barracks that are slowest to provide volunteers when they are asked, no. 5 and 6, are the first ones to arrive with their cutlery. Everyone craves sugar, the most current standard of cash.
The mica shop, which was halted two months ago, earned 1,090.55 guilders, and the sewing room 90.60 guilders.
Yesterday Marseille could not inspect the latrines because he had to play tennis with Jamadji.
In the afternoon Jamadji went to
Tonight the first “service” dinner will take place for the sewing room. Half of the ping-pong room was made into a show room where 10 ladies modeled the clothes that were manufactured in the sewing room: raincoat, shirt, shorts, riding breeches, striped shirts, overalls, pajamas, and a work outfit. It was a very successful fashion show.
After all the ladies had passed by the display and were seated at the dining table, the commandant entered with Valderpoort. It was funny to watch him walk back and forth in front of the exhibit, with a big grin and cooling himself with a fan. Yet, he is a tormentor because, after all the time that he didn’t hold roll call, and wasn’t present for an even longer time, he now does all of them and wherever he sees hanging laundry, has it taken to his office. It took some talking on the part of the complex leaders to get the wash back. Then he donned a leisure suit and returned to the sewing room party where he stayed till the end. He received a pillow, which was created of pieces of striped fabric, which was left over from other sewing projects.
After dinne
Since Mrs. Verhaef is taking over the job as head of the club kitchen, the Post now has 4 nuns to do the housekeeping of the Post. Marietje will be assisting Verhaef.
This morning Valderpoort gave the order that Meta Bouman will take 14
days leave and will be replaced by Bartstra.
Van Breugel: Let’s not forget our dear Father Beltjens. He took
over the role of a professor who presented the history of trousers. He appeared
in a black suit and carried a briefcase, and he sported glasses. A white sheet
was hung, and several oil lamps lit the background behind the sheet.
(Electricity had been forgotten). He presented his theory through shadow
images. The professor went on to explain the evolution of pants. A large tome
came out of the briefcase. The first pair of pants, but the stupid sheet
prevented us from seeing the real thing. “Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this was
the first pair of pants”. Laughter. The 2nd pair, sure enough, a fig
leaf. That’s the way it went all the way to shorts, underpants, riding
breeches, and ruffled pants. I thought that it was very cleverly done around
only one subject, a pair of pants. I would love to see it again. But we heard
later that the nuns were shocked, but our pastor has been around a while,
including in
Voskuil:
It is Mrs. Goslinga’s birthday and the commandant had her come to his
office. She sat in a rattan chair and the commandant left her for a while. Then
he joined her and sat down too. I had to call the reverend. He had been in
There was excitement this afternoon. Valderpoort informed the commandant that a woman who winnows the rice is stealing rice; wouldn’t it be better to transfer her to the sewing room. He then asked Scheerder come to his office. He makes her sit opposite him at the desk, and tells Valderpoort to sit somewhere else. He tells Scheerder that it was brought to his attention that rice is being stolen because the people are hungry and don’t get enough rice. Then, why is she not distributing enough rice. Scheerder says that she does give enough rice but that Den Hond keeps rice for herself every day and that she now has amassed quite a bit for herself. The commandant then says that he doesn’t like that and that Den Hond must cook all the rice that she is given. Also, the food must be fatter and 100 liters of coconut oil must be supplied, whatever is left over of the lamp oil must be used for the preparation of food. More cassava must be mixed with meat; he didn’t want the people to be so hungry that they felt that they had to steal.
Then came the problem with Egberts, which almost caused Marseille to get a beating. Egberts was being punished and had to stay in the dysentery barrack. She had asked Marseille if she could have visitors. He told her ‘no’. Then she said that people didn’t get dysentery that easily, and Marseille answered that it wasn’t a question of dysentery but of superiority. Egberts thought that he meant that it was Jamadji who had to give permission for visitors. So she approached the commandant and he also told her ‘no’, with a grin. Egberts then said that Marseille was not afraid of dysentery. The commandant left smiling, but that afternoon he went into a rage, did Marseille poke fun at the fear of the commandant for dysentery? Marseille got white as a sheet and denied it. The commandant wanted to talk to Egberts and called Kui[er who was supposed to be Egberts visitor. When they all stand in front of Jamdji Kuiper can barely prevent a fist from hitting Marseille. Just then Jap visitors arrive and the commandant takes them on a tour and chats with them on the verandah. In the meantime Marseille and Kuiper wait anxiously in Valderpoort’s office, because the threat of a beating is not over. More than an hour later the reverend showed up and said that the commandant wants to play a game of tennis with Marseille. Marseille was relieved and went to play.
We were going to close the office, and when we asked Jamadji, who was busy playing tennis, if roll call would be held he answered ‘no’. Once we spread the word, he decides that there will be roll call after all. He is strict and difficult and he wanted Marseille to keep him company during roll call.
There are continuous sounds of explosions in the distance, probably at sea; and there is an obvious tension in the air. The rice gatherers in the rice fields ran off, an indication that something is in the wind.
The commandant is busy in the kitchen and prepares the
Yesterday the reverend had to tell Mrs. Goslinga from the commandant that he didn’t want her to preach anymore and that she should spend all her time with her family.
The
commandant has busied himself with roll call lately. Yesterday morning he
entered barrack no. 5 at
Later on he was busy in the kitchen again, and we all profited from his cooking skills. In the late afternoon he chopped up a lot of wood, since an extra dish required a lot more wood.
When the commandant heard Valderpoorts voice he calls Noor in and asks her what Valderpoort wants. Noor then told him that he shouldn’t take offense, but she didn’t think that it was right to discuss and criticize someone with other persons. Who did? She didn’t want to name anyone, but she told him that he was right to want to hear the opinion of someone he could trust. He should talk again to someone else to have her opinion, but these had to be persons that could be trusted not to blab to everybody about the camp leader. He agreed and added that he had a lot of responsibilities, and he was still relatively young, only 29. It struck Noor that he used his age as an excuse for the first time.
His game of tennis with Marseille also came up, and he said that tennis is a question between men, punishing is a question of authority.
During her discussion with Jamadji in the office, Valderpoort told Noor that he wouldn’t accept her resignation, but the situation stays unstable. The commandant had said that he hadn’t worked things out in his mind yet. He is still in a quandary about the two camp leaders, and he wants to keep his options.
Monday.
The next surprise brought 5 Red Cross letters, 3 from
Yesterday evening Joustra was called into Jamadji’s office where he told her that Valderpoort had submitted her resignation but that he hadn’t accept it.
Our meals are better than they have been for a long time, the coconut oil we received a short time back was gone in 2 days.
Then we celebrate the victory of the Japs over the Russians by having fried rice; a pig was butchered for this occasion. A cow is butchered for tomorrow’s dinner party for the barrack workers. Is there a reason for the liquidation of the livestock, or does it just seem that way?
Rumor: Java is free.
The commandant told Ans Herdes that Valderpoort cannot handle matters on her own anymore, she is tired and makes mistakes. Does she want to be the second in command and work next to Valderpoort? Ans is very much surprised, she thought that she was in disgrace and now this. Jamadji leaves her to think it over and to also inform Valderpoort about the status quo.
Tuesday.
The commandant is in a cheery mood. He went outside and called to aunt Emmy, his pet name for Bellemee. He had heard one of the children call her that when he first came here and thinks it’s fun to call her that.
The story goes around that he will commit hara-kiri when the Japs will
have to cede to the Allies. He picked the spot for this ritual, and also where
he wants to be buried. Of course this story is exaggerated, but it ties in with
the following incident. One evening he sat in the cemetery and summoned sister
Corine, a 60-year old from
The commandant wants to bring the camp under a new kind of government. Valderpoort would be the Secretary-President, then Noor and Ans would be the intermediaries for all services under Valderpoort, who would serve as minister of the interior and be in direct contact with the complex leaders and the barrack leaders. Ans Herdes would oversee food supplies, Zus van Goor would take care of park and recreation for the adults. Joustra would take care of education and religion, Marseille would be head of the medicine. Ans de Bruine would head the sport department, Wijnands and Van der Meer would take care of the Club, and Bartstra would take care of clothing. Noor doesn’t like the job she’s assigned to, and Jamadji is far from pleased about it. He told her not to take too much time to think about it, and not feel that she wouldn’t like it, but it is in the interest of the camp.
The commandant had taken the letters with him and also returns by truck. He has a newly stringed tennis racket, a repaired record player, and a black and white dog. He immediately dresses in his tennis duds and heads for the tennis court; in one hand he holds the racket, and in the other the leash of the dog. He proceeds to sic the dog on everyone he meets and thinks that it is amusing when it startles the person.
Later he dons his uniform, Valderpoort thinks that he’s required to do so, because even when he attends the service dinners he appears in uniform. At first he didn’t intend to sit in on the dinners, but Valderpoort told him that the other services would feel slighted if he didn’t go, because he made an appearance at the sewing room dinner. At that time he was dressed in a leisure suit, but now he only dresses in his uniform when he attends the dinners.
The commandant continues to trade a cereal can full of sugar for cutlery
for the Club, spoon, knife and fork. He also trades stoneware soup plates fo
Bellemee has been ordered to ring the bell at
In the distance we hear the sound of explosions, but there is hardly any aerial activity.
Yesterday evening Noor talked to Jamadji and told him that she wouldn’t accept the position he wants her to take, but she wants to be one of the crowd and work for the sewing room or in the barrack. The commandant then said that there was no one who could be a leader like she. She politely answered that there were many with those qualities. He then told her to go to Joustra and have her give him the names of 3 that she would find suitable for a leadership post. She should personally bring him the slate in the morning. Then Valderpoort must make her choice.
Old clothes, wooden sandals, and shoes must be turned in at Noor’s office to be used for the cleaning of drums in the central kitchen and the dishes in the Club. The immediate reaction of the women is that these items will be given to the coolies who have been working in the camp to repair the barracks and kitchens. The commandant expects them to give us news in exchange for the clothing.
One of the ladies who was recommended to replace Noor is named Groot, and when Valderpoort reads off her name in the afternoon, Jamadji tells her to have her come to the office. When she gets there he asked her how old she was. She told him: “38”. Then he asked her what kind of work she used to do, and she told him that she did social work. To his question what her husband was she told him that he was a reverend. He then tells her that she replaces Van Mastrigt and dons his cap and leaves.
The commandant found his dog in the rice fields. The dog must have come
from a house in
Jamdji pulled a few stunts before he left. When he mentioned the different Secretaries he named Den Hond Secretary of the food department instead of Ans Herdes, who retains her position as a barrack leader. Valderpoort assumes that by changing camp rules this way, we will eventually be able to govern ourselves.
Another order involves the catching of flies. The barrack with the biggest catch will get half a measure of sugar; the 2nd price will be 1/3 of a measure and the 3rd one fourth of a measure. (I have no idea what kind of measures these were. The translation is “karang”, but to my knowledge the Malay word karang is coral in English. But apparently karang must also indicate a certain measure of weight. I must have forgotten more than I realized.-OY). Jamadji will garner the amounts of dead flies himself.
Also, he wants to trade serving dishes with lids and enameled trays for sugar. These are for the use of the club. It is stressed that the sugar will not replace the regular rations.
The commandant who had left for
The visitors show up some time later and the first place they go to is the pigpen, then they pass complex C and A and sit down in the church building. Three of them sit in the easy chairs while Jamadji and an aide sit on the rattan chairs. He hastily drinks the lemonade and refuses the cake. The visitor’s watched the dancers with interest who, in spite of the sudden call to perform, are doing a good job. Then they visit the school and the sewing room, return to the Post and leave.
Too much food is being taken to the pigs and we will get less rice because of it.
We received 1,500 guilders for having embroidered cherry blossoms, 10 cents apiece.
Jamadji was deep in thought this; but it was audible and visible. He kept on scratching his head and groaning. This indicated that he was not to be bothered. Then he summoned Joustra with whom he had a difference of opinion concerning time off for the school children. He first rejected her proposal, then offered his idea, which he dropped soon after and finally went along with Joustra’s idea to have school in the mornings but not in the afternoons. The girls would not have to work in the cassava fields from 4 to 9 June, but the boys would not be exempt from work.
The flies were caught diligently. Marseille put them in a can and measured how many flies were in the can.
It is an odd but true fact that we don’t regard Jamadji to be a Jap but another human being. He showed that when the visitors came and he nervously awaited their arrival, perspiring heavily. I feel that I am not the only one who thinks this way. I hope that this last inspection would bring him some honor from his higher ups. We would regret it if this didn’t happen. We have come to see him in a different light just like he came to regard us differently during the two years that he had been our commandant.
BODJO/Welleman:
A few days ago I went to Pare with a group to pick up some rice. The whole area looks dreary; it looks much worse than when we stopped fighting there three years ago.
The vegetable situation is OK, but we hardly get any meat and there are no egg whites.
There is a lot of American aerial activity, which keeps us on our toes. Two days ago we watched a native canoe which was fired on and caught fire.
Our “camp orator”, a nick name we gave to the present Japanese head of our camp, Toda, holds endless speeches which are often not applicable to whatever present situation. Yesterday he gave our camp leader, the reverend Bikker, 3 guilders, and all block commandants 2 guilders each, as an incentive to have us execute their orders better. Is this a sign of the times?
There has been no aerial activity for the last two days, but it still is a tense time. There is a lot of malaria going around, and during the last 8 days Brother Clement and Bertus Willers died.
Yesterday I suddenly came down with malaria and I am bedridden, I get 3 doses of quinine powders a day. I came down with a sudden fever on Saturday afternoon, but my fever was gone today but I don’t feel like eating. Let’s see what today will bring. There is hardly any aerial activity, a strange situation.
We will have a difficult time ahead, but we will make it.
The housing is bad, one open barrack for 20 men. There is almost no sunlight because of the heavy growth overhead. The available drinking water is bad. We get 400 gram of food a day and most of it is corn. We get no meat, oil, or fish; just corn, rice, and wild greens. Hopefully our situation will improve, but for the time being it is awful. Almost all my luggage has arrived, everything is trucked into Balokan and from there we must haul it along a steep jungle path to the camp. We go to bed when the chickens do.
Wiebe Seth Paul: Toda replaced the good Japanese camp commandant
nicknamed Long John shortly before we moved to Bolong. Toda wasn’t bad either, but
there was a difference, Long John preferred to stay in the background, while
Toda took the limelight with all his orations. Shortly after Toda took the helm
we were told that we had to move. I didn’t know where. We made the trip
squatting in the back of a truck, of which the sides were high enough so that
we couldn’t see the surrounding areas. But from the way the driver drove and
the change of temperature from warm to chilly indicated that we were moving
into the mountains. Our final destination was a place in the mountainous
Balokang area. We then had to walk a steep path into a canyon to
It was made clear to everyone in the camp that this was a result of being underfed. The mix of rice and corn could not be turned into the necessary calories in weak stomachs and the intestinal tract. We didn’t have to wait long for the results of this kind of diet. The first to die were the elderly, and I experienced the same feeling of dread I had during the dysentery period in Bodjo.
Any hope of improving our all over survival - the end of the war - became the topic of conversation, but it was purely guess work. Things could not change, and at that age I had not developed enough to delve into guessing games. My only consolation was to go along with the 80% of the camp that believed that the end was in sight. Hope became reality through a confession of Toda himself; but the uncertainty remained, and things stayed the same.
Badenbroek: In the meantime rumors went around that the Allies
landed everywhere, and made conquests everywhere. We could feel that something
was going on when we were moved to Balokang. This camp was in Toradja country
high in the hills, at a 1,500mete
The camp was in a damp canyon, very gloomy and musty. Our housing
consisted of open barracks built on poles. The floors were made of small tree
trunks. The walls were made of tree bark, about 1 meter high. When the sun went
down it became very chilly. We slept in a pair of shorts and a thin shirt. We
had no blankets so we ran the chance of getting a cold o
After having lived a life of relative “luxury” in the other camps we realized that the future looked grim, and the mood was depressing.
This was a jungle camp and everything you touched felt damp. Not much sunlight penetrated the dense foliage. Wherever we went things felt clammy, cold to the touch, and wet. Our food was very bad, and we invented other ways to get more food, smuggling. During the day we had our chores. While we looked for firewood for the kitchen we reconnoitered the area and the paths that would lead us to potential gardens that we could raid during the night. When dusk approached and the coast was clear we set out for the gardens of the Toradja natives. I usually took off with Frits. Thank goodness, we were never caught. And yes, I even stole rice from the Jap storage place. It was very simple. The walls were made of woven bamboo and the bales of rice were piled up against these walls. We stuck a hollow bamboo pipe through the walls and the rice flowed into a gunnysack. This was the way we got a bit of extra rice. We looked for vegetables and edible fruits in the woods. There was a kind of native fern in the woods of which the young shoots could be eaten. How did I know? Because I saw it sold in the market in Malino. Then we found a fruit tree with fruit that resembled large green apples. It was always dubious to try something new, but we cut off a small piece and ate it. If there were no side effects we ate a bit more until it was obvious that it was safe to eat. Then we found a plant in a pond, something like an elephant’s ear. I knew that the bulb was edible, but could we eat the large leaf, and was it really an elephant’s ear plant? A fish that was wrapped and cooked in that leaf tasted delicious. We pulled the plant up and the bulb looked entirely different. After we had boiled it for an hour the bulb was still hard as a rock. After hours more and adding water all the time, the bulb stayed hard. So we cut it and tasted it. But it was inedible, lips and jaws pulled together and there was a scratch in our throats, awful! We didn’t eat it.
The raids fo
These raids needed a certain strategy whereby we needed to avoid the native guards who would make the rounds at regular intervals. They used a footpath around the camp and we slipped through at the right moment. We were not always successful and fleeing was the only way out, because you could be sure that punishment would await us if we were caught, but it never happened. We could be sure that the guard would be beefed up if one of us got caught. We always shared part of our loot with the sick.
Yesterday afternoon 9 men and I dismantled iron fencing along the harbor
and the jail. The fencing was taken to
The alarm sounds on and off, half an hour ago bombs fell North of Makassar, and just now the sirens sounded 3 times.
Many Americans are among the last victims; one of them was my friend Wynnen. A total of 258 have died so far, 145 Englishmen, 26 Americans, 48 Army, and 39 Navy.
You can’t call this a war anymore; the Japs must be ill at ease now that big brother has been defeated.
We are putting a 2nd electrified fence around our garden. The natives steal more vegetables than we will ever see. I stay on friendly terms with the gardeners, because chile peppers, roasted eggplant, and cassava are much desired.
Yesterday 5 men died 3 Englishmen, 1 American, and Sgt. Major Scheltema.
It should be beautiful in
After 6 days we saw Japanese fighters in the air. We watched as one of
them attacked, then exploded and crashed. They don’t stand a chance against the
Allied planes. There is a story going around that Dutch fighters appeared over
My storekeeper made a backpack out of a sack for me, so that I will be prepared for whatever may happen.
After not having had a death for 3 days an Englishman and an American died.
The remains were put in a casket and an English priest held a short sermon for the executed men and the 3 who had just died, they were the Englishmen Allen, sailor 1st class Van Dijk, and soldier Van Loon.
The 50 newcomers are still here and work in a new garden.
This morning we watched an aerial combat between Yankee bombers and Jap fighters without decisive results.
A bomb was dropped on a water well in
For the last few days I continually dream about being free.
Of late Yoshida, 20 men and I take a truck into the bombed out Chinese
camp to recover wood. If the wood is OK it goes to the mill Kosaka Mariso to be
made into boards, the rest is firewood for our kitchens. This is always done
after
The papers report a large transport between Watampone and Maros, of 12,000 men and 18,000 horses. There were a lot of horses on Bone, but I do believe that they erred by adding an extra 0. If they rode 8 horses neck to neck, and 1 horse takes up 4 meters of the road, the procession would be 15 km long.
There were no alarms yesterday and today; the optimists believe that the war is over. I’d rather think that it is the quiet before the storm. We haven’t had any news for a week.
Furthermore, a report from
All in all, it is a chaotic situation, which will self-destruct. The
Allied Forces and
The Japs have come up with a bright idea. They want to make real graves of our poorly designed shelters; i.e. they want to cover them with dirt. The top will become about 1 meter high; a wooden beam will cover the shelter at 1 meter distances. This should brace the bamboo that supports the dirt. This morning I made several drawings to make them change their minds, but they don’t trust us and want to herd us into these shelters like pigs. I hope we can still alter their thinking.
Some time ago we heard a rumor that
Today 20 Americans and 5 Navy boys demolished previously chosen buildings.
Yesterday I finally got some reading glasses; it was impossible to create ordinary glasses. These belonged to Pieter Post who died a few days ago. Not too many people die any more, except for the English. This month 30 men died; 20 of those were English, that is 24% of the English POW’s.
We received 180 kg of meat, a lot of fresh fish, fruit, and an enormous amount of vegetables. We can expect a very good dinner tonight. This is our menu: fried fish, vegetables, meat sauce, sweet sauce that is made of banana, sugar, and trash peanuts, and rice with manioc. Not bad.
I ate pretty good yesterday too, my tom cat Felix. Frans Wintersbergen butchered him and the chef for the officer’s kitchen prepared him with a curry sauce. It seems to be cannibalism, but 12 men had a delicious meal. The meat was just as delicate and tender as rabbit, and I fed him for such a long time that he should provide me with a meal too.
The last few days 3 more Englishmen died.
We hardly ever hear the sirens anymore.
KAMPILI/Voskuil: Monday,
Rumor: Java is free, the troops will assemble on this island where the last battle will be waged.
The tailor and Daantje carry the bath water for the commandant from the well of barrack no. 3 in a large water container. They patiently wait until it’s their turn at the pump. Times have changed as compared with a year ago. High- ranking visitors salute everyone they meet before the women have a chance to bow to them.
Yesterday two more dogs that were killed outside the camp have been taken to the pigpens.
Van Goor, Palstra, and Lekkerkerker were sent to the cassava field rest home for a week. Valderpoort was instrumental in gaining their vacation, just like getting Olga and O’Keefe released from their regular chores.
Catching flies in exchange for sugar. Barrack no 15 (closest to the pig pens-OY) caught so many flies by children and adults all day long, that the other barracks doubt that this was done honestly. Complaints have come into Valderpoort’s office that tea leaves and coffee grounds had been mixed in with the flies and that Marseille was in cahoots with them… But the complaints were nothing but envy, as unbelievable as it was nothing was mixed in with the flies.
The leaders of barracks no. 5,6,7,9,10,11, and 12 had to report to Valderpoort’s office where they heard that the commandant felt that they were lazy. They denied being lazy and said that they had no flies or boys that worked in the pigpens where most of the flies were caught.
Yesterday in the evening a dinner party was held for the office, the cassava crew, the knitters, and others. It was a terrific meal. We had just finished the bundt cake and the coffee when the alarm sounded. An hour and a half later the all clear was sounded and we were allowed to continue with our party. We had just started to watch the first show of national costumes when Zus van Goor announced the arrival of the Americans. Aerial activities continued for the rest of the night. We heard bomb explosions not far away, the barracks vibrated, and for a minute it seemed as if the roof of the barrack was being sucked up.
It’s Van Diejen’s birthday and I take flowers to her. When I pass the butcher the Father gives me a small buffalo horn filled with flowers for Van Diejen. With his love and tender feelings, so he says… When I arrive at my destination I see Van Diejen and her crew under a shady tree, I give her the flowers, wishes, and congratulations, and I am invited to join them. Sandwiches with liverwurst, radishes, and coffee. Noor asked me how I always manage to get into the thick of things when there is a party going on. I said that fate decides, but it has a helping hand. Then the commandant arrives and everybody gets up. He sees me and asks if I work here too. I tell him that I brought the announcement book. He laughs and says that it makes a good seat, and rides away on his bike laughing.
In the afternoon he says that all adults must have a week off. How will we manage?
He passes out odd, long satchels that are divided into several compartments made of khaki fabric, to the seamstresses in the sewing room. These are his presents to them.
At
When we counted the seconds between the flame and the sound we could figure out how far away the bomb was dropped, about 3 or 4 km.
This morning a truck holding Japs, standing shoulder to shoulder passed our camp on their way to the dam.
Jamadji made Mamma Max (de Vos) stand for several hours as punishment
for not going into the shelter when the alarm was sounded. She stood until
After 2 sleepless nights we all felt groggy. The commandant did allow us not to work in the morning, but only the sewing room, garden crews, and schools could take advantage of this.
This morning the alarm lasted a short while: A Lockheed was high up in the air. At night we had to enter the shelters twice, but we could sleep some, because each barrack had a guard that stayed alert after the “caution” alarm had been sounded, and should wake everybody if a real alarm should occur.
For 4 nights the alarm lasted from
At exactly midnight a bomb came down so close that many kids started to cry and, for a moment, we thought that one of the barracks was hit. It was a horrifying metallic explosion; it took our breath away. And so it went, every 1/2 hour. The commandant, who stayed in the deep shelter with Valderpoort, To, and Carry, had fallen asleep. When he woke up he told Valderpoort to go to sleep. Valderpoort said that the sounds were magnified in the shelter. It seemed that when one plane flew over it sounded like ten.
The commandant discussed the raids with Valderpoort and told her that the danger is life threatening, but it doesn’t mean that the camp will be destroyed. (Could it be that an ammunition dump is close by?)
The commandant worries about the night guards and gives them raincoats from the sewing room.
Rumor: it will take 14 nights to wear us down.
Sunday, June 10, 1945. After we heard airplane engine sounds all day yesterday, it didn’t surprise us that the alarm was sounded at 9 PM. Because of the predictable night alarm the dinner party for the land children (high school girls and boys) was moved up to 7 PM. The party went smoothly, Valderpoort was costumed like a Dutch maid and she wore an apron, bonnet with ribbons, and glasses. Then came the performance in the church building, which also was a success. Then the alarm sounded. This was the 5th night in a row that the all clear was given at 5.30 AM. Every 30 minutes a plane came over, but the bombs didn’t fall till after midnight, this time they fell a bit further away. The war of nerves is reaching its goal, even although no bombs were dropped on our camp. Whenever a bomber came over we tensely waited to see where or when the bomb would be dropped. Even when the bomb didn’t fall, these sorties affect our nerves just the same, the tension is repeated every 1/2 hour; it is nerve wracking. Many fall asleep in spite of the noise in the air because they are totally worn out. And then we realize that sleep, just like food, is a necessity of life.
The commandant went to Makassar at 11 AM and returned at 6 PM. He told us that Makassar was bombed also. Then he said that everyone had to go to bed early. Valderpoort had been up for 4 nights, and never rested in the afternoon. When I asked her how she could keep going on, her response was that she was curious about that too.
Yesterday she had a chat with the commandant and he turned out to be a pacifist at heart. He said that the Japanese were betrayed by the higher ups, because they hadn’t wanted the war. They didn’t mind being farmers. He liked the ideas of communism and read a lot about it. He asked Valderpoort whether the Americans drank a lot of beer, because they ditch beer bottles from the planes everywhere. That explained the whizzing sounds that many of us heard that was not followed by an explosion.
The commandant worries about the many mosquitoes in the shelters and the possibility of an outbreak of malaria. He asked Valderpoort if the people couldn’t take mosquito netting with them into the shelters. He also worried about the assigned barrack night guards not getting enough rest, and he said that from now on they could lie down on the job as long as they were alert to any messages that needed to be passed along.
These guards proved to be inefficient in the cassava fields because, when someone called out, the pigs started to grunt and the geese made such an earsplitting noise, that it was decided to omit the guards in that area.
Corten: Sunday, June 10, 1945. This was the night of the performance. All kinds of fun skits would be shown. Our class had put one skit together, this is the way it was played: we sit down on our tools in the fields and wonder what we are going to be. One wants to be a doctor others want to be a teacher, singer, flight attendant and all kinds of reputable professions. The scene changes to 15 year later and each person presents in verse what reality did to their dreams. The doctor drags 12 kids behind her across the stage, the flight attendant chases butterflies with a net, saying: “Don’t fly, but watch them fly.” Etc. The young ones had a cool skit too, but the end was the most memorable act. A few boys gave an exact imitation of the girl’s ballet. Even their costumes were exact copies. It was hilarious! One boy with huge feet crossed the stage with 2 pirouettes, instead of the usual 6. Their leaps were impossibly high; we laughed ourselves silly. Their dance was such a success that they had to do an encore. They had just started the second time when the alarm rang. While everyone ran off, we blew out the lights and barely reached the trench in front of the church building in time. One of the boys sat with us dressed in complete ballet regalia, tutu and ruffled pants. A while later the airplanes came over, but he started to wriggle all over and started to hit his bottom. He sat down on an ant’s nest.
Voskuil: June 11, 1945. Tonight another alarm from 10 PM to 6 AM, and people are so tired that they became hysterical, neurotic, or paranoid. Some are giggling all the time, others can’t stop crying, and some start to quarrel.
The moment Jamadji gets up he asks a policeman where the bombs have fallen. This morning, however, he didn’t get up till 10.15 AM and I was long gone with the book.
This morning two black items were seen floating high up in the sky, they looked like pamphlets. Some said that they floated towards the cassava fields, but the destination could have been Java just as well, that’s how high up they were.
Yesterday afternoon Jamdji passed the word that there would not be any roll call and everyone had to go to bed early. Whoever was eligible to attend a club event had to do so right after dinner, and the desserts had to be passed out right away.
Jamadji enjoyed the children’s performance on Saturday also. It was a new moon and the alarm was sounded soon after the moon appeared. There was virtually no break during the aerial activities until 7 AM. This was the 7th night but the bombs fell farther away.
The inspections of the shelters are becoming more intense, the commandant insists that we use them during air raids.
Tuesday, June 12, 1945. By order of the commandant the 14th to the 17th of June are considered to be holidays. But of course only certain crews will benefit.
Wijnands and Van der Meer, who had been managers of hotel and clubs before the war, are superbly suitable for their positions as club managers and take excellent care of the Club. We are almost transported to the past when we attend an evening at the club and sit in an easy chair while consuming a snack or a drink.
The vacation of Lekkerkerker, Van Goor, and Palstra has been extended another week; only now did they realize how very tired they were.
The pamphlet mystery was solved: Fuhri watched some dried leaves whirl into the air from the garbage dump, and she heard a lady call out that they were pamphlets. The children ran after them until they reached the cassava fields. Fuhri wouldn’t allow the kids to go beyond the fence, and it was said that she herself had taken the ‘pamphlets ‘ to the office. Not true!
This afternoon many mothers came to Valderpoort’s office to protest the fact that their sons had to wet down the tennis court for the benefit of Jamadji and a few ladies. The commandant had them summoned to the Post. Den Hond, who is never at a loss for words, is the spokes woman. She claimed that the boys already have much to do. The commandant became angry and said that the sons of the protesting mothers have to do more. Valderpoort had to take down the names. The mothers then tried to smooth things over by saying that the boys didn’t mind spraying the courts. Jamadji insisted gruffly that the names be written down.
Jamadji’s dog is very faithful to him and follows him everywhere, but he made a present of the dog to the ladies of the pigpens. The way he treats the dog that was sold to him is the way he treats the women who admire him. When he is sure of their adoration he kicks them down.
Wednesday, June 13, 1945. The 8th alarm night is history. Bombs fell very close by. For the first time in many weeks 4 Jap fighters didn’t land on the airfield behind us like they did before.
The commandant inspected the barracks with a flashlight; everybody had to be in the shelters. Those that were too ill to be moved had to go to the hospital. He worries about the possible collapse of the barracks if a bomb dropped close by. The situation is getting more dangerous; the promised 14 days of aerial activity is becoming reality.
The water pump near the Central Kitchen has no water; it is rumored that
a bomb fell on the dam. But those with more common sense remember that about
this time last year, the pump also didn’t have wate
At last Tuesday’s dinner party each participant received a nosegay with an aphorism. The commandant drew a bouquet with the saying: “The day will come.” It seemed very appropriate, because it was the 9th day of alarms. They came every 1/2 hour to drop a bomb here and there.
Last year the commandant had several buildings whitewashed so that anyone who would fly over would recognize this camp as a place that came under international provisions. But today he ordered those buildings to be painted brown. It appeared that pilots used the white buildings as a checkpoint from where they could find their targets. We now lost the safety net of being an aerial checkpoint. But we are hopeful, the prediction was 14 days of night alarms, then 24 days alarms by day and night. Whoever will be alive then will be free.
All festivities must continue by order of the commandant, but everything
must start an hou
The white washed houses were browned with mud within a short time.
All morning long we heard explosions and at 9 PM the planes resumed their 1/2 -hour sorties, dropping bombs in the neighborhood. About midnight it was quiet and we expected the all clear to sound. Nothing happened. Then it was 2 AM, and still there was no all clear. Valderpoort found the reason why when she went by the guard’s positions. The commandant was fast asleep in one of the underground shelters and no one dared to wake him. We heard the last plane in the distance, then it seemed as if a shot was fired and the engines fell silent. The engine sound returned briefly and stopped. Had it crashed? The rest of the night was quiet and Valderpoort took a chance and had the all clear sounded after 2 PM. She also announced that the vegetable crew had to be out in the morning at 8 AM, and work had to be resumed as usual. The only people who stayed alert until the morning were the night guards.
Saturday, June 16, 1945. About midnight last night a bottle flew
right over the heads of the people who had taken refuge in an open shelter
behind the church building. It bored into the ground for several centimeters,
so that the neck was filled with sand and there was no distinguishable odo
This morning I saw the bottle, it was covered with blue shreds of paper with a red border and on it the number 100% was printed. Another item that was brought in, it was a sharp piece of shrapnel. What else is flying through the air?
Tomorrow I will get a substitute, Arie den Hond. Since I had been one of the night guards I had only two hours of sleep, and Valderpoort wanted me to have a Sunday’s rest. Three guards ended up in the hospital: Nella Jansen, Deelstra, and Bouman. Exhaustion was the probable cause and there will be a call put out for more volunteers.
Valderpoort is tireless. On Saturday afternoon the performance was supposed to start at 5 PM, but since high ranking visitors were not expected 6 PM, it was delayed till then. A selection of the most successful skits and acts of the combined dinner parties would be put on stage for this occasion. The visitors were seated on cane chairs in the front.
The commandant had told several ladies who were seated in rattan chairs nearby to move. But he later called Valderpoort and told her that the 12 empty chairs on the left could be occupied by the women. We are used to sit on the bamboo benches when the Japs are here, but we enjoy sitting in rattan chairs in our Club.
In the evening the alarm lasted from 10 PM to 6 AM, and we heard many heavy bombs dropped in the surrounding area. At about 1 AM I saw a red twinkling star, which appeared to be an airplane. It moved to Takalar at a high rate of speed, and a moment later we heard a bomb explode. There were three separate bombing raids at different points outside the camp. The distances varied from 3 to 9 km. Three searchlights moved briefly through the skies in vain.
The night guards don’t have it easy, they cannot sleep a wink and continually pass on messages from the commandant. When he calls: “Hai!” the alarm is spread by mouth. A moment later an airplane engine is heard and he repeats: “Hai!” and Valderpoort gives the go ahead for the real alarm. The guards go into the shelters; the airplane flies over, drops its bombs, at a distance or close by, and disappears. The caution sign is given, and this goes on all night long. The commandant went to bed at 4 AM, and when Valderpoort asked him if the all clear could be sounded so that the guards could go to bed, he swore at her in Japanese.
Joustra: One night something unusual happened again. The pastor and I were talking quietly when he heard the sound of an airplane high up. Suddenly we heard a terrifying whistling noise. The pastor dove into the trench, but I had no time and fell flat on my stomach. Suddenly I felt two hands around my ankles and I was dragged over the ground into the trench. I got stuck halfway down the ladder and strained my ears. The whistling went right over us and then a soft thud. It was very quiet. After several minutes I got up and, with the pastor behind me, I crawled back up. We couldn’t hear anything and we decided to investigate what it was that had fallen out of the sky. We walked past the church building and a few shelters, where everything was calm, and came to a 1 ½ meter wide channel which drained the latrines of complex A and B. The channel was about 1 meter deep with a small trickle of water at the bottom. To my amazement I noticed several people sitting in the channel with their backs to the wall. They wanted to sit out the alarm here instead of going into the covered shelters. They too had heard the peculiar sound that we had heard and stayed motionless. The pastor and I went to look for the object and found an empty beer bottle buried a few centimeters in the ground. We carefully removed it and decided to show it to Jamadji. We met him on the way to the Post; he too had heard the weird noise and was going to see what it could have been. He took us to his quarters where he lit a lantern, since no airplane noise was heard. The neck of the bottle was filled with the soft red soil of the area where it fell. Jamadji pushed the soil in with a stick and we immediately smelled beer. We understood that the bottle had been ditched after it was empty. Jamdji became angry and said that that was rude. I asked him what he meant. He answered that the young people up there were rude. Here are the women who have hardly enough to eat and they eat and drink as much as they want. Then they throw that which they don’t need overboard. They do it on a regular basis because bottles have been found in the nearby area, but most of them broke on impact.
The next morning someone from barrack 7 approached me excitedly with a small can of jam. She had found it behind complex B close to the drain. The news spread like wildfire that ‘the rude boys up above’ had not only dropped a beer bottle, but also a can of jam. People enthusiastically started to search for more evidence. But I had to disappoint them, because the crumpled label on the can carried Dutch lettering. It seemed that it had dropped out of a backpack that one of the women had carried with her when she sought shelter in the drain.
Stolk: I remember this tension filled period very well, when we had to go into shelters almost every night. The drain was preferred over the stuffy closed off shelters, because I could see the clear tropical sky above. My back was against a dirt wall and my feet stretched against the opposite wall, but I didn’t realize that it was a sewer drain. Ugh!
Voskuil: June 17, 1945. Again we heard bombs at 1 PM, but no alarm was given. At 6 PM we heard bombs repeatedly. At 9.30 PM the alarm rang, but a short while later the all clear was given. It stayed quiet for the rest of this 13th night. For part of the night we slept outside, but later on in the barracks. We finally got our much needed rest.
The first night guard came on, but the commandant ordered them not to ring the alarm bell and barrack guards were not needed. The morning porridge would be prepared at 4 AM as usual.
Yet the commandant still expects a lot more. Plans are made for a stone building on top of the underground shelter that is topped by several meters of dirt. Bamboo sticks show the width and height of the walls, and the coolies have started with the masonry. A ridiculing song is heard: “I rented a house with a small garden…”
The beer bottle showed that it was the property of the Richmond Brewing Company.
Tuesday, June 19, 1945. We had a peaceful night; the guards were not called on so they could rest too.
The commandant put a lot of effort into his shelter. From a practical viewpoint
the shelter is for his benefit only. Daantje and the tailor neve
His erstwhile dog apparently belonged to a patrol unit in the neighborhood. That’s why he knew the commandant so well, and ran away on that first day when he was found in the rice fields. Yesterday the commandant talked to the members of the patrol unit outside the camp. They wore helmets and neck protection. Yesterday too, a few Japs sauntered on the road. That’s why the dog must be tied down by the pigpens.
Joustra is given an office next to Valderpoort’s.
A discussion between Jamadji and Valderpoort was interrupted twice by the sound of airplane engines. Both times he donned his cap and went to the Post. Then we heard machine gun fire and bombs close by. The commandant yelled to us to get down and to the coolies who worked on the stone building to get back.
Awhile later we saw small white clouds in the sky. It had to be a fighter who was briefly in the sky to confront the Americans and never reached his goal.
Chabot: 6/19/45. As sudden as the bombings of the surrounding area started they also stopped just as suddenly. We heard almost no airplanes for 3 weeks until, all of a sudden, 14 days ago we heard the first airplanes at 8.30 PM until 5 AM. Again every 1/2 hour bombs were dropped.
The commandant sounded the alarm but allowed us to return to the barracks. Together with several others I stayed outside, we didn’t get much rest. The next evening the same thing happened, but this time we stayed in the shelters. Thank goodness that I occupied a spot that was not covered by tree trunks. Apparently the commandant allowed us to return to the barracks on that first night because he felt sorry for us, even although it caused him a lot of anxiety.
For 13 more nights we endured the same regimen, the alarm sounded at 9.30 PM, and at about 2 AM he allowed us to return to the barracks, but we had to stay alert. This didn’t bother the airplanes because they calmly dropped a bomb every 30 minutes until dawn. Before al this happened, 2 hour long air raids were conducted over Makassar, usually on clear, moonlit nights. Now the planes do their work in the dark and drop a bomb one at the time in the immediate neighborhood. When we counted the time that passed between the flash of light till the sound of the explosion, we didn’t count beyond seven, which meant that the bomb was dropped about 2 km away. The last few days we found shrapnel on our campgrounds.
The few white buildings, like the office and the hospital, were smeared with mud to camouflage them, but our Allies didn’t make any mistakes. The only thing that came down right in the middle of the camp, was an empty beer bottle, undamaged, with its neck buried in the ground.
Apparently this camp is surrounded by military facilities, maybe that’s why they feel it’s worth their time to bomb this area for 13 nights.
The camp people stayed well despite the obvious lack of sleep. The
shelters provided 1 ½ meter length per person. The children had ample room and
most of them slept through it all. It wasn’t that simple for the adults, most
of them slept on the outside edge of the shelter and ducked down when the plane
came ove
The crews started working half an hour later, at 9 AM. After 8 days we were given 4 days off. Only the kitchen and other necessary services had to continue working. On the 14th night everyone was outside, but the planes stayed at a distance, and this night everybody slept on their own bunks in the barracks.
Fortunately the bombing raids continued far away. We watched plumes of smoke in the distance.
The commandant spent most of these nights in his private reinforced concrete shelter. Yet it is hard to believe that this costly piece of work has been constructed solely for his safety.
Looking back on this period, it all seemed so unreal, even more so when all kinds of festivities took place. After having had dinner with about 100 people, the commandant thought that it would be a good idea to have the whole camp participate in a good dinner party. Groups of about 120, the size of a specific crew, partook of 7 dinner parties within a - week period where each branch of service was treated to dinner and entertainment. The whole camp participated in the entertainment field; this proved to be a huge success. The reaction of the people was pure ecstasy.
When the planes started to come over at 9 PM, the people had already started dinner at 6 PM and the entertainment was put on immediately after so nobody would miss anything. They were ready for the shelters when the planes arrived.
That is all behind us but we still have our weekly Club night. Each person can go to the Club once a week and sit in an easy chair made of rattan with a cup of coffee a cookie and sometimes a cigarette. Kampili is turning into a resort, it is unthinkable to live without Kampili!
Seth Paul: On the 19th of June an aerial fight took place over Makassar.
The Allies appear more and more in the sky. They are clearly visible when a scout appears, or fly in formation to some distant target. Sometimes the clouds hide the planes so that only the drone of the engines can be heard. Because of the many rumors (some of them are imagined) we realized that the Allies are making progress. The assumed distance of the P-38’s strengthens our beliefs that their base is not so far off. The defending forces of the Japanese air force are of no significance.
Voskuil: Wednesday, June 20, 1945. This morning at 9.30 AM the sounds of Jap planes, a short while later Americans. Alarm! All of us dive into our shelters, then we hear machine gun fire; the Japs fire on the Americans who calmly fly on, calmly circle around, calmly scout, and then disappear….
During the alarm a sports car raced into our compound. Later the 2 visitors talked with the commandant for some time, and the clock was set back 15 minutes.
During the night 5 white curtains, which belong to the office of the commandant, were stolen out of a washtub outside by the nun’s barrack. The complex leaders are warned to be on the look out for the curtains. They are nowhere to be found and Valderpoort reports the theft to the commandant in the afternoon. She starts to tell him that she has bad news, which startles him. She tells him that she is embarrassed to tell him that a theft was committed. He told her that she had no need to be embarrassed, but she countered that the thief belonged to her people. He reassures her that she need not be embarrassed, but she insists on being embarrassed.
A whistle has replaced the evening bell, because people think that the alarm is sounded when they hear the bell.
Mrs. Groot wants to get acquainted with all services. She spent 3 days pumping water, 3 days stamping rice into flour, which sprained her wrist, 3 days gardening, and Monday she wants to spend 3 days in the pigpens.
Seth Paul: It didn’t happen often that the Allied planes were attacked by Zero’s, but this was the case on June the 20th when the Japanese started a fight with the Allies South East of our camp.
Voskuil: Thursday, June 21, 1945. The 3rd day of air raid alarms after a restful night. An American bombed the airfield behind us, causing great fires. Two other Americans chased the Jap who only felt safe over our camp, but a while later he disappeared in a Southeasterly direction where we witnessed large columns of smoke later.
In the afternoon high-ranking visitors arrived. The commandant passed the office of Valderpoort which is always open till 3.30 PM. This time it was closed at 3.45. Pity.
At 8.15 PM we heard the alarm outside the camp followed by our bell. It wasn’t until midnight that the all clear was sounded. They came over countless times and they dropped bombs repeatedly.
Seth Paul: The Allies are stepping up their wa
Voskuil: Friday, June 22, 1945. At 9.30 PM the alarm sounded, it lasted to 11 PM. We witnessed an aerial combat and watched how two American planes were divebombed by a Zero. We expected to see a collision, but the Zero broke the attack off and returned to his base. A while later the Americans were above a Zero, we heard a bang, then a huge column of fire which gradually petered out and ended in a ball. A black column of smoke remained in the air…the Jap plane was shot down. The pilot had bailed out and drifted off like a cloud. The American circled a few times and we wondered if he was hit, but then he climbed to a higher altitude and regally left.
We watched 2 Americans and a fighter, and heard them bombard the airfield behind us. It seemed that they hit their targets, thick clouds of smoke betrayed their success.
The commandant stood on the roof of the women’s hospital, the tailor on top of the new building; they could see everything before we did. We looked in the direction where their faces were turned and saw it all ourselves.
The commandant asked how many more shelters were needed so that everyone could lie down. Complex B needed additional shelter space for 100 people. All forces were combined to make the shelters, even during the alarm.
At 12.30 PM alarm, 4 Lockheed’s flew low over the airfield and machine-gunned their target. The all clear is sounded, then 2 Japs were high in the air and the Americans were at a lower altitude. We live from minute to minute and realize that it is a very taxing business to be freed. In between we saw the commandant laugh; he seemed to have fun as if there was nothing going on. Was he trying to save face?
Seth Paul: June 22. In the morning an attack by 5 Liberators took place. Courageously a Japanese Zero tried to attack them above and underneath them. It seemed to be a fight between a lap dog and shepherds. At the end of his rope the Zero attacked the tail gunner, machine guns were unleashed on both sides, but the Jap lost and he left his burning aircraft with a parachute.
Cheers went up in the camp, of course. In retrospect you realize that a life had been extended.
Van Breugel: Although the alarm bell had rung we watched the American airplanes, because they didn’t fly over our camp. A small Japanese plane attacked the large ones; he literally danced around them like a gnat around bumble bees. The Americans flew calmly on and the Jap machine-gunned his heart out. In the end he lost and his plane crashed in a ball of fire. He sacrificed himself in this uneven fight. Even we could foretell the outcome. Good grief, he probably was a young man full of idealism.
His highest-ranking boss, Emperor Hirohito, is still alive in 1985 and entertains our Dutch prime minister and his wife to a lunch in his imperial palace in Japan. That is the practical side of life.
Seth Paul: In the afternoon 4 P-38’s launched another attack on the airfield back of our camp. They flew so low that we lost sight of them. It seemed like they had landed, but that was impossible. Although landing, taxiing around, and firing on everything wouldn’t be a bad idea, or so my imagination tells me. Suddenly they appeared from behind the trees and flew off in a Northerly direction. All this happened at 12.15 PM. In the evening the Allies returned and dropped a few bombs. It wasn’t worth it…. but the alarm lasted from 10 PM to 3.30 AM. Oh well, you get used to it! The sleeping, the waking, and going back to sleep in a dry ditch.
The Allied visits seemed endless. You begin to wonder if the Japs would consider it worthwhile to repair the damage. Or if there were any worthwhile targets left, but apparently there was enough reason to continue the visits.
Jamadji didn’t get excited anymore. Not all shelters were covered with tree trunks and they gaped like open wounds in the red earth of our camp. He himself had a reinforced concrete bunker next to the Post and in front of the hospital. He knew what it was all about, because the invincible Japan had been KO’d for umpteenth time.
Voskuil: Saturday, June 23, 1945. Alarm during the night, it lasted from 10 PM to 4 AM. This was the second night that a different type airplane was in the sky, a two-engine job. Several bombs were dropped in the direction of the airfield.
The commandant summoned Els, she is one of the guards and the shelter she is in charge of made too much noise.
Announcement in the book: no glee or cheering is allowed during aerial combat. Noise bothers the commandant. Yesterday a birthday song was sung in barrack 8 or 9, but the commandant thought that fun was made of the crashed airplane.
This morning alarm, 3 Lockheed’s appeared, large fires at the airfield could be seen, but they were soon put out.
Yesterday morning the Japs flew straight over our camp, the Americans flew all around us.
Last night, immediately after the performance in the church building, the alarm lasted from 10 PM to4 AM. Circling airplanes dropped bombs here and there while they looked for a target.
The shelter of the commandant has become unbearably hot because of the wall of stones that has been erected around it. Every few minutes they have to come out for a breath of fresh air. To ten Boom and Carry van Lochem are looking for another shelter.
Seth Paul: On the 23rd of June three Liberators dropped several bombs on the airfield behind us. They left white stripes at an oblique angle. A while later they were involved in a serious gun battle. They returned in the evening and dropped bombs far away from us. All things considered the alarm phases lasted from 10 PM to 4 AM. This has become routine business.
Voskuil: Sunday, June 24, 1945. According to a prediction, this date was supposed to be the date of the landing! Last night the alarm sounded at 11 AM, 4 Lockheed’s bombed in the area. In the evening alarm from 8 PM to 2 AM. This night the alarm lasted from midnight to 1 AM, and the all clear was given, but suddenly the alarm was on again. Many were still in their barracks, but the reverend came by and told everybody to wake up and get out. Not everybody did.
Seth Paul: On the 24th of June at 10.30 AM three Liberators bombarded the airfield behind us with five bombs. Not too many for such large airplanes, right? But in the evening they dropped pamphlets that we found the next day. They showed the Jap as a gorilla who backed down in the face of the Allies.
Voskuil: Monday, June 1945. Three Lockheed’s flew low over our camp, we could see the pilots and we waived at them. We could do it since the commandant went to Makassar. Then something fell out of the plane, a torpedo like object that landed near the pig pens, it was an empty fuel tank, more than 2 meters long. Something was written on it: Tenth Flight Brigade, 165 Gallon, 146 lbs., Aromatic Benzine, and in pencil Lockheed.
The reverend, who was quick, screwed off the top, a nice souvenir. The tailor was scared stiff because he hadn’t seen the planes, and when he did see them he flew off his post on the roof and sounded the alarm, terribly late.
A while later, after the tank had dropped, he resumed his watch on top of the building. It seemed as if his head was separated from his neck, his body faced in the direction of the sea, but his head turned in all directions.
This afternoon a pamphlet was found near the pigpen, and another one by Van Diejen. The pamphlets showed the globe with Japan in the middle, in flames. At the edge planes which attack Japan are pictured, and then the flags of America, England, Holland, Australia, and China.
Warnings were issued to the Indonesians to choose our side and not to start to loot when the Japs retreat, because those that are caught will be severely dealt with. The Japs will be driven out everywhere, their fleet has been just about destroyed, and they cannot get anymore supplies.
When the gas tank fell this morning, some of us thought that it was a bomb and fell flat on the ground. But Valderpoort said that a bomb makes a whistling sound when it passes over. On the way down a bomb is first caught in the vortex of the plane and then drops straight down. These particular Lockheed’s carried blue circles on their wings.
The commandant returned at 7 PM from Makassar.
In the evening the alarm lasted from 8 PM to midnight. After we heard the sounds of two bombs that were dropped, a Japanese fighter with his lights on came in low over our camp at 11.30 PM. He searched for the airfield that signaled to him, but every time he wanted to land an American approached. The commandant ordered that everyone had to go to the shelters, because there was a chance that aerial combat might develop. But the Jap finally landed.
We spent the nights outside for three weeks now; it would seem unusual to spend a night in our own beds.
The pamphlets have been turned over by Valderpoort to Jamadji after she made copies of them.
A while ago we were startled when someone yelled ‘pamphlets’. I too ran behind the latrines, straight through the banana plantation, but it was a leaf instead!
On the 30th of June an orange pamphlet was dropped in Kampili on the evening of the 29th birthday of Prince Bernard. It was the first sign of life from the outside world and gave us a lot of encouragement.
On the front it showed a photograph of Queen Wilhelmina getting off a plane while an adjutant and Prince Bernard assisting her. Above the photo the royal coat of arms is shown, and at the bottom, printed in Malay, it reads in capital letters that the Queen has returned to her country. Holland is free and the Queen is back on her throne. The Dutch and the Indonesians celebrate this event with great joy all over the world. With the help of the Allies, the Netherlands, and free Indonesia will go full speed ahead to free occupied lands, by chasing off ‘Si Kate’. Rejoice, people of Indonesia, don’t be afraid. Indonesia must rise again.
Joustra: More and more planes could be observed in the air, not
only at night but also during the day. As soon as the Allied bombers took off
in the direction of Makassar we could hear the anti aircraft guns. We could
even see the flak explode into irregular stars high up in the sky. The bomb
explosions were very audible. After a lull of several months, the aerial
maneuvers increased markedly. It was a very tense and tiring period for all of
us. We didn’t get enough sleep because of our nightly excursions into the shelters,
and ou
One day, just before school was dismissed, we heard the drone of approaching planes. There was no time to sound the alarm, and we couldn’t reach the shelters in time, so the children dropped to the ground. The field in front of the school was covered with kids. From over the roof of the church building three large planes appeared and skimmed over the tops of the trees and the roofs. We could see the crews and I assume that they could see us too. While on the ground I watched them gain altitude quickly.
Suddenly one of them dropped a torpedo like object, which seemed to float down. It really scared me, because I immediately thought of a bomb, until I realized that a bomb would fall much faster. Then we heard a thud and nothing else. We all got up and quickly went to our barracks.
Later on Jamadji announced that a fuel tank had been ejected from one of the planes and had come down on a mango tree in the cassava field. The girls and boys who work in the fields usually take a break under that tree during the day. Therefore it was fortunate that the planes hadn’t come several hours earlier.
Some time later the coolies carried the tank outside the camp; it exuded a strong gasoline odor. Small amounts of gasoline were taken from the tank; they were a welcome addition to the apothecary of our camp. The metal of the tank also found several useful purposes.
Seth Paul: On the 25th of June the area of Mandai and the Sungguminasa were bombarded heavily. Three P-38’s appeared out of nowhere over our camp, about 100meter high. Everybody panicked and the situation became worse when one the planes released an empty fuel tank. It fell in the cassava garden next to the camp. We read the text on the tank: ‘Boston’ and ‘Sinclair’.
In the evening a plane passed over our camp at low altitude. It carried a red light and flew in the direction of the airfield behind us. The plane made a loud squeaking noise. Later another one appeared, also with a red light. But it disappeared in a southwesterly direction. Those had to be Japs, who only dared to fly under cover of darkness.
Pamphlets were dropped that same evening. The
alarm lasted from 9.30 PM to 2.30 AM. On this evening a luna
Of course we didn’t know it then, but on this day the Allies landed on Ternate.
Voskuil: Tuesday, June 26, 1945. On the night of the 25th to the 26th the moon was full, but it was partly obscured; it was only later that night that a full moon appeared.
Since yesterday Valderpoort has been ill with malaria. When the commandant asked me who was in the office this morning, I answered that Nooy did some typing.
At 11 AM the alarm sounded, there were 12 bombers in the air. Several bombs were dropped on the airfield behind us, and large fires broke out, which were soon put out. Looking seaward we watched a parachutist exit a smoking plane.
In the afternoon the commandant entered the office at 3.45 PM, Henny and I greeted him but he didn’t acknowledge us. He told me to call Mrs. Groot. I went to barrack no. 7 but she wasn’t there. So I went to the pigpens where I was told I could find her. I returned to the office where Jamadji was bawling out Marseille. The signal here was to watch out. He looked angry when I told him that Groot was at the pigpens. He yelled at me to get her, and I ran to the sties. She told me that she couldn’t come because she was working. I said that she had to because he was very impatient. She quickly washed her hands, feet, and legs and came with me. Just when we arrived the commandant got up and barked at Groot if she had arranged the barrack programs yet. She told him that she hadn’t, and he hissed at her ‘why not’. She responded that Mrs. Valderpoort was ill. He barked at her that that shouldn’t be a reason and that she better do it and quickly. Then he walked off without greeting. Groot and I sat down to catch our breath. Then Groot said resolute that she wasn’t going to do it and that she wanted him to dismiss her. She would go to see Valderpoort first. She returned with the announcement that there would be a meeting for all the barrack leaders at 5.30 PM to discuss a new program. All leaders were against the new proposal. I told Groot that I didn’t envy her, because she had a difficult time ahead of her.
During the meeting it was decided that Nanning, Klay, Luyendijk, and Groot would approach the commandant and ask him to name 18 instead of 14 barrack workers per 3 barracks. The commandant stands in the door of the Post, and when Groot begins to speak he snapped at her to leave, he didn’t want her to talk. He stood before them with balled up fists. This was not the right moment and they leave.
In the evening I sat with Molly in barrack no. 9. The children called out that a dog was under Aunt Molly’s bed, but she thought that they were joking. But the children convinced her that there really was a dog. We looked under the bed and, sure enough, there was a dog. We put our legs on the beds, the children wanted to approach the dog but we cautioned them not to do it. Jan Looye teased me that I was afraid of the dog, so I bent down and coaxed the dog out from under the bed. I told him that we didn’t know this dog so it would be prudent to be careful. The dog stuck out its head; it was brown with a white spot on the neck. Molly then said to leave him alone, but a while later the children called out that the dog had left.
Not 3 minutes later screams are heard: “A rabid dog!” It had attacked Nellie Filet who was on her way to the latrines. It had bitten her in the face and on the arm while she tried to protect herself. The blood gushed out of the wounds. Just then the alarm sounded and I went to the front of the barrack. When I got near barrack no. 11 there was no one around. Barrack no. 10 had closed its doors, but a fearful voice of Mrs. Corten asked if she could go to barrack no. 12. I told her that I was going to go to my barrack.
Arriving at barrack no. 11 I found the doors closed and scared voices
behind the doors. I got in through a slit with great difficulty. I heard that
the latrines of barrack no. 10 also had attacked Mrs. Tielman. When I passed
through the barrack I heard voices coming from the upper bunks, where everyone
had taken refuge in fear of the dog. Nobody made any attempt to go outside when
the alarm went off. Then Luyendijk entered, she had informed the commandant of
the situation and he told her to leave them be, but he wouldn’t be responsible
if something happened. We stayed in, the planes came over, and bombs fell close
by. Whoever felt that the tension became too great left for the shelters. The
commandant stood guard by the back door, then the reverend showed up, he called
fo
I thought that this was too good to be true, finally to be able to sleep our own beds! I slept like a log.
But during that night two more people were attacked by the rabid dog, Hoogeveen and Vreeden. Hoogeveen had struggled with the dog by the pigpens and was bitten on her arms and hands. Dahler stabbed the dog to death while Hoogeveen held it by the throat.
Daantje was sent to Makassar to get anti rabies serum and returned at 2
AM. Nelly Filet, Tielman, Hoogeveen, and Vreeden received an injection. Nelly
had a piece of flesh removed from her lip and cheek; Hoogeveen was treated with
nitric acid, and Vreeden lost a piece of he
Seth Paul: Things were humming on the 26th of June. At about noon six Liberators flew into the direction of Makassar, while another six bombed the airfield behind us. One Zero started to attack the Liberators but fled when three Lockheed Lightning’s showed up. It seems that the Zero pilots have a healthy respect for these fighters. Possibly because they have a capacity to hit their targets from a greater distance.
In the evening the airfield Limbung was given the ‘treatment’ again and some time later pamphlets were dropped.
Chabot: In the evening something very serious happened, a possibly rabid dog had attacked two adults. Because no lights were allowed during the alarm period, the victims were treated in a bombproof shelter. The wounds were cut out and the second Jap went to Makassar to get the anti rabies serum, he returned at 2 AM.
In the meantime three more people were bitten; two were bitten through their own fault, because they chose to grab the animal and kill it. Undoubtedly this was a great act of courage. It was typical that the commandant called these people outlandish and even refused to have them treated, but they eventual did receive the serum. These five still receive daily injections and live in a world of miserable uncertainty.
It seems that the purpose of the bombproof shelter was to treat the wounded during an aerial attack, for those that might have been hit by shrapnel.
Because of the presence of the rabid dog nobody ventured out during the alarm until the order came that everybody had to go to the shelters. We armed ourselves with brooms and sticks and headed for the shelters, where we barricaded the entrances.
As always, a highly charged Jamadji summoned the leaders of the barracks which housed those that refused to go into the shelters, and he even knocked one of them down, something which hadn’t happened in a long time. Then he punished the people of the barracks by not allowing them to go to the shelters during bombing raids. Even if the raid was a severe one they had to stay inside. That happened the next day during an especially relentless attack on the air base behind us. However, the following day the order was rescinded.
Maurenbrecher-Brain: At night we often had to visit the latrines, which was a creepy experience in itself. We had to cross an open aisle, and often we could hear hungry, feral dogs, that ran in groups through the camp, sometimes they were fighting. I know what it means to have your hair stand on end of fright.
I heard that a rabid dog entered the kitchen in broad daylight once. Everybody jumped on a bench or on the cooking platform. I don’t know what happened after that.
A boy at play kicked a cement bag and a dog jumped out and bit him in
the face and on his behind. The commandant ordered serum but it was too
late. A lady who stood up in an open
shelter during an alarm was bitten, when the dog came by. She wore her pigtails
over he
Another time a lady got out of bed and was bitten by a dog that was under her bed.
However, the worst came when a rabid dog started to attack the pigs. Two ladies who worked in the pigpens heard the noise while they were in their room, but stayed there, because in the dark there was little they could do. But Toos Hoogeveen had heard the commotion in her barrack, and came to the aid of the women and was attacked by the dog. While she tried to fend the dog off she managed to grab it by the throat. Annemarie Halewijn and Pop Dahler answered her cries for help and Annemarie hacked the animal to death. It was too late for Toos who had been bitten repeatedly.
When the commandant arrived he was furious with Toos, because she was not supposed to be at the pigpens and initially refused her the serum. While she was in the hospital she fought the disease with all her might but died a terrible death.
Stolk: As you see, everyone has her own version of these events. I don’t want to be partial and have accepted all accounts. Readers may have their own memories about specific episodes. And that is the purpose of this book: to assemble our memories.
Voskuil: Wednesday, June 27, 1945. This morning several pamphlets were found, one of them showed a gorilla like Jap with the notion that the strength of the beast had been broken. (I remember having seen this pamphlet.-OY) There was also a pink pamphlet with Chinese and Japanese characters. It was probably designed to break the morale of the Japanese soldiers. It stated that, within a radius of 360 km around Tokyo, no factory was left standing and that the supply of food supplies was a real problem.
Rumor: Java is free. The planes come from Darwin whence they attack the Indies and Japan.
Daantje went to Makssar to get a second dose of serum.
Three Japs arrived by truck to pick up 32 sewing machines from the sewing room.
Alarm at 11 AM, 12 bombers, fires on the airfield 10 km away.
Seth Paul: Not a day goes past that the airfield Limbung is not being attacked. The attack took place on the 27th of June from 10.45 AM to 12.30 PM. Mandai too got clobbered badly, twelve Liberator’s visited there.
Voskuil: So now we stay in the barracks during the alarm periods. The natives would say: “Oh well.”
Nine barracks were being “punished”, and at the same time those who were in the shelters and armed against possible attacks from dogs envied them. The women were more afraid of the dogs than the bombs.
This morning the commandant called from the roof of the hospital that the punishment still was in effect for the affected barracks until he would rescind it. That happened the same evening. Pity!
Later, when the commandant was asked to stamp coupons he snarled that he didn’t want to do it. When he saw Wieke Onvlee with coupons in her hand he said that he would never stamp coupons for barrack 11, and that the same barrack would not get anything from storage either. Wieke responded amiably and took off with the coupons.
The commandant said that 2 Consolidates (?-OY) were brought down, there were 8 men in each one and only 4 survived. He told Noor that there was only one man in a Lockheed, which surprised her. He angrily asked her if she didn’t believe him, and in one breath he offered her a cigarette, changing the subject abruptly. Later on he started to talk about the secret weapon of the Allies. But Noor dismissed this as nonsense. He had also told her that he felt sad when, after two years, we still didn’t trust him and wouldn’t follow his orders without question, such as getting out of the barracks. He does have medication against the bites of dogs, but he is helpless when a barrack would collapse.
A man is allowed to beat his wife, and she shouldn’t feel bad about it. Beating her is his right. A woman should be gentle and obedient, she has nothing to do with the war and she shouldn’t want to hold a rifle.
In the afternoon a few Jap officers arrived in a small bus accompanied by soldiers. They sat down in the Club, and at 3 PM, the hour of rest, the officers passed through barrack no. 5 and peered behind the curtains. At 3.15 PM they got back in the bus and disappeared in the direction of the dam. Relieving the guard?
In the evening the commandant called all barrack leaders together. He told them that, if we trusted him, he would stay on as our commandant until the Americans came. But if we didn’t trust him he could just as well and he wouldn’t have so many problems. All he wanted to do was eat and sleep. He was still think about stamping the coupons of barrack no. 11.
A while later he was lashing out at Marseille. Why didn’t he and 3 patients go into the shelter? Because they didn’t want to go. The commandant then roared: “ Don’t you have any command over them?” He then slapped Marseille around his ears, and when Daantje returned with the serum he was beaten too. We wondered why.
The commandant has a sore throat and sees to it that the entrance road sprayed with water at night. Two coolies cover the road to the Post with a water drum that hangs from a bamboo rod.
Yesterday I kept guard in the Ambon camp. The alarm lasted from 9 PM to 4 AM, and we heard many bombs explode. We were relieved from guard duty at 1.30 AM. Valderpoort chaired a meeting and Jamadji sent her home to sleep. He told her that she couldn’t last the way she was going, and he called Nanninga to replace her. Later the guards Dahler and Vreeden were called in to receive an injection in the shelter next to the Post. They needed to get 10 injections around the navel, very painful. Then nothing happened for 4 days, and then there was another lull for 9 days. June 28, 1945. The commandant talked to me while he had a toothbrush in his mouth. I told him politely that I couldn’t understand him, and he removed the toothbrush.
This morning at 8.30 AM the alarm sounded, but the usual raids were missed their from 11 AM to 11.30 AM.
This morning Jamadji walked through barrack no. 11 and sat down on my bed, even although I warned him that it could break because of his weight. But he ignored me and wanted to put a child on his lap, but the child refused. There he sat with a friendly grin, and we breathed a sigh of relief when he continued his walk. And I received my well-earned punishment, because I had told everybody that they should be glad that Jamadji didn’t like me, because they would otherwise see him more often.
I went to the office in the afternoon a bit earlier, almost as by
intuition. I saw that it wasn’t open so I got my key and unlocked the door.
Just then Jamadji came walking up, it was exactly 3.30 PM and it was time for
him to start to put his seal on coupons. He entered and sat down on a bench by
the board. He looked very friendly and I thought that this would be the chance
of my life. I approached him and asked him if I could ask a question. He gave
his permission and I told him that we all were very tired, but we would be less
tired if we could get more sugar. I told him that I had never asked for
anything, but that I asked this for the well being of the camp. I explained
that we received adequate sugar fo
Friday, June 29, 1945. I had guard duty till midnight, but everything stayed quiet after the pre alarm bell at 7.45 PM. Around midnight the all clear was sounded, but once we were in our barracks the planes returned and we could hear the bombardments going on. They kept the pressure on the airfield behind us. We suspect that underground hangars were made, because we remember the explosive sounds of a year ago, when the commandant told us that they themselves bombarded the airfield. We thought it was an excuse, and now it seems to be very plausible considering the fact that Jap planes continue to leave that airfield in spite of the many Allied bombardments.
It has been three weeks that we virtually lived in the shelters, and during the day we see people who take care of the bunkers almost tenderly. Digging a bit deeper so that the place becomes a bit more comfortable, throwing some anti ant powder around, sweeping the area, etc. You couldn’t leave mats in these shelters because snakes could hide under them. That is the way Van Galen was bitten, and the wound was cut out of her hand.
Today we have the day off, or so the commandant announced. He reluctantly placed the date on the board when the monthly program was written up. Each barrack received 8 liters of sugar that shall be put in the pudding later today, and Leo, the pigpen mascot was mixed in our fried rice. I experienced a brief feeling of regret when I remembered how Annemarie Halewijn pleaded for Leo’s life some time ago. I talked to Annemarie about it and asked her if she really did mind that Leo finally met his fate. She answered tiredly that she was tired of fighting for the pigs, and that it already had been decided that Tarzan would be used for the Queen’s birthday.
There is a rumor going around that a pile of pamphlets had been delivered with the Queen’s portrait, but I have not seen it yet.
This morning’s announcement: since cloth for floor mops is not available any more, sanitary napkins can not be made anymore. There is a request to turn in the mop cloths that were used to warm the tummies of ill children. (I remember these awfully tough sanitary napkins. They would chafe the inside of my thighs till they started to bleed.-OY) It was a miracle that we were not ordered to stop menstruating, because there are no more sanitary napkins.
Valderpoort’s request to increase the number of barrack workers from 14 to 18 has been granted. There are now 6 workers per barrack and the fierce opposition has melted away.
At 8.15 PM alarm, nothing happened for half an hour, alarm again, and we move to our shelters. A plane passes overhead at tree top level, we hear a hissing sound, we drop to the ground, see the light, then the explosion very close. The bomb had fallen hardly 1 km away.
Sister Van de Borne received a burn from the piece of shrapnel that we found later behind barrack 18. It was made of copper, very ragged edges, about 2 cm long. Everybody promised to enter the shelters faster than we had done before now. More bombs were dropped as the night went on, but none of them fell as close as that first one did.
Usually the commandant allows us to return to our barracks at 3 AM, he thinks that the greatest danger is past then. The planes would have found the locations of their targets and wouldn’t make a mistake anymore. At this time it has become obvious that the purpose of the bombproof shelter of the commandant is to treat medical emergencies. Marseille said that the bright lamplight would not betray our position when they worked in the concrete shelter.
Seth Paul: On the night of June the 29th a P-38 was busy. He aimed for a light close to the camp and the shrapnel was found in our camp.
Chabot: Just when the alarm was sounded I was at a 20meter distance from the shelter when we heard the hissing sound of a falling bomb. The idea, where would it come down? I don’t believe that anyone was standing, we automatically fell to the ground. Then a lightning flash and the certainty that it had not come down on my head. There was no time to count because the explosion was immediate. It had to come down less than half a kilometer away from us, and it had to be a lightweight bomb. All the shaky barracks were still standing, probably because the bamboo is rather resilient. Only one person received a small burn from a tiny shard.
Voskuil: Saturday, June 30, 1945. This morning the commandant tried to bum off a few flints from me. He thought that I had quite a few, but I told him that I had given them away some time ago, and he walked on.
He sat by the bell with Bellemee and Kuiper, something he usually does in the mornings.
In the afternoon he enters the office and he is angry that he was informed only today that Sister Van de Borne suffered a small burn. It is very small and she first thought that it was an ant bite, but this morning it appeared to be a burn that was caused by shrapnel.
Last week the commandant had his spectacles repaired by the reverend, but he was afraid that the glass would fall out. “When that happens I will be very unhappy,” he said. It did happen and now he walks around with only one piece of glass in his glasses, which gives him a dispirited look.
While the young were dancing in the church building the alarm rang. It lasted from 8.30 PM to 4 AM. Several times planes flew over and we heard the explosions of bombs, after which we observed fires along the sea which kept on burning for quite a while.
Seth Paul: On the 30th of June we didn’t notice any planes all day long, but in the evening the Allies started to bomb again. For the first time they used bombs which spread a bright light before they exploded. (Magnesium bombs?-OY) That same evening orange pamphlets were dropped that showed Queen Wilhelmina getting off an airplane aided by Prince Bernard and the pilot Parmentier. These pamphlets brought us the happy news that The Queen was back in Holland and that Holland was free. And that after having been occupied for five years.
After all it seems that we were lucky that Pearl Harbor wasn’t attacked until the end of 1941, right?
Chabot: At the end of this week we woke up on Saturday night and Sunday morning with the news that the Queen had returned to Holland. Orange pamphlets showed a portrait of the Queen getting off an airplane; Holland was free! Finally, we can be absolutely certain. It was written in Malay, (alas, no date). This pamphlet, together with three others, which had arrived earlier, was translated and typed in the office. While we read them we must remember that they were actually dropped for the benefit of the natives, they are a bit too propagandistic for us. This remains to be a curious period, how much longer until we can leave this place?
Joustra: Towards the end of June 1945, something extraordinary happened again. There was no clear starry sky. Someone called my name softly; it was a nun from barrack no. 1. She had something in her hand that she wanted to give to me. From her shelter she had gone to the latrines and when she returned she found several pieces of paper in a bush she passed. She knew that they hadn’t been there a moment before, and at that time no plane had come over. I took the papers and told her that sometimes pamphlets were dropped somewhere else and that the air currents pushed them over our camp after some time. We had not heard any air plane sounds that night. The Father and I were very eager to discover the contents of the pamphlets and we devised a plan to read them as fast as we could. The Father suggested that we enter the very last house where he sometimes took confession in one of the small rooms. That particular room could be closed off pretty well so that no light could escape. He had a flashlight.
I accepted his ideas and both of us sneaked unseen, or so we thought, to the small house. In so doing we passed a rather deep hollow where several of my barrack mates were sleeping. The next day Bets told me that she had seen two shadowy figures pass their shelter. She thought that the Father could have been one of them, but she couldn’t tell who the second one was. She had not seen them come back. This meant that there is almost nothing in the camp that can be kept secret.
As soon as we had reached the confession chamber I pulled out the second drawer of the typing table and deposited the pamphlets in it. The Father then knelt down and pointed his flashlight towards the papers. I stood over him and spread out my skirt over his head to keep the light from escaping. When the Father turned on the light he read that the Queen had returned to Holland. He turned off the light and I took his place, pulling my skirt over my own head and reading the news by the flashlight. I saw an orange paper, the picture of the Queen, descending the stairs of an airplane. The printing was done in black. On her right was a man in uniform and on the left Prince Bernard.
Now we knew enough and both of us returned to our places by the shelter. We decided to pass along the good news as fast as we could and in the meantime we cautioned everyone to keep quiet, lest Jamadji would notice that something unusual was going on.
The pastor, who could move freely in complex A, took the pamphlet back to the nuns, and on the way he gave each shelter the good news. Then he informed Marseille and the reverend Spreeuwenberg so that complex B and C heard the news in the shortest possible time.
The following day many more pamphlets were found, and Jamadji ordered that they be turned in and burned by Daantje. It was a foregone conclusion that most of them found their way into the barracks. Unfortunately, most of them went up in flames several weeks later when the Allies bombed Kampili.
Van Breugel: Here I was in possession of an almost full oatmeal can of sugar. I managed to do that because I “sold” something, I forgot what it was, but I was rich!
But today and the following day, on the 29th and 30th of June, the birthday of Prince Bernard, planes came in low over the camp and the alarm sounded. But nothing happened. We exited our shelters like rats coming out of their holes in the dark. We shuffled around a bit and suddenly someone screamed: “The Queen is under the bell!” Now what? The ship’s bell hung on a piece of rope in front of the dining hall, and signaled our meals and the alarms.
We all thought that someone had gone crazy. Of course that did happen so now and then, whenever they couldn’t take it anymore. But it really was true! Orange pamphlets were dropped with the picture of Queen Wilhelmina while she gets off an airplane, back on Dutch soil. Everyone went crazy trying to find one of the papers. Many went outside the camp to find one, and those that became a proud owner were to be envied. I didn’t have one, alas.
Then, the next day, I got the idea to exchange my sugar for one of the pamphlets and, voila, someone took me up on it. I have that pamphlet to this day. Our graceful queen is back in the land of water. Holland has risen.
BOLONG/Welleman: 6/6/45. The climate is awful, especially when it has rained for several days at a time. Once you wash your clothes they never dry.
6/7/45. But today the sun was out which made everything all right again. The food is and stays bad, only the amount we get is OK. There was nothing to do at the inn, and I joined the demolition crew. I was made a member of the hauling crew, that way you get a chance to get out of the camp. The buildings that are being demolished are in the next canyon. The Japs feel that there isn’t enough cover, which means that we could be seen easier from the air. Or maybe the soil is a bit too much like a morass.
6/9/45. Reveille was sounded at 6.30 AM this morning. It was pitch dark and a cool 15C or 16C. At 7 AM roll call was held on the road above, then 5 minutes of exercise after which we had breakfast, rice and wild greens. From 8.30 AM to 11.30 AM we worked, then a bit of lunch, usually a watery rice pap or corn. Break till 2 PM and then work until 5 PM. Dinner and roll call at 6.30 PM in bed. The day is gone and we can start another night. Fortunately I sleep well. I place my feet in my laundry bag, that is wrapped in additional cloth, the rest of my body is covered with an old robe and a sheet I borrowed from Lindner. I also wear a small white coat. The rest of my night wear consists out of socks, underwear, long white pants, a T-shirt, and some kind of other shirt. I am glad that I still own a few things, I really need them.
The barracks in which we live are built on footings, because of the spongy ground. There are wooden sticks in the center of the building, and a balustrade on either side. Wild grasses are intermingled with rattan to create the outer walls. Everything is cold, damp, and dark.
We still don’t have coffee, fish, meat, oil, etc. No, there isn’t much to cheer about, but I feel very well.
6/12/45. There is rice for tomorrow, but if supplies are held up much longer we won’t have any food pretty soon. There is absolutely nothing to be had in the immediate environment. The weather is passable and I am getting used to the cool temperatures.
6/17/45. It is a beautiful sunny Sunday. I feel that the end must be near, maybe we’ll be together at Christmas.
The food situation has not changed. We get about 300 grams of rice a day with some wild vegetables. One of the greens tastes a little like parsley. So now and then we get a small spoon of mung beans, and a little eggplant, and a tiny bit of onion. We get more coffee now too. But we get skinnier by the day, and to do a good day of work in this climate is unthinkable. We are healthy but have no energy.
One thing I do well is laundering and repairing my clothes. The chill doesn’t bother me very much. Nippon promised blankets to those who don’t have any, but it will be a long wait; just like all the other times, when items that were promised long ago never came.
But I do believe that they have their own problems, and therefore it isn’t unusual for us to share in their misery. However, this is a very unpleasant situation.
During all those years it wouldn’t have been an ideal situation in Holland either, and I believe that, compared with our needs, we were better off after all.
All in all, Bodjo wasn’t such a bad camp since we could do some of our own cooking. But that is impossibility here. We don’t get any tobacco either. Until now I could smoke a few pipes a day, but those days are gone. Oh well, that’s not the worst thing that could happen, although it would be a pick-me-up, smoking a pipe after dinner.
I am very curious to know how you are doing. I sincerely hope that you are doing much better than we are, because you have plenty of problems too.
6/20/45. We live from day to day, how pleasant it would be if we had enough to eat, but our diet hasn’t changed, and we get weaker and weaker. Yesterday I went along with 6 men to haul a few small sacks of rice from the inn in Balokan. The weather was great, but the nights are very cold. We will have some rice for tomorrow morning, then we’ll find out what else we can get. But… our spirits are high.
6/26/45. It was exactly 4 weeks ago that 1 buffalo was butchered for the first time. Our rations have increased somewhat, 22 gram of rice and 250 grams of corn a day. So now and then we get mung beans, and yesterday, for the first time, some hot peppers. From time to time we get some popped corn, if we can get a hold of some to fill our stomachs. Things are looking up a bit.
The weather is also cooperating. We are filled with hope; it won’t last long anymore.
6/29/45. This afternoon another 950 kg of rice arrived. All together we have an 8-day supply of rice and corn. The Toradja’s (native people of SW Celebes-OY) haul the rice to our camp with small pack horses. This evening we ate the last bit of the buffalo, its skin. Nothing went to waste of this animal. We are now looking for the next buffalo.
Because of the birthday of Prince Bernard we had the afternoon off. Brother cobbler repaired my high button shoes. He is a War I veteran, a native German, who had been naturalized as an American. Father Bedeaux fixed my pipe with a new head, a strong cup of coffee, everything is OK.
I tolerate the corn meals, which are enhanced with eggplant so now and then, very well, but I lost a filling out of one of my molars. I usually have a good appetite, even the slightest hint of hot relish, sambal, and vegetables, served with rice or corn, makes us happy as children.
Our first deceased person had been buried several weeks ago. He was Father Koning who lost his mind. Several others are lost too, this long imprisonment has begun to take its toll.
When will I see you again? It can’t last much longer. We must hold on!
MAKASSAR/Booy: 6/1/45. With this new month, there is a new rumor. Supposedly radio Makassar announced landings on Menado and Balikpapan
Yesterday evening I returned at 9.30 PM from the Chinese camp. We had been loading wood onto trucks and were waiting to return. It was pitch dark; you couldn’t see or hear another living thing. We passed the time listening to Thommie Moore who regaled us with his stories as a tramp in New York.
When I came home I was treated to a delicious piece of rabbit. This time the rabbit had been a pet of the doctors, they would never forgive me if they ever found out. Since no one showed any feelings of guilt about the rabbit, I can disclose the names of my dinner mates: civil engineer Hylkema, director of the nickel mine on Malili, the Honorable judge Vermolen, my roommate, and Mr. Hardonk, inspector 1st class of communications. Feelings of prejudice have fallen by the wayside, I suspect that not many pet rabbits survived the end of the war in Holland either. I would love to know what’s going on in the world today, politically and geographically. I am very curious how this peace will affect Europe. I have thousands of questions that must stay unanswered for the time being.
6/3/45. Alas, the latest rumors cannot be confirmed. Today our work on the air raid shelters is finished. Today we’ll make 31 doors for the entrances. The soil movers are doing a good job and the crews, who had the afternoon off because of Sunday, will have to join in again. Just now the alarm sounded 5 times, and I get into a shelter.
6/5/45. The alarms don’t amount to much anymore, so now and then a plane passes over high in the sky, that’s all. Presently there are hundreds of horses in Makassar; almost every Jap owns one. There are 14 of them in our camp; all of them have the letters TA on their flanks. We have started to make small, light carriages and even wooden wheels for public transportation vehicles. The gents apparently decided to retreat into the mountains and make a stand against the Allies there. That’s why they are making thousands of hand grenades; the mortars are made of old lantern posts. Everything points to an attack that is not forthcoming right away.
All things are not all right in the Middle East; the Arabs are holding a conference in Cairo. Asia Minor will also pose the necessary problems for the Allies.
6/7/45. The last 2 nights something new occurred in the skies over Makassar. An Allied plane appears somewhere around 10 PM and disappears at 5 AM. The first alarm signals that we have to crawl into our cages like obedient dogs, the temperature in the shelters is very hot. Then the Jap gets tired of it all and then the signal is given to be alert, but they don’t have to be at their posts. So now and then the plane drops a bomb. Out of boredom? Anyway, we still don’t suffer from a shortage of sleep.
Yesterday afternoon we were ordered to make 30 wooden boxes ASAP. The lids had 4 holes in it. First we thought that they would hold homing pigeons, but a South African told us that the Italians used the same kind of boxes for land mines, 4 wires would lead through the holes to a mine. This just might be the right solution. We now have to make and do things that don’t make any sense, I call these ‘the end of the war jobs’.
6/8/45. Our nightly visitor didn’t let us wait for him this night either.
Today we started making about 200 grappling irons, no idea what these are for.
Rumor has it that 120,000 Jerry’s were sent back home from Holland carrying a one month supply of food. Then 1,000,000 must remain in the formerly occupied areas to help rebuild the countries; this would take 7 years. I don’t think that this is realistic, because psychologically this would be all wrong, I hope that hate won’t dictate the law.
6/9/45. Last night the nightly visitor came calling until 4 AM, but the alarm didn’t go off.
6/10/45. This Sunday we had half the day off. A buffalo was butchered also so that we had a bit of meat this evening. According to the Jap they’re still fighting on Tarakan.
6/12/45. Last night our nightly visitor made a pest of himself. He flew in tight circles around and over Makassar from 9 PM to 2 AM. We didn’t bother to blow out the lights in the camp. After 2 AM he dropped a few bombs on Makassar and some pamphlets. We were not allowed to get out of the shelters until the Japs had searched the whole camp. This morning we couldn’t enter the work area until the guards had searched everything thoroughly. Most of the time they get all of them all except for the last one, but this time they even found that one.
All in all these are restless nights, you even hear the planes in your sleep and you never know where or when they are going to lay their ‘eggs’.
6/13/45. This morning 13 others and I started to build another
shelter for the Japs. The frame of an old Ford V8 was used as a basic form,
first a layer of bricks was put down, over that a concrete layer, and dirt will
cove
Jobs outside the camp time go faster.
Last night we had 3 visitors, they made a real nuisance of themselves, because they continually dropped bombs on the southeast side of Makassar. Except for the alert signal, no alarm was given.
6/15/45. Last night another rain of pamphlets took place. This time the Japs made a thorough search all night long. However, they didn’t find all of them, 15 minutes after the Japs left, certain parties had taken possession of several. There were 3 kinds of pamphlets. The first one had one side covered with a photograph of 2 Hei Ho soldiers. These were ‘forced’ volunteers for the Japs, that had been captured by the English in Burma and who looked miserable. The other side showed how the Hei Ho were taken care of after their capture by the English. The second pamphlet contained warnings for the native population to stay away from military facilities, and the third one related how a landing was planned for the Jap motherland, and that freedom was getting close. There was no pamphlet that held any news about the present military situation, which means that we have to rely on the local paper which did not have any information about new Allied landings since the 29th of May.
6/16/45. Last night we visited our ‘crawl’ shelters 3 times. The gents were very annoying, but this morning their luck ran out. Two planes flew about 20 meters from the surface into the bay, and one of them, a B-24, was shot down. We watched him fly by; it was a real big boy. What a pity! There had been 3 Jap fighters in the air but it was not known how the plane was shot down, or what nationality it was.
During the day we continue to work during an alarm, that way we can
watch the aerial activities. We reacted with excitement when we saw him and
heard the many anti aircraft go into action at the same time. We rolled ove
During the last days 2 Americans died, Marron and Wilson; they now lost 30 of the original 168 Americans.
The Japs are still working in Fort Rotterdam; no one knows what they are doing there. Our worst suspicion is that they will lock us up in the Fort and then blow it up to get rid of us. It must not be pleasant for the Japs to let the same people go which they had abused for 3 ½ years and then have to take responsibility for their actions. The end of the existence of a prisoner of war is just as uncertain as the existence of a God.
6/17/45. It seems that the B-24 was downed by 20mm guns on 3 armored vehicles. Last night the planes were busy till 5 AM.
6/18/45. Yesterday I had wanted to write more but we spent more than an hour in the trenches, then we had to start working immediately.
I know a bit more about Fort Rotterdam, it is being used to store all kinds of ammunition, land mines, hand grenades, etc. It is a magnificent arsenal, because the roof isn’t complete. They don’t think that the Allies will waste any bombs on this structure. The bridges also have been made defensible, which shows that the Japs do expect some kind of problem. Aerial activities continue every day.
The air raid shelter for the family “Pietersen” is finished, and today I work on the Sagjodjo’s shelter.
The Italian ambassador made a request in Washington to have part of the Italian navy fight in the Southwest Pacific, to restore the prestige of the Italian people. It sounds great, I think that the Allies gave the Italians a broad hint.
6/19/45. The last 2 nights were peaceful, we did hear planes, but at a respectable distance. During the day the alarm sounded 3 or 4 times, but nothing that stirs the emotions has taken place.
6/21/45. This morning I started on another air raid shelter with
the frame of an old car. This time it is the Chevrolet of our camp commandant,
Captain Dieudonne. The funniest thing about building this shelter is that there
is not enough cement available, thus we must start with a wooden frame and the
car frame is not necessary. This one is going to be used by the “Pietersens” on
our camp terrain also. They don’t seem to have too many shelters. Behind their
houses they have two ponds with a lot of ducks. This has been a thorn in our
side for a long time, but this morning we grabbed a gorgeous drake and wrung
his neck; this evening the four of us shared a delicious roast duck. We must
build up ou
Our work periods have been lengthened twice by ½ hour. Now we work from noon to 6 PM. Apparently they want those hand grenades as soon as possible. We don’t care because they won’t help their cause one bit.
This morning at about 10 AM 2 bombers dropped a sizable load South East from here, probably on the airfield where their fighters are based, about 30 km. from here. And life goes on, how much longer will we have to live like this?
They don’t come around at night anymore, for many of us it is a downer, because we all hoped that this would signal the beginning of the end.
Summer started in Europe; I hope that all of you back home will enjoy it after all the misery you had to endure.
Even here in this miserable camp I am glad to be alive.
622/45. This morning the alarm lasted for 3 hours. The first two hours took place during our work, so that didn’t bother us much, but the next hour took place during our rest period and we had to enter the shelters. That wasn’t very pleasant. A lot of bombs were dropped, but they could just as well have been cases of beer.
6/23/45. Yesterday evening it was party time for the “Pietersens”, it was promotion time for some of the lesser ‘gods’. This morning everyone was still in a stupor. During the party bombs fell on the usual South East, a reprisal took place at 11 AM today when 2 double engine Jap fighters attacked the 3 bombers courageously. The result was inconclusive.
This morning we started a 3rd shelter, this time it is not as nice looking because it is supposed to be for the ordinary Japs.
6/24/45. Finally, we have half a day off because it’s Sunday. The rumor that a buffalo would be butchered was not true.
6/26/45. It is now Tuesday morning 7.30 AM. Yesterday afternoon I had to fall in with 13 others and went into the city by truck to pick up a cannon. It was a monstrous thing that looked like the cannon in the Gleich circus from which a man was shot into the air. It was placed in front of the house of the Sutadjo. We wonder why it was put there.
Yesterday morning a lot of bombs were dropped. We counted 13 series of bombers North East of town; at the same time 2 P-38’s flew right over our camp at an altitude of 80 meters. This was the first time that I could distinguish the American star on a plane, it was magnificent.
During the night we observed a luna
6/27/45. This morning it seems as if a war is being waged around Makassar. Since 10.30 AM bombs are falling in the N. E. and S. E. parts of town. As I write a series of bombs fall in the North side of town and I can hear heavy machine gun fire from the sea.
The alarm only signaled an alert so that I can keep on writing while enjoying a cup of coffee and a cigarette that was hand rolled in drawing paper. There goes another load of bombs.
A lot of bombs fell during the night; however, I didn’t hear it for there was no alarm. Just now the all clear signal is given. They probably misjudged the arrival of the expected bombers and bombs.
According to the papers a landing on Balikpapan has not taken place yet, although the Allies have been in position for 7 days. But landings did take place on Labuan in the Bay of Brunei, and on Miri in Serawak. They are taking their time and move in the direction of Singapore.
6/28/45. The battle on Okinawa has been decisive.
Before we marched off this morning a Dutch recruit-soldier was badly beaten. He was guilty of having told a Jap that he had worked for the communications department. It is forbidden to talk about your self or the camp.
As of today the guard must be informed how many ill people can walk 12 km. There is a lot of speculation as to why this is being done. Fort Rotterdam is only 3 km from here and the hospital Stella Maris, the former Catholic hospital, is only 2 km. away. The Japs apparently are expecting the worst.
6/29/45. The electrified fence around the vegetable garden finally proved its worth. Usually the natives were pretty sneaky and used long bamboo poles and probably rubber gloves too. They managed to steal quite a lot. However, yesterday evening one of them apparently touched the wire with his hand and couldn’t get free; he died on the spot. The Japs who always said that the natives had their permission to steal, and that death was beautiful, were quite disturbed by this event. They were all there: Okobo, Notomi, and Yoshida, plus several Jap policemen. The native was taken to the camp, washed and crated, this happened around midnight.
This morning he was buried in our cemetery, they didn’t want to turn the body over to the head of the village. We were not allowed to turn on the juice anymore.
Friends landed on Ternate, and a landing on Balikpapan is expected any day now.
6/30/45. Our officers have been notified that they can leave any moment. Ten men have been told to be servants. Our captain Dieudonne will stay here, also a translator, and the English padre, and all 2nd lieutenants, and warrant officers. The Japs continually get the Padre to chase away the bad spirits, just like last night. He was summoned to immediately avert any danger.
Also last night a plane dropped a slew of pamphlets, many of them drifted into the camp. The Japs sacrificed hours of their sleep to pick up as many as they could. However we still found a lot of them, alas, they were the same ones that had been dropped 1- ½ yeas ago. This plane was probably off course and reached its destination only tonight. In any case this month has passed and we can only say that we’re headed in the right direction, at least the signs point that way.
Tomorrow I will start a new month and a new notebook with renewed courage.
KAMPILI/Voskuil: Sunday, July 1, 1945. The big surprise!
Several orange pamphlets were found. They showed our Queen getting off an airplane assisted by Prince Bernard on the right and on the left by a pilot. (A child asked his mother if the Queen came down from an upper bunk bed.) Valderpoort was only informed this morning about the pamphlets, while everyone claimed that the papers had been turned over to her she didn’t know anything about them. She then set out to get one of them to give to the commandant. Then he might not ask for all the others that had been found. Barrack no 1 gave her a torn pamphlet which she took to Jamadji. She told him that it had been found. He took it, straightened it out, and commented that it pictured our Queen. Valderpoort confirmed it after which he looked at it again and thanked her in a bashful way and walked off with it. During the course of the day Scheerder asked him for the pamphlet and he turned it over to her. When others approached him for additional pamphlets, he told them to ask Valderpoort because she had many. Not true, she didn’t have any.
Alarm this morning from 11 AM to noon, bombs on the airfield.
Preschoolers and little tikes had a dinner party in the church building at 5 PM. The commandant promised to look in and 7 goats were butchered for the occasion.
One of the tots asked on the way to the party if he could really have dinner with the commandant in the church, and if they would receive a head. What kind? A goat’s head of course.
When the commandant arrived he stuck out his hand and was delighted when several children trustingly put their little hands in his.
Seth Paul: No one counted on a normal night’s rest anymore. On July 1 five Liberators passed high over our camp and bombed the airfields of Mandai and Limbung mercilessly. The alarm lasted from 9 PM to 3.30 AM.
Voskuil: Monday, July 2, 1945. The alarm lasted from 8 PM to midnight. Then we needed to take turns to sit next to the bell: Nanning, Luyendijk, and Valderpoort. Lamps must be extinguished as soon as airplanes are heard, even although the alarm has not been given yet.
Yesterday the alert
was given; it is pitch dark outside, rain clouds threaten, and there blows a
blustery wind. Many are ill with the flu, bronchitis, malaria, o
Seth Paul: They were back in the evening. Japanese searchlights went to work but went dim after a few minutes. However, the alarm lasted from 9 PM to 4 AM. Perhaps we would not have been so downhearted had we known that closer to home, the Allies had landed on Balikpapan.
Once I was very ill in the camp. It was not diarrhea, that would have been par for the course, and sometimes routine. No, I had a swollen liver, jaundice! No fat, eggs, or nuts. But this illness didn’t prevent Arnold David and me to play marbles outside with my neighbors Ronny. Whenever one of them would see Dr. Goedbloed coming, I ran back inside and stayed on my bed. She took my temperature: 40 ½ degrees C. I can still hear her: “If the temperature isn’t down in an hour, you’ll have to got to the hospital.” To me this didn’t mean a place where you could get well, but rather a bed in which women would wash you… all over. I didn’t play marbles anymore. I don’t remember if Dr. Goedbloed returned or not. At least no one played with my body. Imagine, a girl washing my body. How embarrassing, not only because she would see me naked, but also she would touch me in certain intimate places, which would cause terrible problems. Later on I heard that these women are used to that. Maybe she would, but I would not. That would be logical.
Some mothers had a hard time. Taking care of the kids, almost no sleep at night because of the alarms, but most important, the uncertainty of not hearing from a husband. All this made them very tense. They took it out on the kids who were then given an unmerciful beating for the slightest reason. I interfered often by placing myself between the child and its mother, and tried to calm her down after having heard why the child deserved a beating. Very often it was nothing that warranted the red welts on his or her body.
Voskuil: Tuesday, July 3, 1945. The commandant went to Makassar, alarm at 11 AM, 3 bombers. The fires that could be seen last Thursday were the result of flares, they flash like fires.
Not 32, but 20 sewing machines were taken away and 10 ladies were let go. Groot saw to it that they were placed in other positions.
A drum with 50 liters of petroleum arrived. It is to be used for air raid shelters and festivities.
Every day the commandant plays tennis with 3 ladies. Usually Marseille joins in but he has a swollen foot.
The alarm bell sounded at 9.30 PM and the all clear was given soon after. Then again alarm at 12 AM and the all clear right after. However the bombs fell until 6 AM, some of them came down very close.
Seth Paul: On the 3rd of July six Liberators bombed the
airfield behind us and Mandai. Because we spent so many nights outside, we came
to know the stars in the sky. The Milky Way, the Three Kings, Orion, and the
Southern Cross are among those that you will never forget. There is time to sit
very still and listen to what the stars whisper to you. If only the crickets
would be quiet…., and the dogs wouldn’t bark in the distance. But the stars
don’t have anything to say, they only make you wonder how they came to be,
about the light they emit, about the temperatures and how it is impossible for
us to live on them. Were they really created the way Genesis described? Then
there is a Maker who can do the impossible: making something out of nothing? Or
transform energy into a mass. It fills you with awe, with respect… and at the
same time you wonder why that same Maker doesn’t end the war. Is it because we
choose our own destiny? Because this senseless war is the doing of mankind and
He cannot or will not interfere? Is He in all His might powerless? That doesn’t
make sense. But in what light do we see Him? But the stars don’t answer. The
moon follows its path along the skies, and slowly sleep overcomes you. The
Southern Cross continues on…and tomorrow I will still be here. I shall try again,
because I still have so many questions. Why this and why that? Why do innocents
have to die and the criminals stay alive. Will we be given a chance to improve
ou
Voskuil: Wednesday, July 4, 1945. Bombers fly over us and drop bombs on our neighborhood with earsplitting noise, but the commandant does not order an alarm. Does he think that there is no danger for us during the day? He said that the last bomb that dropped shrapnel in our camp aimed for a light in a nearby native village. We’re not allowed to smoke during the night and while the alarm is going on.
In the afternoon the commandant asked Valderpoort if the camp knew hat he presented the whole camp with a sack of sugar on the 29th of June. When she couldn’t answer him he became irritated and left for the Post. A while later he returned with the order book in which he wrote that he on the 29th of June he gave the camp a sack of sugar and a pig. I have to go around with the book right away.
He asked someone he liked a lot if she would still know him when the Americans would be here.
PEACE seems to be very close!
Last night alarm again, from 9 PM to 6 AM. Bombs fall down continually, and suddenly something comes in very close, loose roofing flies off the roof. Again a whistling noise of something cylindrical, probably another bottle….
The bell guards must take their post from midnight on.
Seth Paul: On the 4th of July the Allies were very busy in the morning, but nothing much happened. But in the evening a lot of flares were used, and this time the alarm lasted from 9 PM to 6 AM. Hello!
Voskuil: Thursday, July 5, 1945. The visitors for the commandant arrived in a camouflaged car; the net held pieces of fabric that looked like leaves. The 2 Japs spoke to the commandant in a most serious manner. At 11 AM alarm, 6 bombers flew over the camp. The commandant yelled nervously that everyone had to go into the shelters right away. After the planes passed by the camp they dropped a series of bombs which started several fires.
Yesterday Nelly Filet was dismissed from the hospital; her face looks all right, and her friendly expression is the same. A small wound next to her nose and a scar on her lip are the only memories of the dog bite.
In the afternoon a native brought a wild pig to the Post, he received a pair of underwear. If the pig had been bigger the commandant would have given him a sarong.
At night the weather turned chilly and rainy. Was it because of the weather that an alert was sounded, but no alarm? We could all stay inside the barracks, even although bombers came over and caused loud explosions. Some of the bombs dropped close to the dam.
Friday, July 6, 1945. Again we heard planes leaving the airfield behind us. At noon we heard planes and bombs, but no alarm. We have become stoical during these aerial attacks and stay on the job.
Children play out alarm periods, and drop leaflets and act like the guards; they think that this a normal way of life.
Herbie Galestien forces his way into a police post and takes a piece of metal; he claims that it is a piece of a bomb. The attending policeman got angry, but Herbie gave him a lot of lip. The commandant heard about it and summoned Herbie. The commandant sits in a chair with a saber between his legs. Herbie’s punishment is that his head is shorn, he is expelled from school for a week, and cannot work with the cows where he usually works, and must work with the mothers. His mother is furious about the punishment.
This morning at about noon 3 Japs came in to visit Jamadji; their hair reached over their collars and they sported long beards. They looked real seedy. They left by foot in the direction of the dams. This afternoon we watched about 100 Japs pass by our barbed wire fence fully armed. They came from the direction of the airfield and were on their way to the dams. Were they finally bombed to the point where nothing was left standing?
During the night the alert signal was given, and immediately after the alarm went off a series of bombs fell near by. At 11 PM the all clear was given and we could all stay in bed.
Saturday, July 7, 1945. It is being said that the commandant went to Makassar to celebrate the border incident with China that happened 9 years ago. He and the tailor took all the clothes from the sewing room into a car and left this morning.
An awful lot of sickness is going around due to the many nights that people had to stay in the shelters at night. Barrack no. 2 has 33 cases, most of them children.
The tobacco packages, which were distributed yesterday, were made of former government forms that were signed by Kortmans. Bellemee was quite excited about it.
Sunday, July 8, 1945. On this day a can with jam had been found on top of the sewer cover of barrack no. 9. Of course the family who found it emptied the contents in a hurry, because everyone wanted to see the empty can. The label read: Queen’s very delicious fruit jam, strawberry. Of course it must have fallen out of an airplane, totally in tact, not a scratch on the label. Something is wrong! Rumor has it that it has been pinched from someone’s luggage in barrack no. 10. The hope of food distribution by air went up in smoke.
This afternoon a Jap fighter took off from the airfield behind us, to our great disappointment. We had hoped that the whole area was destroyed.
We watch a policeman hand over an orange paper to the commandant; it seems to be a leaflet. Rumor: Java is free.
At 9 PM alert and then alarm. It was the evening of “reckless Tonny” as we have dubbed him. You never know where this crew will drop their bombs.
Monday, July 9, 1945. At 3.30 AM last night, a plane flew right over our camp, then 2 flashes of light and tremendous explosions close by. Everything shook and rumbled. This morning we can still see the fires on the rice fields. We heard planes and bombs all morning long but there was no alarm.
The foundation of barrack no. 1 has slipped so badly that the nuns don’t bother to hang the Christ image anymore.
This morning the commandant looked over the barrack crews and the sewing room crew. Five people are returning to the sewing room because more machines have been brought in. The pigsties need more people too.
Yesterday in the evening the commandant treated Valderpoort and 4 complex leaders, Noor, Den Hond, and Van der Noen to a dinner party. He poured and served. He said that he was the butler and didn’t skimp on the beer.
Today Daantje walks around with a swollen face; he was beaten badly by Jamadji, who used to take it out on us, but only hits Daantje now. It’s being rumored that Daantje is sneaky, but whatever he does we never know.
Presently there are 221 ill people, 38 in barrack no. 2.
Seth Paul: On the 9th of July 5 Liberator’s appeared over Makassar or the nearby area, and for the first time they are being fired on by anti aircraft guns. But it was Mandai’s turn at 11.15 AM, and in the evening flares were dropped over Limbung.
Voskuil: Tuesday, July 10, 1945.This night Jamadji had dinner with Joustra. When he came outside Groot waited for him and asked to be excused; she wanted to go back to her work in the children’s hospital. He agreed, but who would replace her? Buffaert absolutely refuses to take the job.
Last Saturday Joustra and Noor had a chat with the commandant. He said that as camp commandant Joustra would be unsuitable, because she can’t stand it when another woman arranges something, and she cannot delegate authority. It had to be someone like clear water, not warm, not cold; someone who is half like Scheerder, and half like Pfeiffer, like Meygaard, but older. He added that, when the war would be over, he would pay his respect to Mrs. Scheerder. He also wanted that Noor would replace Groot, but she refused.
A wild boar is brought in, carried by 3 natives, and accompanied by a policeman. They earned 3 sarongs. Then the pastor and Mrs. Van den Sanden had to carry the animal to the butcher’s block, but it was too heavy for the 2 of them. Then the pastor saw me and between the three of us we managed to take the pig to its destination. I made sure that the animal was really dead, because the head moved back and forth against my legs. But he was dead all right.
Wednesday, July 11, 1945. Last night alarm. This morning, in front of the Post, the commandant showed what an unexploded hand grenade could do. Flames shot high up and the fire flashed even higher after two tubs of water were poured over them, then the fire finally died.
News item: a leaflet was found just beyond the bridge. It shows a Jap who has a bundle of clothes over his arm. Next to him stand a naked man and woman, and underneath the caption reads: “Indonesians, this is how the Japs treat you.” Another one shows 2 fat Japs, one of them has a bayonet on his rifle, the other holds a sarong with a bundle of clothes, away from the Japs stand a native man, woman and child, visibly undernourished and ragged. Underneath the caption reads: “Communal ownership according to Japanese ideals.”
On the first leaflet a bit of news is printed: On Java, Madura, and further down, battles are being fought. Supposedly a third pamphlet has been seen that states that the Allies will present the Indies to our Queen, but that sounds a bit far fetched.
In the evening the alert is given, then the alarm, followed by the all clear, then alarm again. And because of all that running back and forth between the wet shelters and our barracks, many of us caught something, 258 of us are ill.
Valderpoort: Thursday, July 12, 1945. Many discussion with people, who seem to be caught in a rut; their jobs have become an obsession for them. I would like to handle this myself, but Jamadji has tied my hands. He still has not Okayed 38 changes in the order book, even although all have started to work in their new positions. He badmouths Mrs. Klay behind her back and she offered her resignation, which he wouldn’t accept, because he felt that she was doing a good job. He probably has begun to realize that it is easier to let someone go than get a replacement. In the meantime Mrs. Koop also has refused a position. Am curious how all this will turn out.
This night there was no alarm, even although planes could be heard in the distance. In any case, it is great to be able to stay in bed one whole night, after 5 weeks of staying up.
Friday, July 13, 1945. According to the superstitious a bad day, especially since it falls on a Friday. This time the “prophets” were a little bit correct; on the other hand, however, it didn’t hurt us a bit. A low flying Lockheed did a considerable amount of damage to a target located Northeast from here. We had a good view, a large column of smoke was left behind.
Just before this happened I had seen Jamadji to ask him if a couple of barrack workers could trade jobs for one month. He allowed it for one, but not for the other. When he came to my office in the afternoon I asked him if the lady could take on another job anyway. He then heard that she had offered to pump water, but that she had second thoughts, because a doctor’s exam showed that her heart wasn’t strong enough. Jamadji was furious! He summoned Dr. Marseille and rallied against him and me, that we had no business to call attention to possible physical problems. Those people had to do the job whether they were able to or not. He considered both of us ‘no good’. A while later Dr. Feenstra received the same treatment. The lady in question was afraid and told me that she would pump after all, but Jamadji commanded the three doctors to evaluate her anyway. Did he fear the consequences if something bad would befall the lady? Oh well, it’s better that we suffer a little for our people, than be concerned about our personal well being.
In the evening roll call was taken by Jamadji himself. His mood was OK, he didn’t have much criticism. The guard was quiet and we could stay in bed: a great privilege.
Voskuil: Friday, July 13, 1945. Last night we received exciting news: 12 divisions landed on Saleier. This was the first plane-less, alarm-less night in 4 weeks, but many couldn’t sleep because they felt so exhilarated.
Today everyone was excited about the news Annie Bartstra shared: for a long time she had asked the commandant to get an extra shelter for the Ambon camp, and when she approached him this morning again, he said that there would be no more alarms. Everybody was happy and we thought that the war was over. But at noon airplane engines were heard close by and the commandant screamed: “Alarm! Get into the shelters!” He was beside himself and, no wonder, there before us, just beyond the cow’s meadow and at tree top level appeared 3 planes, and then we hear the earsplitting noises of exploding bombs, it was a tremendous racket, and then columns of thick smoke went up. Everything happened in the direction of Mandai. Several minutes later the all clear was sounded and the commandant called Bellemee. He was in a bad mood because he needed to save face and told her that the alarm was over. We sense that freedom cannot be far off, and looking at the tailor, we can barely hide our feelings of triumph.
Presently the river has no water so there is little to pump. When Mies Melis asked the commandant when the river would carry water again, his answer was that it would happen after the war. “That would last another ten years.” Forgetting that he had always said that, he sharply asked who had said that.
We saw natives take children and luggage away from the dam.
The commandant held roll call this evening, apparently in an attempt to save face after the bombardment this morning. All day long he wore the uniform of a policeman, ugly, camouflaged khaki.
Seth Paul: Yesterday the most improbable happened: no alarm on the 12th of July. That meant a whole night on a dry bed instead of in a dry gully. But the next day it was business as usual. On the 13th of July, between 11.30 AM and 12.15 PM, 4 P-38 planes flew at tree top level, 80 meters high, and shot up the oil storage place somewhere on the river Jeneberang. They flew so low that they sometimes disappeared behind coconut trees. Our classes were disrupted, but we watched with delight, and a bit of fear, before we disappeared in the shelters.
Stolk: Saturday, July 14, 1945. When I read this date I cannot help but remember that this was the last birthday of my Dad. But fortunately we didn’t know it yet. A lot happened before we learned of his death.
Voskuil: Saturday, July 14, 1945. The commandant is in a terrible mood, this morning he bawled out Van Diejen so badly, that she asked Valderpoort to accept her resignation.
At noon the alarm went off, we could hear that a severe bombardment was going on. We saw 23 planes; Love Rijsdijk and Welleman didn’t go into the shelter. From a platform the commandant called out to Okasima to hit Love. He did but it was more of a caress than a slap on the cheek. Then the commandant bellowed that the two women had to stand in front of the Post, they did that. An hour later he summoned Joustra after he told the two women to come inside the Post. Then he told them to put on nice clothes and return in 10 minutes because he was going to behead them. They breathed a sigh of relief, because that was such a terrible threat that he couldn’t go through with it. When Joustra showed up she took both ladies with her with the blessing of Jamadji.
This morning the commandant told Verhaeff to make food for 90 people. It was assumed that the dinner would be for all the service heads, the nuns and others. But when Wijnands set tables for 90 persons in the garden of the Club, which he had asked her to do, he told her to take it all away. Everybody is curious.
At 5 PM all the dishes must be put on the table in the front room. The commandant cooked the rice himself and in front of the Post a Japanese troop of soldiers walks into the gate. They wore shabby work clothes with puttees and soldier’s shoes. A sergeant in uniform walked next to them. They take the drum with rice with them and 150 mats, which had just arrived today. We thought that they were supposed to be for the camp. Then the sergeant stood guard while the soldiers took away the wonderfully aromatic dishes also. While waiting for them to return Jamadji played a game of tennis. Half an hour later the troop appears again and picks up more of the dishes and a large pan with a meat dish. Now we understand why the 3 boars were butchered this morning. The sergeant reminded us of the first Japs we saw 3 ½ years ago, in short he looked sinister.
When the commandant appeared in Valderpoort’s office to stamp coupons, it was already 5.15 PM, that’s when he finished cooking the rice. He saw Love standing with the ladies who wanted to have their cigarette coupons stamped. He asked her with a big grin if she was tired. She glared at him, had her coupon stamped and left without saying a word. He looked at her with a shy grin on his face.
Whenever someone showed up to have a cigarette coupon stamped for someone else, he would ask why the person wasn’t there. The answer was that she was sick. He said that if she was sick she didn’t need to smoke and he would halve the coupon or refuse to stamp it altogether.
When he was finished stamping coupons Valderpoort approached him about Van Diejen, who didn’t like being bawled out by him in front of a group of children. Valderpoort said that Van Diejen gave whatever the secretary of provisions asked for. But the commandant didn’t agree saying that she had to know what was necessary and what was not. Then he added that if she didn’t like it she could leave. Valderpoort said that was what she wanted. He Okayed it, got up and left.
This night was a quiet night, but we did hear a lot of car traffic go by.
Seth Paul: The pressure on Japanese airfields and military positions increased. On The 14th of July 23 Liberator’s bombarded the airfield of Limbung heavily. Soon thick black clouds of smoke went up. The planes dropped pamphlets, but the wind blew them in a different direction, too bad.
It felt good to be able to sleep on our hard bunks, and to see the rats scurrying around, or hear them gnaw on the bamboo. It was better than being in a ditch.
Maybe it will always be a riddle why the camp members who spent several uncomfortable weeks in a shelter, didn’t have more complaints about their backs. Maybe they felt that they couldn’t afford to hurt. Or maybe the older generation was a lot stronger than the present one, which was used to sleeping on springs and polyester mattresses, with or without slats. Nobody knows!
Voskuil: Sunday. July 15, 1945. This morning we saw soldiers on bicycles, carrying backpacks, on their way to the dam.
Noor has been carried to the dysentery barrack with malaria and dysentery.
Jamadji is riding around on a native horse.
Yesterday afternoon Jap soldiers came to the fence. Jamadji met them in his car, 2 of them got in and they drove off to Makassar.
All day long we heard explosions. In the evening people were seen in front of the latrines of barrack no. 4. If Valderpoort learns that they wear shoes, she knows that they are Jap soldiers and will report hem to the commandant. Those soldiers are very close by; it is said that a whole village was evacuated to accommodate them. We can hear them singing in the evening, and watch them walk outside the barbed wire fence. This morning we observed a group of about 120 men dressed in some kind of work clothes on bikes accompanied by a sergeant.
Monday, July 16, 1945. When Mrs. Verdenius came to the office with coupons for the sick the commandant asked her if she wanted to change jobs. Laughing she told Carry that he had asked her that week already. She told him that she didn’t want to. He brusquely told her that she had to and told To that she had to write down that Mrs. Verdenius would be the new secretary of labor. Verdenius was very much shocked, and Valderpoort was surprised, nobody had told her anything.
All day long we heard explosions.
It’s Lucas’s birthday today and the commandant gave her a birthday cake. Superstitions dictate to the Japs that the dead will not leave this earth as long as people don’t want to eat and mourn their death. Therefore they will hold a party, preferably a dinner party, after a death. That is why the commandant wanted to hold a festival after the deaths on Pare- Pare became known. Joustra, who was not familiar with this Japanese custom, did not think that this was proper and that became her downfall. At a later date he explained to Valderpoort why he wanted to go through with his plan to hold a party. Then there was the tea party in the new complex after the many deaths of the children. And last Saturday the soldiers were offered a dinner to commemorate the many deaths of their comrades who fell during the many bombardments of the Allies during the last weeks.
Another Jap was added to the sewing room and, as of today, a Jap guard walks the campgrounds. Furthermore, new tables and benches were put in the new schoolroom, which shall be put to use on August 1.
Verdenius who until now had been the head of the winnowing crew, hopes that the commandant will change his mind about her new position. She also believes that, if she will have to accept her new position, it won’t last long. Even although she is unobtrusive, she won’t let the commandant lay down the law where she is concerned.
In the afternoon during the rest period Jamdji went to a house where the girls were resting in their underwear, panties and bra. When he saw them he told them that he wanted to dance. They answered that they were not properly dressed. He said that it didn’t matter and to everyone’s amusement he danced with the scantily clad girls. He knows exactly what he can get away with and with whom. He has been very “liberal” toward this last group of women who came from Makassar in 1943, and they have been able to get a lot done. He visited several of these girls in Makassar.
This was the 4th night without alarm.
Seth Paul: On the 16th of July, at about 7.30 AM, a Liberator flew over our camp in the direction of Mandai. We heard deep rumbles during the rest of the day.
Stolk: Although a lot of objections were raised against printing so many versions of the bombardment of our camp, I didn’t feel that it was up to me to decide which story to accept and which ones should be omitted. Each one has a different point of view of this deeply impressive event. If you feel that this is too much of a good thing, you can go on to July 18.
Voskuil: TUESDAY, JULY 17, 1945. The morning started out quietly until
11.45 AM. The alarm rang 23 Liberator Lockheed’s came over, then came the all
clear. A short while later the alarm went again, we watch the same 23 planes.
What are they doing? Oh great, leaflets! We cheer… but what darkens the sky?
Why is there a gray pall ove
I ran to complex A and see that all of it is in flames. Looking to the right I see that the new complex and the pigsties are one sea of fire. The sties must have been the first ones that were hit. The commandant is there and seeing me he yells for me to go back. I ran to complex B and began to remove as much of my belongings as I could now that the airplanes were gone. I had assured the people that the fire would not get to this complex; the church building was still standing. It seemed that this complex would be saved. These incendiary bombs must be a mistake, I thought maintaining a steadfast trust in our Allies.
But suddenly we hear them come again. Three of them fly very low and slow, they drop bombs all over the place. Everything catches on fire, the latrines, the wells, the storage and meeting places, the barracks crackle and bamboo’s fly through the air… and slowly they get to the place where I was laying prone on the ground. Then shots rang out. From the top of barrack no. 9 machine gun bullets came raining down. Bullets were coming from all sides, and in between I could see tracer bullets, the same ones that are used at night to follow the bullet’s path. It is like hell broke out around me. I thought my life would end, there was no hope for me to escape this. And then, when the planes passed I realized that I was not hit, I am OK. I looked around me, everything was on fire and I ran away from the collapsing bamboo buildings. I carried whatever I could of the things that I had already dragged out. I got to the barbed wire behind the school and put everything down, then I ran back, through the burning grass and bamboo’s, being careful where I put my bare feet, and trying not to let the smoke choke me.
When I returned to the wire for the second time I was met by the commandant on his horse, and on the other side of the river a lot of Japanese soldiers with bayonets on their rifles. The commandant yelled at me to leave my things there. But I begged him to let me hold on to my clothes. He yelled that I didn’t need them, and I thought that we always needed clothes. He turned his horse around, and I kept on walking. When I approached the bridge he came galloping towards me and drove me across the bridge to the canyon on the other side, where the whole camp seemed to be hunkered down. He called out to Joustra to come and get me, and I got into the brush with Joustra and Mother Antonine.
Later on all the clothes were thrown into a pile and the commandant said that anyone with wet clothes could pick out something. They did that, even those with dry clothes. Valderpoort couldn’t stop the rush and blamed this event for her later downfall.
Apparently it was Joustra who was being called on by the commandant to manage the food distribution which already had been prepared in the kitchens. Three hours after the fire we got our food and drinking water in the canyon.
When I met the commandant a while later he scolded me for having been wrong, and I humbly admitted that he was right. He hardly hid a smile. Later on he told Noor that he was angry with me, because I admitted that I had been wrong, but in the meantime I had my things.
He called on Joustra to regulate the move to the new camp. The pastor had to show the women guards the way to the emergency camp. Then a caravan of people moved to the jungle camp, barrack by barrack. The rumor that these buildings had burned too turned out to be untrue, and thus we found primitive lodgings.
I naturally came to work for Joustra again, and when she asked for 50 women to stay at the old camp, she could muster up only 35. After that traumatic experience they simply didn’t dare to stay there anymore.
We slept in the hospital, the patients had been moved to a barrack in a native village, and to the Club.
Joustra: About the middle of July 1945, to be exact the 17th, I walked from my barrack to the school to teach. On the way I heard airplanes in the sky. The alarm was given but moments later the all clear sounded. I looked up and saw 26 heavy bombers; one of them left a smoke trail right over me. I asked the pastor, who stood next to me, what it meant. He said that it was just a dirty engine. I could have slapped myself around my ears for not seeing that this smoke trail was a sign to the other planes that this was the target area.
I quickly went to my class and had the children tell me what they had seen. We had hardly started when the alarm went off again. We ran outside, crossed the road, and went into an open shelter in the meadow. Next to my classroom was a covered shelter, but the children didn’t like to go into that one. I allowed them to take the open trench if they were quick about it, and that they were. We had hardly reached the trench when a few mothers and their children joined us. They had been swimming in the canal when the second alarm sounded.
The planes roared overhead and they dropped items that looked like small
pencils connected to long, light blue ribbons. One of the students thought that
these were packages, but reality sunk in right away when the ribbons caught
fire. All around us we heard thuds, and at the same time small flames shot up
from the dry grass and the roofs of the barracks of complex A and C. The girl
who had first yelled ‘packages’ now yelled that the cow barn was on fire. I
stood up and saw that most of the camp had caught fire. The planes had gone and
I decided to send the people across the bridge into a canyon on the other side
of the road. Jamadji had ordered us twice several months ago to practice ou
Right then another danger loomed. The 9 cows, who together gave 4 liters of milk a week, ran in panic to the bridge, our only link with the outside world. Mrs. Prins, who was one of the caretakers of the cows, tried to force them to the side of the canal, but couldn’t do it alone. One of the land boys came to me and I asked him to help her. They managed to steer the scared animals away from the fleeing crowd.
The planes returned and dropped more incendiary bombs. I was in a gully close to the bridge with several others who were already there. This attack was soon over, and we had a chance to get all the camp members together before the third wave would come over. The canyon was partly covered with low growing bushes under which we could hide. But close by was an open grass field, and a full rack with bombs had fallen right in the middle. Thank goodness they didn’t ignite. Everything the people had taken out of the camp was assembled on this field.
The wounded and the dead were placed on stretchers underneath the bushes, I believe that 7 were mortally wounded.
Suddenly we heard the planes approach again. Jamadji yelled that we had to lie down on the ground, because we lacked any kind of protection. Several women still walked on the road weighed down by their load of possessions from complex B, but they fell flat on the ground, except for Mrs. Voskuil. Jamadji yelled and yelled, but she continued on, until I ran to her and pulled her down to the edge of the road, where several Japanese soldiers started to shoot at the low flying airplanes. This was a repeat of the two first attacks, but this time it was complex B that went up in smoke. It was a frightening show to see the planes swoop low down over the barracks to drop the explosives, then pull up over our heads to gain altitude. I don’t believe that the guns of the Japs harmed the planes at all. Complex B was in flames. When we reentered our camp, a few hours before dusk, all that was left standing were the concrete buildings, although several of them also suffered severe burn damage.
Shortly after the 3rd attack several cars with Japanese arrived. It seemed to me that they were Japanese doctors, and next to one of the cars I saw Jamadji and Dr. Marseille. It was days later when I learned what was discussed between them from Dr. Marseille himself. The Japanese had offered their help, but Dr. Marseille didn’t realize that they offered medical help. Assuming that they wanted to help move the sorry possessions of the camp members he politely refused.
Jamadji had us gather on the field in front of the school. The sun was going down, it was a vague reflection through the smoky haze that continued to rise up from the ruins.
Mrs. Valderpoort was ordered to assemble 30 strong women to help the Japanese soldiers put out the fires. Jamdji asked me if I would be one of the 30 and I nodded. A while later he yelled out my name, which he had done several times while we were in the canyon. On one occasion several people helped themselves to items from the pile of things that were salvaged by the people. I had to stop them, because Jamadji wanted those that needed it the most to help themselves first. I myself took several blankets to cover the wounded.
Now, while we were on the school field, he called me again. Mrs. Valderpoort and I went to him. He asked us if we knew where the emergency camp was that he had shown us last fall. I wasn’t exactly sure of its location, but the pastor, who stood next to me, remembered. Then Jamadji ordered him to show the way. He gave me a choice: either stay in the old camp, or go to the emergency camp. I chose to stay in the old camp, and he decided that I should. Mrs. Valderpoort had to join the masses with the three men to divide the spaces in the emergency camp among the women.
Before the procession left another group of Japanese arrived from
In the meantime the Japanese soldiers kept busy putting out the smoldering fires. The 30 of us now had to help them. We had to haul the water out of the canal in often leaking buckets and other containers and hand them to the soldiers. We could not get near to the ruins because we walked on bare feet and the ground was red hot. Thank goodness, it started to rain soon after the sun went down. We could stop putting the fires out.
We, the women, could sleep in the hospital ward. During the bombing the ill were carried, or walked themselves, to the canyon. Later they were taken to a native village that was cleared by the Japanese, more than a kilometer down stream from the camp.
Because of the rain and getting water out of the canal we were soaking wet. Before I went to sleep I changed from my wet dress into my new clothes.
Stolk: