The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Japanese soldiers at the railroad station picking out white males that he jumped from the train when they rolled in and he escaped. He pulled a calf muscle, he tore it, and he couldn't walk for many weeks. But we were glad to see him of course. After a while he was picked up by the Japanese and they were told they were being sent to Kesilir. Kesilir is an outpost on the most eastern point of Java facing Bali. They were put to work there. They had to deforest land and bring it into cultivation. We were allowed once to visit him. I tell you my mother was real gutsy. Where she got the money I don't know for we had become instantly poor. I think she sold some jewelry. We took the train and we had to stay in a little town overnight. The natives were deathly afraid to help us for they were more afraid of the Japanese. A Chinaman said that he would allow us to sleep on his porch and we could use his outhouse. He gave us a little mat to put down on the floor and he sold us some little coils that you light up, citronella oil against the mosquitoes. So that's how we spent the night. We ate in the morning and we chartered a Dogcar what is a horse drawn little cart and we made a trip to that Camp Kesilir. We were allowed to visit Dad for about two hours and then we had to make the return trip. When we approached that Dogcar, we had an agreement with that man that we paid him in advance for the round trip; he demanded more money for the round trip. So we made it back home. After that we were interned in an area of Malang that included our home. We ended up with
roughly 10,000 Europeans. Most of them came from all the plantations. The males of course were removed so there were 10,000 women and children. We were surrounded by a 10 foot barbed wire fence. Mr. Misenhimer How large of an area would this have been?
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Stutterheim. Stutterheim was born 14 June 1928 in Indonesia. He speaks fondly of growing up on the island of Java. Stutterheim was 13 years old in December of 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked. With the surrender of Java to the Japanese in 1942, Stutterheim and his younger brother and mother were taken to one prison camp and his father to another, where they all remained until their liberation in 1945. Their camps were located around Batavia and Jakarta. He recounts his experiences during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, sharing the brutal conditions in a Japanese labor camp and collapse of Dutch colonial rule.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.