No photos exist that show the atrocious conditions in the concentration camps for Dutch women and children on Java under the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) during WWII.
The September 20, 1945 photos of Camp Banjoebiroe 10 in Central Java that you see on this web site were taken five weeks after the end of WWII during…
The Japanese camp commandant allowed only a small number of women to be sick at any one time and the doctor was ordered not to issue any certificates of illness beyond that.
No persons were tolerated as missing because of illness during daily roll-call other than the permitted number.
Camp Banjoebiroe 10 was a small youth prison in rural Central Java that the Japanese Army had converted to a concentration camp for 3,200 women and children.
This photo of the open area surrounded by the jail cells was taken 5 weeks after the end of the War but before British Troops had arrived to secure the Camp. Banjoebiroe 10 had turned into a voluntary prison…
When the food carriers left the kitchen area with the food for the evening, we kids would find out what we were getting, and how much per person. If the news was good, we would run ahead and announce something like “Soup with rice and meat, a ladle and a touch.”
The Japanese guards would not have allowed any person near the fence anywhere and definitely would not have tolerated people to congregate in the proximity of the fences.
If the guards caught you, they would give you a severe thrashing. Children were not immune from this.
with nothing but our lives tells the story of a precocious young boy in concentration camps for Dutch women and children on Java under the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) during WWII.
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with nothing but our lives will be finished by the end of May 2015.
In the meantime I can use any help you can give me.
Filling a barrel used to distribute the food to the barracks. Food was the center of our universe. All of our thoughts revolved around food every waking hour and even in our dreams. How much would we get to eat today? Would it be… Read more...
A large family in a corner of one of the barracks. This young mother and her 4 children seem to be lucky in having such a secluded location, but the reality most likely is that she… Read more...
Water well
This was the only water well for 3,200 women and children. I used water from this well to treat a tropical ulcer on the shin of my left leg by irrigating it several times a day. The nickname for such an ulcer was “Tropical Rose”. Read more...
Reviews
“Congratulations on being chosen as a finalist in the 2015 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards competition.”