During the Second World War Japan, where I came from, was the enemy of the former Dutch East Indies, the homeland of families of Indisch Dutch people. About inhuman behavior of my countrymen at that time I express my sincere and deep remorse.
About this particular period and the location of history I see unexpectedly the same problems both in Japan and the Netherland. Let me point out some examples.
Firstly silence. My late father hardly told me about the war. After his funeral I found an old picture of him in school. Behind him is an comparison of the navy of US, Great Britain, and Japan. On the right is a map of East Asia, from Japan until Australia.
My late father and others in a high-school around 1937
Five years after this picture Japan occupied almost everywhere on this map. It was not a military school but a normal high-school. What did he studied exactly at that time? I also discovered his text and surprised: During the war I was ashamed that I could not fight like my classmates due to my sickness. When I heard on radio that the war was over, my first thought was that I failed to die for Japan." His classmates were soldiers even Kamikaze pilots. Also in the Netherland I hear often about the silence about the same war.
Secondly amnesia in education. Children in both countries don't learn really about this history. A Japanese history teacher mentions to this point that, because Japan has more than 2000 years of history, there is no time for a war of 3 years against one country, Dutch East Indies. Nonsense, I thought, but a Dutch history teacher told me that they also have to cover so many subjects in the classes within limited time. In essence the both say the same.
I also had no idea about the Dutch East Indie during my first half of my life in Tokyo. In schools I learned about the same war, but only about suffering of Japanese: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, bombardments, Kamikaze, and hunger. Nothing about Japanese aggression.
From Indisch Dutch people I hear about the Japanese occupation and Bersiap period just after that, but hardly about the period after and before them, the colonial period. "Selective forgetfulness about own history, especially the dark pages of it.
About these dark pages of Dutch East Indies the tone of the Dutch media is too negative, according to Indisch Dutch people. There were also positive sides. This is again the same with what Japanese nationalist say: the image of Japan during the war is too negative on the international media. That is their reason behind their non-senses.
Lastly lack of empathy for the others. Empathy on both countries are mostly limited to (ex-)victims of their own countries. Japanese don't have much empathy for you, your family, and other Asians, and Dutch for Indonesians.
silence
amnesia in education: children don't learn, not really.
selective forgetfulness about own history, especially the dark pages
"too dark painted dark pages on media", and
lack of empathy for the others
Now you can understand what I mean by the same problems both in Japan and the Netherland about this same history. According to a wise historian, a history that cannot be shared with others, cannot be called as the history. We don't have this one yet, the real history of Dutch East Indies, which the Netherland, Indonesia, and Japan can share. This cannot be done by a single person, but only in collaboration with all the relating groups.
And we citizens shouldn't let historians and politicians do all the work. We should work with them. We should listen to them, but we should make the last decisions like we do with doctors and lawyers. We should make sure that they are working for us, the citizen, but not for themselves / the authorities / their donators, or for somebody else. So we should participate, check, and decide more for ourselves, in my view. Otherwise limited people with power keeps on defining our own history, as it happened too often until now.
Are you interested in this search for the real history of Dutch East Indies/Asia?
Do you know anyone, who would dare to do it?
Would you support this initiative and think about it together?
If I may have your time, I can show you my PowerPoint presentation to you. My vision is simple, transparent, and fair to everyone and every country.
I started this presentation to elementary school students (age 10) For them I focus on quarrels of their daily life in stead of history. I use cartoon, images and video's in PowerPoint, so that they also understand the essence of the problem.
Aim for Peace from History of War and Colony in Asia
History, which I was confronted personally, and which have influenced my life after that
experience of my best friends and his family, who went through the Japanese occupation of the former Dutch East Indies (present Indonesia), and who found reconciliation 55 years later
experience of my father, who lost his friends as Kamikaze
How can we deal with hate, shame about own faults, and the tension with others about it?
How can we fairly and honestly look at the history of Asia?
What are the challenges to share a vision between Netherland, Indonesia, and Japan?
What precisely can we do in order to build peace?
Under the photo below and a short text in Japanese you see a list of all the lectures until now. I've done it for small groups in living rooms or meeting rooms, as well as for larger groups at universities, schools, and a small hall. If you are interested in this presentation, don't hesitate to send me an e-mail.
I am also an architect. After studying and working for a few years in Tokyo, I moved to Holland in 1988. I worked on the design of Kunsthal Rotterdam and Dutch embassy in Jordan, among others.
Fumi Hoshino
planned
lectures until now
WAF38 19 okt. 2017 Amsterdam een nieuwe compacte presentatie van 32 min. tijdens een workshop door het Landelijk Steunpunt Gastsprekers WO II-Heden van het Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork
WAF36 + 37 Friday 16 dec. 2016 Elementary school in Amsterdams (basisschool niveau 8)
WAF35 Nov. 13, 2016 Amstelveen For a group of Japanese living in Holland
WAF34 Aug. 09, 2016 den Haag For a friend whose mother came from Dutch Indies
WAF33 Dec. 15, 2015 Amsterdam At a elementary school (basisschool niveau 8)
WAF32 Dec. 09, 2015 Amsterdam For a friend whose grand parent came from Dutch Indies
WAF31 Dec. 09, 2015 Amsterdam At a preliminary school (basisschool niveau 8)
WAF30 Sep. 19, 2015 Ruinen, Drente For 5 old friends in a bungalow
WAF29 Sep. 06, 2015 Amsterdam At my friend's house-warming party with her 16 Japanese friends.
WAF28 June 26, 2015 The Hague For new friends
WAF27 Dec. 27, 2014 Rotterdam With old friends from Belgium
WAF26 Oct. 05, 2013 Amsterdam The first public lecture in the Netherlands was combined with a music concert performed by Utako Arakawa and Ayumi Matsuda, who hosted WAF 22 and 23.
WAF25 Sep. 17, 2013 Amsterdam with new friends/architects from Fukushima
WAF24 Sep. 03, 2013 the Hague during a pause of a symposium on Peace at the Peace Palace
WAF23 July 27, 2013 Amsterdam 友人たちと with friends
WAF22 May 19, 2013 Haarlem with good friends
WAF21 April 17, 2013 Rotterdam
WAF20 May 04, 2012 東京 / Tokyo 新しい友人と、with new Korean friends
WAF19 May 01, 2012 東京 / Tokyo 友人たちと、with friends
WAF18 April 28, 2012 東京 / Tokyo 平和教育地球キャンペーン for Earth Peace Education Campagne
WAF17 April 26, 2012 横浜 / Yokohama Meiji-gakuin university: Peace study class with students from 10 countries.
WAF16 April 24, 2012 東京 / Tokyo at Dutch embassy
WAF15 April 22, 2012 釜石 / Kamaishi 7年前に伝説のミュージカルを作った先生と、with a teacher who in 2005(?) initiated the legendary musical at his school, based on the diary written by a Dutch POW at the POW camp near Kamaishi.
WAF14 April 19, 2012 釜石 / Kamaishi 天神町仮設住宅団地ほかに住む老人達をサポートする人々と, with social workers to support aged evacuees living in the temporary housings, after they lost their home by the tsunami in 2011.
WAF13 April 17, 2012 仙台 / Sendai 伯母 (93才)と、 with my aunt (93)
WAF12 April 16, 2012 京都 / Kyoto Ritsumeikan university: at Peace study class with students from 16 countries all over the world.
WAF11 April 15, 2012 京都 / Kyoto 立命館大の友人たちと、 with friends at Ritsumeikan univ.
WAF10 April 12, 2012 水巻 / Mizumaki Wimの旧友の夫妻と, with old soul-mates of Wim
WAF9 April 12, 2012 水巻 / Mizumaki 水巻町 厚志の人々と, People who maintain the Cross monuments, on which all the name of Dutch POWs died during in Japanese camps during the war were engraved, and their friends in Mizumaki
WAF8 April 12, 2012 水巻 / Mizumaki 水巻の朳小には毎年旧蘭領東インド出身のオランダ人と家族が訪れる。4年生の教室で。
Every year Dutch people originally from the former Dutch Indies and their family visit this elementary school. I explained to children of 8-9 years old about what they went through when old Dutch people were as old as there were a long time ago.
WAF7 April 12, 2012 水巻 / Mizumaki 水巻南中 校長室, at the school principal's office in Mizumaki South junior-high school.
WAF6 April 11, 2012 Shinkansen between Osaka and Hiroshima A chinese traveler, who lives in Australia, and whose mother remembers the Japanese invasion to Singapole as she lived there
WAF5 April 02, 2012 デルフト / Delft met goede vrienden
WAF4 March 20+25, 2012 オランダ / Soest+Dordrecht met goede vrienden
WAF3 Oct. 31, 2011 アムステルダム / Amsterdam 友人たちと
WAF2 Sep. 23, 2011 アムステルダム / Amsterdam met vrienden
WAF1 April 16, 2011 ユトレヒト / Utrecht with friends