Comments on: The Forgotten Women of the War in the East

By: Wilhelmina Pruitt-v.T.

Wilhelmina Pruitt-v.T. — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 04:41:15 +0000

I was interned on Java in Tjideng in Batavia (Djakarta now) when I was 10yrs old with my mother and younger sister.
My father and older brother were interned somewhere else, since my parents were divorced and my brother was with my father at the time. We were liberated by the Scotch Guard. I will always remember their bagpipes every morning and evening. They were fierce fighters that defended us from attacks from the local then communists that attacked us at the time. They were replaced by the British Sikhs and there was talk of rape at the time. There were also women captured by the local communists that were also raped and put in other camps and what was done to them! They were locked up another 4 yrs or so, after the Japanese camps! We were horrified what happened to them.
Our camp commander was Capt.Sonei, who became moon mad during full moons. Besides being slowly starved to death, we would have to stand for hours in the sun being counted or searched for photos we might have or jewelry and money. Some women were beaten. We were all terrorized
We could not wear sunglasses or hats, because they wanted to see our eyes, that would show fear if we hiding something. My mother was defiant and would hide other women’s items and would take their small child to hold and would look the Japs straight in the eyes and got away with hiding the items.
We slept under the overhang of the roof closed of by armoires to keep the rain out and for privacy.
Of course the wall was full of bedbugs and flees. I also remember having to dip a pan into a septic tank to empty it out in the ditch in front of the house.
I would fill up the bucket and others would empty it out in the ditch in front of the house. I don’t understand now how we did not get sick or maybe be we were! We were liberated because the Americans dropped the 2 atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yes and people in Japan don’t understand why the bombs were dropped, to liberate us on Java and other islands and also Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and others. After a month we were evacuated to Singapore to what we now know as a refugee camp in Johore.
While we were there we heard that Capt.Sonei was hanged at the Tjangi prison in Singapore as a war criminal! Then we were evacuated to The Netherlands since polio broke out and we could not stay there. both my parents and us children were born and raised on Java. My grandparents on my father’s side were planters. Coffee, tea, rubber and quinine. I will be 88 yrs shortly and live in Florida USA, where it is warm also!!!

By: isabel wolff

isabel wolff — Sun, 01 Feb 2015 22:39:28 +0000

In reply to Theresa Kaminski. Dear Theresa - sorry not to have replied to your comment before, but thank you.

By: In the Media: 9th November 2014 | The Writes of Woman

In the Media: 9th November 2014 | The Writes of Woman — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 19:31:59 +0000

[…] Wolff on ‘The Forgotten Women of the War in the East‘ on Women Writers, Women’s […]

By: Theresa Kaminski

Theresa Kaminski — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 21:28:00 +0000

I share your fascination with the Pacific war–my writing has focused on Americans in the Philippines. I am very much looking forward to your novel’s U.S. release!

By: Isabel Wolff

Isabel Wolff — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 08:51:25 +0000

In reply to Martha Conway.

Hi Martha, thank you for your comments. The story is dual timeline, about a young ghost writer Jenni, who is commissioned to write the memoirs of an elderly Dutch woman, Klara. Klara was interned on Java, during the war, with her mother and little brother and now, as her 80th birthday approaches, has decided to tell her harrowing story at last. So yes, I’d already decided on the War in the East story as it affected those thousands of women and children. I found their storyline through the research and interviews that I did. The main planks of the story are therefore, largely about the strategies they use to survive such harsh conditions, and the relationships that they have to the other women and children – do they help them, or try to save themselves in these atrocious conditions. War brings out the best and the worst in human beings, and this was what interested me most in developing the characters. It’s also largely about Klara’s mother, and the lengths that she and all the mothers will go to, to keep their children alive. I found it such a sad area of wartime history – that those least to blame are affected so terribly. The story for Klara is to a great degree about her relationship with her little brother, Peter, and with her best friend Flora, who is also interned with her family. Anyway it comes out in the US on February 10th with the title ‘Shadows OVer Paradise’. Many thanks, Isabel

By: Martha Conway

Martha Conway — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 01:28:54 +0000

I’ve never heard any stories before about the Dutch men, women, and children interned in Java during WWII. Thanks for this chilling evocation. It’s so true that when we tell stories about war (any war) often the focus is on the people actually fighting, usually men. But there is a lot of suffering across the board. Your story sounds very dramatic. From your post it seems as though you decided on the setting first before the characters and their story. Is that true? How did you find/ develop your characters?