Torrents of suffering in the Ambarawa Camp Seven

The book of World War II still remains as an unforgettable partially cured wound even in the next generations thereafter. No one, in his wildest dreams, would have anticipated what was next in store for the death camp slaves. One must remember that with the dropping of the atom bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, WWII had come to a screeching halt. The Japanese soldiers capitulated and simply laid down their weapons. However, this immediately created a power vacuum in the far-flung islands. There were no Allied forces of any kind on the ground to stabilize the situation in Indonesia especially in the Indonesian death camps like Ambarawa Camp Seven etc; no governmental control, no organized police force; no system of justice. As could have been predicted, the situation quickly turned into deadly chaos.

This was the environment that the some 28,000 women, children, old men and the very sick in the Japanese death camps in Mid-Java faced. They were totally defenseless in camps of WW II that were surrounded by flimsy bamboo fencing, in an environment that quickly developed into total anarchy.

How did this come about? There were different entities that had their own ideas of what has to happen next, and as the saying goes: each group “had a different log in the fight.” This is what is explained from the heart by Mr. Ralph and Cathy Brink in the WWII story .

Japanese death camps, the boiling centers of cruelty

The WW II story which is explained in the book of World War II is mostly filled with lot of suffering aspects. We found in the last blog that many used to die every day in the Japanese death camps dues to various reasons. And the kids were the watchers of these corpses. The survivors had by then been reduced to mere walking corpses. Few of them were aware by this time that the Japanese military was under orders of Emperor Hirohito to annihilate all the European prisoners especially those who are in Indonesian death camps like Ambarawa Camp Seven etc. He intended to follow the Nazi example of simply exterminating unwanted human beings.

When we think about World War II, is it any wonder that the news of the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ghastly weapons as they were ever-so-welcome? The Allies had finally won this awfully cruel, bloody war! The prisoners in the Japanese concentration camps made a collective sigh of relief. Unless one has lived through their experiences, it is impossible to imagine what 3½ years of concentration-camp life was like. The Japanese death camps tore families apart, separated ten-year old kids from their mothers, whipped and tortured prisoners such as my sister Hortense, starved them en masse, and used their young daughters as ‘comfort women’ for their troops. The barbarous, unbridled cruelty was finally to come to a stop.

The cruelties towards the prisoners were so horrible. A great number of those interned had lost loved ones--husbands, wives, parents and children – in the World War II. They all had lost their homes, possessions, jobs, security... but finally, finally, they were safe … or so they thought. This WWII story is explained through a kid’s view on WWII by Mr. Ralph and Cathy Brink.

Slave Kids, the ‘death watchers’!

Although we were just real young kids, we were put to work in the tropical sun in the death camps of the World War II. We weeded around the death camp, or were put to work breaking clumps of hard dried dirt with our bare hands so as to prepare beds of soil for some foodstuffs to grow.

Some years after the World War, as a teenager, I made a drawing showing the dirt beds, the bilik fence, and a watchtower which was manned by an armed guard. A hole on the bilik symbolized the intense desire for life outside the camps; the desire to see the horizon rather than the hated fence.

There was another utterly disgusting job for which kids were used: the ‘death watching’ in the death camps. They had to do it with the dying old men whose bodies were usually terribly swollen, and from which as a result of the tropical heat fluids dripped.

After any one of the old men died, the kids had to close the eyelids and call the orderly. They then had to help prepare the body for burial. Basically that amounted to old watches, rings or other valuables being swiped, to be used for smuggling. The kids then had to place the cadavers on simple gurneys made out of boards, which were then often placed outside, in the tropical sun. There was no room anywhere else. Some 10-15 old men died each day. And thus our story in the death camps were horrible with lot of suffering aspects. The Japanese death camps in Ambarawa were more horrible. This WWII story is explained through a kid’s view on WWII by Mr. Ralph and Cathy Brink.

The sacrifice of a mother

The WW II story is continued in the book of World War II filled with lot of suffering aspects, but we should take it as inspiring ones.

In the mid-September of the year 1944, I turned 10. We were still interned in Banjoe Biroe as death camp slaves. About that time, an announcement was made that all boys 10 years and older would get a free pair of socks; and to present themselves at a particular date and time by the front gate. My Mother was apprehensive. I thought it was a great idea the first present I would be getting in years!

As the 10-year old boys assembled at the right time, our names were carefully noted. Subsequently the Mothers were told to pack some necessities and changes of clothing, because the next day we were to be taken to a special boys’ camp. That camp turned out to be the infamous death camp 7 in Ambarawa; a death camp with a very miserable reputation.

Now my dear Mother had to say goodbye to her youngest her already scrawny 10-year-old flesh-and-blood. Imagine: For years she had not heard anything from or about her own elderly parents in Nazi-occupied Holland at the time of World War II. Her husband, the oldest stepson, and her now 2-year old son Fred had already been taken away. This time she had to say good-bye to her ‘baby.’

As I mentioned before: during all those war years I never ever heard my mother complain. When the Japanese death camps army truck with its cargo of dearly beloved 10-year old boys drove away, my Mom waved and did not even visibly cry. She made things easier on me, for sure!

It was decades later that my oldest sister Vanda told me how, after the military truck had driven off with its precious cargo and vanished out of sight, my Mother collapsed and completely broke down. What a vicious assault to the human psyche, to have a Mother experience one horrendous blow after another. This WWII story is explained through a kid’s view on WWII by Mr. Ralph and Cathy Brink.

Wicked leaders

The cruelty of the World War is mainly due to the inhuman and selfish mentality of the leaders who ruled over those days. Many suffered in death camps like Japanese death camps, Ambarawa Camp Seven, Indonesia death camps etc. What does make me sad, however, is to observe even today the use of mesmerizing power of clearly wicked leaders, führers and dictators usually backed by their religious, political, and military sycophants.

These leaders of the World War had an mysterious ability to brainwash entire population and create a cruel and fanatical mob mentality. And it is continued even today. That mentality justifies and even rewards mindless atrocities more often than not with the wholehearted blessing of their religious clergy something that has been the case in both Christendom as well as in atheist and Communist countries. That is what is absolutely terrifying.

Mankind apparently refuses to benefit from the lessons of its recent history. World War II is past; but do not for a moment believe that the cycle of violence and brutality of man’s inhumanity to man has abated. Witness Korea, Vietnam, Malawi, Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Iran, and too many other places to mention. The WW II story narrates everything from the life incidents of some soldiers and victims.

How privileged we are to be alive, even with the various problems we have to contend with, such as old age, sickness, and what-have-you. Let us never take our many blessings for granted, or lose our joy in the worship of our Heavenly creator because He is the one who leads us with hope. This hope and joy aroused from the sufferings of the World War is our inspiration to go forward.

Any personal animosity towards the Japanese or German people?

The bitter memories of the World War II, which were haunting me for certain period of my life became enriching and energizing ones. To be in Pearl Harbor, the place where the U.S.A. first became involved in that awful World War, and to stand in the exact spot on the Missouri where the surrender document was signed, made me deeply meditate on how precious life, along with our present blessings associated with freedom, really is. Our lives have been changed from indescribable tragedy to boundless joy!

I found myself spending time in heartfelt prayer, whether sitting in Waikiki Beach enjoying God’s delightful creation, or lying in bed at night next to the love of my life, my precious, faithful wife Cathy.

How privileged we are to be alive, even with the various problems we have to contend with, such as old age, sickness, and what-have-you. Let us never take our many blessings for granted, or lose our joy in the worship of our Heavenly creator.

Regarding the sufferings in the World War along with Japanese death camps and German the death camp slaves some have asked me whether I still have any personal animosity towards the Japanese or German people. My simple, emphatic answer is: No, I do not. I have come to appreciate that in every nation there is good, and there is evil. The Bible book of Acts says it well:

“For a certainty I perceive that God is not partial, but in

every nation the man that fears him and works righteousness

is acceptable to Him.”

Cathy and I have wholeheartedly accepted the significance of those words. It is a simple indication that a spiritual outlook in life can help one gain peace, as well as hope, comfort and joy.

The WW II story which is explained in the book of World War II is mostly filled with lot of suffering aspects, but we should take it as inspiring ones. The Japanese death camps in Ambarawa were horrible. This WWII story is explained through a kid’s view on WWII by Mr. Ralph and Cathy Brink.

USS Missouri war memorial

Reflecting on the WWII story account, we [me and my wife] visited the battleship Missouri, which was decommissioned in 1998. It rests a tone’s throw away from the Arizona. On the deck of this battleship the surrender by Japan was signed, and that formally ended WW II.

As my wife and I stood on the deck of the Missouri, overlooking beautiful Pearl Harbor, the serene countryside and its gorgeous cloud-filled skies, we could not help but reflect in total amazement on man’s inhumanity to man in the World War II. We could not conceive of what possible justification existed in the minds of those fighter pilots swooping in on that early Sunday morning, to indiscriminately kill and maim their fellow man!

In 1999, the battleship USS Missouri was moved to Pearl Harbor from the United States west coast and docked near, and perpendicular to, the USS Arizona Memorial. Upon the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, the Japanese surrendered to United States General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz, ending World War II. The pairing of the two ships became an evocative symbol of the beginning and end of the United States' participation in the bloodiest war the world had ever seen.

The pairing of the two ships has not been free from controversy, however. Memorial staff has criticized the placement of the Missouri, saying the large battleship would "overshadow" the Arizona Memorial of the World War II. To help guard against this perception Missouri was placed well back of the Arizona Memorial, and positioned in Pearl Harbor in such a way as to prevent those participating in Military Ceremonies on Missouri's aft decks from seeing the Arizona Memorial. The decision to have Missouri's bow face the Arizona Memorial was intended to convey that Missouri now watches over the remains of the battleship Arizona so that those interred within Arizona's hull may rest in peace. These measures have helped preserve the individual identities of the Arizona Memorial and the Missouri Memorial, which has improved the public's perception of having both Arizona and Missouri in the same harbor.

A flood of emotions overwhelmed me. My thoughts went back in time, to Sept 2, 1945. The members of my family had been incarcerated in various different Japanese concentration camps for years in WW II. On the very day that surrender document was signed on the Missouri, I was only 10 years old, a ‘boy-slave’ of the Japanese death camp slaves. I had been separated from my Mother, my Dad, and my siblings. My oldest brother was a P.O.W. in Japan. Had ‘The Bomb’— which led to Japan’s signing of the surrender — had it been dropped just a week later, I would not have made it. I was literally on ‘death’s doorstep,’ emaciated, dehydrated, suffering from beriberi and dysentery.