DUTCH INDONESIAN MEMOIRS 1941 - 1948

HANGER 6  Naval Airstation Morokrembangan

PAGE 2. 4th MEMOIR ACCOUNT FROM HANGER 6
JOHN H FRANKEN

But the rumours became stronger about a landing by the Americans on the other side of the island.  There were three men, an army sergeant, an officer Mr. De Haan, and Entrop a sailor who slept in one corner of my room, who planned their escape in deep secrecy.  We all got along very well.  One of them, a big man about six feet tall with a beard and very kind blue eyes, was well educated.  He told us many stories about his adventures in Holland. 

The escape was well planned but not the results which followed.  The next morning when we were counted, they were missed.  The whole camp was called together, and the camp commander gave a speech.  The Japanese commander was furious.  Right away ten hostages were taken from the corner where Entrop was sleeping.   The Jap camp commander let us know that they definitely would be killed if the escapees did not return in three days and that this would continue until they all came back.  This was a threat to ward off other escapes.

After three days the escapees were back in camp.  The natives told the Japanese search team where they could be found.  One of my friends 'Plasse', was asked what he would like as his last meal.  He asked for eggshells.  When the Jap guard did not understand and asked why he wanted eggshells, he said that he needed all the calcium he could get for his bones when he was dead.  The three were severely beaten while they were still in their green army uniforms and had their puttees around their legs.  The Japanese camp commander ordered the death sentence.  He was also going to show us that he was not entirely without feeling so he released the ten men back to our room.  They were quite shaken up by the ordeal and it did make a mark on their minds forever!  The warning was given that at the next escape these ten would be the first ones to be executed.

On the day of the sentencing of the three escapees, they were given their last meals.  Then they were transported to an open field outside the campsite where they had to dig their own grave.  They had to kneel in front of the grave and were decapitated.  Jan Oorlog tried to have the sentence changed to no avail, as the Japanese did not respect the Geneva Convention.  All, my friends and I were trying to cope with these experiences even today.

When a Japanese guard found a rusted gun under a heap of firewood the Japs made a real big thing about it.  We all had to come together on the big square in the middle of the camp.  There we got a big speech and were told to reveal how the gun got there or we would all be shot.  We had to line up in a long row and again we were hit on the behind.  This was my second time for a black and purple behind!

After a while I had a more permanent job with a couple of other friends working around the houses where the Japanese officers were staying.  I saw lots of trucks passing by with native girls on them between 14 and 17 years old and some were even younger...  They were transported to the hospital for a check-up prior to sexual contact and rape by Japanese officers and soldiers.  After the check-up, they were transported to the schools where the classrooms were transformed to small rooms.  In each room was a bamboo bed with a 'tikar' (a straw mat) and a small pillow.  I had to work in those schools to clean up.  When we arrived at the school, we were first counted and then we were told that we were not allowed to talk to the girls.  We would arrive around eight a.m. when it was still quite peaceful.  We had to clean the grounds around the school first and then we would see the girls coming but of the bathhouse, clean and fresh-for the coming events.  Slowly the schoolyard would get busier with officers and soldiers.

The more beautiful girls were kept in a different part of the school for the officers.  At the entrance of the yard a soldier would stand whose job it was to punch holes in a card so that the soldiers would know when it was their turn to have intercourse with the girls.  They had to stand in line waiting for their turn and they seemed very happy about these weekly sexual activities.  As soon as five or six soldiers had gone in, my friend and I were called in.  Our job was to remove a long towel, stretched across the room, about four feet of the floor and we had to install a clean one.  After each intercourse, the girls had to walk across the room with the towel between their legs to clean off the semen of the soldiers and then to be ready for the next one.  Some of the girls were accepting it, others were just like zombies.

I felt very uncomfortable and very sorry for them.  They had been picked up in the villages to be raped.  The officers would get the virgins first.  I can still hear their screams for help, 'Toeloeng!', 'Toeloeng!' (Which means help in Malay).  This would also leave a mark for the rest of their lives.  As there was soap around that place, I sometimes managed to smuggle a piece back into the camp.  I had sewn a special pocket inside my pants between my legs and there I hid the soap.  It was such a delight to wash yourself with soap.

As time went on, the food in the camp was not so good anymore and the supplies from the natives were not getting better either, but we invented other means.  We waited for a full moon and in groups of six, we went outside.  We waited till the changing of the guards was over.  Then one of us would be the look-out.  Another one climbed in a coconut tree which was more than 40 feet high.  The other four took a blanket at each corner and stretched it out until it was completely flat.  After the signal was given, a coconut would be on the way down to be caught on the blanket.  The coconut meat and the milk were delicious, especially the young ones which were very nutritious.  We buried the husks and coconut shells in holes in the ground.

Sometimes the men played practical jokes on a friend and even on Japanese soldiers, although with them there was always the danger of backfiring.  First, I tell you the joke we played on a fellow prisoner.  This guy was a bachelor and very sexy, besides, he liked himself a lot.  Also, he was very fond of sex stories.  We would usually talk about sex, and we would make sure that he would hear us.  Then he would move up closer and closer to listen in.  So, we made up a story that sometimes there were native girls near the barbed wire waiting to have sex with the prisoners.  There was a marine corporal who was an expert in dressing up as a native girl.  After we had talked about the fact that the girl was waiting, the bachelor had come near us again to listen in.  when it was dark, he went to the barbed wire where the corporal stood waiting, dressed as a native girl.  While everybody was watching, the corporal was trying to have sex through the first barbed wire, which was not as closely watched by the guards.  I thought it was quite mean to do this to a fellow prisoner.

Another time we played a joke on the Jap.  Every morning a big bag of bananas was delivered to the camp and put under a tree near the guardhouse to be picked up by the Japanese cook to be used for the Japanese soldiers at lunchtime.  Under this tree was also a bench where we could sit.  So every time a prisoner went to the bench to sit down, he took a few banana out of the bag and replaced them with twigs and small pieces of wood so that on the outside the bag remained the same size.  After the bag had been emptied of the bananas, we were waiting to see what would happen when the Jap came to pick up the bag.  He almost flipped over when he lifted the bag up as he had expected the bag to be heavy with bananas.  The 'kurahs' were heard almost a mile away, but. luckily, he walked away, and we realized what a dangerous game we had been playing.

The evenings were very boring, and we went to sleep early because it was lights-out by eight p.m. and we were looking forward to the weekends when it was clean-up time.  We visited friends, talked about the future or visited the doctor for scrapes and pains at this time.  There was still medicine available from the Red Cross, but for infections the only medicine was a solution of permanganate which we used for flushing out infections.  I still use it today for gargling when I have a sore throat.  We also had exercises and lectures from civilians who were assigned to teach on many subjects.  So, we also had maths classes, chess games, made with camp-made chess pieces.  We had singsongs, all this in order to try and keep our moral high.  We even had a dentist for whom, we had made a dentist drill from an old bicycle wheel turned by hand.  There was no anaesthetic to kill the pain though, if a tooth had to be pulled.

In August rumours went through camp that 1000 P.O.W.'s were to be chosen to be shipped to a different country.  I was to be one of them!  With other prisoners we were told that we were going to a colder climate.  Then we found out that we were going to Japan on a freighter, the 'Asamah Maruh'.  We started to say our good-byes to the ones who stayed behind and exchanged addresses in case we would meet again after the war or, to notify family in case we would not survive the war.  The 'Asamah Maruh' was a part passenger ship for soldiers and geishas who were already onboard.   We had to board the freighter on the side and had to go below deck.  There were some cows there and a terrible smell of 'Comedo Maraan'. 

On October the 14th, 1942 we sailed out of the harbour of Makassar.  The portholes remained shut for the whole voyage and washing yourself was not included.  Lots of us became very seasick and were throwing up constantly all over the place.  There was not very much space to begin with and no air circulation.  The only air that could come in was to come from the opening at the top of the steel stairs to the deck.  We were aired once a day going up the steel stairs one at a time.  Many thoughts were going through our minds thinking about being trapped down below in case we would be torpedoed by an American sub-marine.  Some of my friends were so affected by the heat and lack of air that they were fainting.  The smell of the urine and vomit was overwhelming.  Boiling hot air and darkness, now that I think back it must have been like the times of the slave transports from Africa to America.  We found a water hose and connected it to one of the outlets and so we tried to somewhat, spray ourselves clean...

We knew that our next stop would be the Philippines and we were zigzagging for a while to avoid the sub-marines.  After ten days I was ready to give up.  Nothing could be worse.  When we arrived in the harbour of Manilla, and we saw the carnage the Japanese had done to the American fleet...   The warships were laying on the bottom of the harbour with the smokestacks sticking up above the water and I said a prayer for the ones who must have drowned with their ships.  After our ship had taken on food, drinking water and fuel we sailed out of the harbour again into the night.

Late in the afternoon of October 23, 1942, we arrived in the harbour of Nagasaki, Japan.  The temperature was about 14 degrees C, and many of us caught pneumonia when we got on deck.  The difference in temperature from below deck and above was so extreme that it was unavoidable not to catch something.  The harbour looked beautiful though, with the hills in the background and the clear blue sky.  Flat boats came alongside the 'Asamah Maruh' that took about 50 P.O.W’s and their belongings on board.  An old man was navigating the boat I was on, with a long paddle at the rear and there was one guard at the front.  After we landed, we were counted again and again.  Then we had to march to the famous Fukuoka II, a wooden camp with a guardhouse and a big, barbed wire fence all around it.  Again, we were counted and re-counted and then searched.  Every sharp thing was taken away.

The camp was built in a U-form with 18 rooms on each side and in the connecting rounded part were the washrooms and the kitchen.  Each room was for 52 P.O.W.'s.  There were bunk beds, two rows of 13, on each side of the room.  The lower bed was about two and & half feet off the ground and the space underneath had sliding doors where we kept part of our belongings.  Over the whole length in the centre of the room were narrow tables and benches.  At the end of the room was one big glass window wall.   I was going to be in this room for the next few years, room 14.  My number was printed on a band of cloth which I had to sew on all my clothes: it was No.620.  My friend Harry Fryling, No.621 also survived the war and lives today in Amstelveen, Holland.  He and I still correspond together.  He still suffers from the after­ effects of the P.O.W. period today.

After a few days of rest, dysentery broke out among the men and many dehydrated very quickly.   They got opium drops to stop the outflow.  Many did not make it to the toilets as the waiting lines became longer and longer every day.   Many died in their first period in this camp.  Also, because many suffered from the pneumonia which they caught when they were exposed to the drastic temperature changes by coming out of the boiling heat of the hold of the ship into the cold fall air above on deck.  There had been nothing to cover up, no warm clothing or anything...

On the 1st November 1942, we had to report for work.  The only thing we heard again was, 'Kurah!', 'Kurah!'  Slowly we learned some words and we even could choose some of the work we liked best.  I was suspicious, as I remembered the volunteers for the famous telegraph jobs in Makassar which turned out to be carrying telephone posts.  All kinds of work was available, such as drillers, cleaners, welders etc.  Then we got the speeches... about working hard and being punished if caught loafing, about violating rules..,  I did not like to volunteer for the heavy work so I chose to be a cleaner.  This meant I had to sit in front of a big heap of dirt that had been collected off a ship that was being built. 
The main thing was to take out all the nuts and bolts and other metal objects for cleaning and re-use.  There was little control, and the guards were far away.  We were now under the control of some wharf foremen.  It was a very cold job without gloves and my fingers became badly swollen.  The noise around us was unbearable so that I put a piece of wet newspaper in my ears.  The officers did not have to work.  I was jealous of the rivetters who had a little coal stove where they had to heat up the rivets before they were installed on the steel plates to be hammered in.   The ship being built was resting on big wooden blocks which we also had to place when the keel was laid.

What I did was a very dirty job, and it was very dark under the ship.  There were lots of pools of water and I always had wet feet.   One day while we were resting, we made a small fire to warm ourselves when a guard happened to spot us and then all hell broke loose!  We had to do push-ups in a complete straight position for 20 minutes.  Every time we sagged down, we were hit on the behind with the butt of his gun.  My stomach muscles were hurting for weeks afterwards.  I went to see our doctor.  There were four of them, Dr. Niewenhuis, Dr. Walvis, Dr. Huisman and Dr. Syred.  Dr. Huisman told me to use hot towels to relieve the pain, for all twelve of us.

Our lunch consisted of an amount which could fit in two sardine cans.  One small one with some seaweed and the other with rice.  Some of our boys filled these cans up prior to going to work, but once there, we had no chance to heat it up.  We also could not leave the cans out of our sight for a moment, or they would be stolen in no time.  When we were passing an office, we were looking for scraps of food and especially the smokers were after every single cigarette but they could find.  After a day's work we were starving when we came back to the camp.  Then the Japanese promised extra food for better production.

There I got a break.  They were asking for electrical welders.  I had learned that at the Technical School, so I volunteered and was told to make a test piece.  Just before the foreman came for inspection, I had heated up the piece with an acetylene burner.  The foreman was very pleased and the next day I got my welding outfit.  It was made up of a canvas jacket and trousers plus a welding cap.  Now I could sabotage by so-called 'cold welding'.  It looked good on the outside, but it was not melted together on the inside.  After a while I was promoted to weld the big masts of the ships and I started to do a better job.  The trick was trying to stay healthy as you would get only half a ration of food if you became sick.  The weather became colder, and colder and I was glad I had my canvas outfit.  Then while I was hammering off the slack, I got a sliver in my eye and it became seriously infected.

I was transferred to the wood mill shop where I had to assist an elderly Japanese at the smith's fire.  I had to hammer with a five-pound hammer.  I had to make the parts for the wood mill shop under the guidance of the old man.  I made a roaster of steel rods inside the chimney to heat up the lunches for the boys who were working outside, and this was greatly appreciated, especially in the winter.  Then I had to get the coal for the smith's fire.  I had to travel through a little village nearby where the dried fish was hung outside and so sometimes, I had dried fish for lunch.  I only had trouble walking in my rubber shoes as there had only been a size 11 available.  I filled the front end up with straw which kept my toes warm but in the meantime the shoes were flapping around.  Sometimes I had to help outside and one time a big steel plate fell on my foot but luckily enough, it landed on the tip of my shoe which was filled with straw and that saved my toes.

On another occasion I had to help with the direction of steel plates which were to be hoisted to the side of a ship.  I had to signal the crane operator by hand movements so that the large plates could be pulled out of the big piles.  He could not see what he was doing, so that made me the eyes of the operator.  The cables of the crane were one inch thick and there was a large metal block which kept the cables taut.  At one point the cable kept rolling off the main roller uncontrollably as the operator had not paid attention.  The cable block kept on coming down!  It grazed my head, and it stopped just above my hand which was just above the steel plate wall of the ship.  I had to force the block away and only the inside of my hand was bloodstained.

One afternoon the steel cable slipped off the main pulley at the end of the beam attached to the main tower, about 150 feet high.  I was ordered to go up there and put the cable back on the pulley roller.  It was quite an ordeal.  I also had to take all the equipment with me up there to attach to the cable, in order to hoist it back in place.  Only when I was back on the ground again did I get a reaction to what I had done.  I needed a rest and went under the ship out of sight or so I thought.  I was spotted by a soldier and received the same punishment as before.  This time I only had to make push-ups, without sagging my behind.  He let me off for a change with 15 push-ups but my muscles were sore, just the same.

Thank God that I was not a smoker.  I could trade my ration of cigarettes for warm clothing and food.  One of my friends was quite a smoker.  He pretended to be nuts and performed very well.  The Japanese made him do all kinds of tricks.  When they threw away their cigarette butts, he crawled to it and from about three feet distance he made a jump for it.  He got a sign sewn on his jacket that read, 'Bakka' which means 'crazy'.  After the war we had some good laughs about it.

My friend Van Veen lost his life.  He was one of many.  He was working about 50 feet above ground transporting concrete in a wheelbarrow in order to fill up a pillar that would support a rail track for the new electrical crane.  Because of his rubber shoes being too big, he tripped over a bolt which was there to support the new track.  He fell to his death breaking his neck, of course the Japs said that it was his own fault.  Four of us who were his closest friends, paid our last respects and took him by boat to Nagasaki for cremation.  We had to pick some bones and some ashes and took this back in an urn to the camp.  This urn was placed in a special room with others who had died due to sickness and accidents.

The first winter was especially terrible as we were not dressed for it. I managed to get a hold of empty cement bags in which I cut holes for my arms and head to keep the wind out.  In the morning after counting, we had to stand naked in a row in front of the benches in the middle of our room and rub ourselves with a little straw brush attached to a rope.  You had to rub your back till you were red all over.  The next thing to do was to run to the washrooms and after that to get ready for the next counting.  Then it was time to go to the wharf.  The Army released us to the Navy, and they released us to the civilians and in the evening, this went in reverse order. 

That first winter was also the first time I saw snow.  I was shivering all the time and my hands and feet were always cold.  On the weekends we could take our bath in the community bathhouse.  The water was so hot that you had to let yourself slide into the pool very slowly.  Your blood would rush to your skin, and you would become beet-red and it would make you dizzy.  On one side were the women and girls and the men on the other side.  While we were waiting for our turn, we were standing there with our pants and shirts in our hands looking for clothes lice and at night the bedbugs were eating our blood.  The cavities of the woodwork in our rooms were full of them.

At the beginning of December 1942 about 300 P.O.W.’s came in from Singapore and they were quite warmly dressed.  I traded with cigarettes for some of their air force shirts.  They had lots of news and told us about the sinking of the 'Prince of Wales' and the 'Repulse'.  Then Christmas came along, and the Japanese surprised us when we each received an apple.  We were very happy with this small token.  We also got four days off just like them.  We deserved this rest, and we used part of it to fix our clothing and did our laundry.  In room 18 was a soldier who got a violin from the Japanese to play on special occasions and weekends.  He was a master.  For the New Year we received our first winter outfit of the same quality as the soldiers.  It made the winter more bearable.  Only our shoes in the rain were always, wet.  We felt, miserable when it rained as we got soaked and had a hard time keeping warm.  The road to the wharf was a real country road and when it rained it was very muddy.  I used to slide instead of walking and there was always that guard with the stick.

Then it was my turn to get dysentery.  The old Japanese man, my boss, hid me under the driving belt of the main power supply and every morning, as soon as I was at work, he brought me some soft rice.  On the way to the wharf, I had to break out of the marching ranks to go on the side of the road and then I had to run to catch up with them all.  I lost a lot of weight, and I was able to count my ribs.  From Dr. Niewenhuis I got opium drops to stop the outflow, but I surely had to cut some more holes in my belt.  I count myself very lucky to have pulled through as many died from this disease.   Our resistance was so low and there were many trips to the crematorium.

Then the Red Cross parcels arrived.  With them were also very good leather shoes, but we were not allowed to wear them to work.  They were water-tight and had heavy leather soles. (I think that it would have made the other Japanese labourers who worked alongside us, jealous, if we were wearing new shoes).

That first winter made me feel really miserable.  The days were very short, and I was wondering how long this prison time would last and if I could survive it now that my health had deteriorated.  Sometimes I was thinking of hitting a brick wall, but then I went to see my friends John Koch, Joop Brinkert, Harry Fryling and David Brandon.  Then we talked and talked about will power and trust in God as he would take care of everything.  That was also the time that I started to go back to my roots.  David was more educated in the Jewish religion, and I wished that I had known more about it.  I was brought up in no-where-land in the middle of Java in Indonesia where Jewish life was non-existent.  We talked about home, what the future would bring and about our plans when we would get out of prison.

The hunger got worse.  We started to talk about food all the time.  The Red Cross boxes had to be divided.  We received a two-pound box between the four of us but we were keeping it for special occasions.  Our water retention got slowly worse due to lack of salt in our food.  Sometimes we had to run four times during the night and the line-ups before the toilets also did not get any better.  Then the four of us found a solution by bringing a tin can with seawater from the shipyard to camp.  We boiled this water on the kitchen fires till it was all evaporated.  A black salt powder was left in the bottom of the tin can which we collected and added to our food.  This took care of that problem, and many followed our example and did the same thing.  Then our feet started to swell up due to a lack of Vitamin B.  The sawmill where I was working at the time, had a machine at the smith's fire to separate the chaff from the rice.   I managed to gather a couple of cups per day which I ate after I had cooked it in some water above the smith's fire and it worked, slowly my legs got back to normal.

At work we were always on the lookout for the guards.  This was not only necessary for us P.O.W.'s but also for the civilian workers who also had to put in the necessary war effort.  They also could be reported and punished.  We knew our way on the ships that were being built, very well.  The guards would not come to the places where there was a chance of accidents.  For example, the riveters were throwing the red-hot metal rivets way up to the riveters who would catch them in a metal cone. Where this was going on, we were quite safe and were never caught for resting or committing other infractions.  The noise was unbearable, and the cranes overhead kept on running with the beams and steel plates for the ships.  One day an accident did happen.  A steel cable carrying maybe a ton of beams broke just about 20 feet away from me after it had just passed over my head.   Nobody was hurt this time.  But there were many accidents.  A friend of mine tripped and fell over the side but luckily landed on a coil of riveting air hoses which saved his life.

Our sleep at night was so often interrupted due to the attacks of the bedbugs so we tried to catch up a little during the day when we were at work.  Some of us would be on the lookout for the guards although they would not come to the dirty places as they were wearing white uniforms.  Most of us would sleep during lunchtime when at that time everything came to a standstill.  It would be over in no time then everything came to life again.  We were happy when the days had gone by without any mishaps or beatings, and then we were counted and counted again when we entered the camp, just in case someone might have escaped on the way back.  After everybody was in, it would be time for a smoke, but only when the guard came around to supply the match.  If anyone tried to light up before that, it was considered a crime and you would be severely punished as this meant that you were in possession of matches.  We would exchange news, if there was any.  At one time I got two cigarettes which I traded for food.

Around six o'clock it was feeding time and every room in turn picked up the barrels with rice and the soup with sometimes a small piece of meat in it.  Then came the tea water as it looked only slightly yellow, but it was hot which was important to me.  We would talk about what happened that day but mainly about food.  Palte a friend of mine could imitate very well.  He could imitate eating a banana and the whole room was eating with him.  When the horn sounded it was the sign that it was rubbing time again and search time for lice and then it was time to hit the deck, at 9:30 it was lights out.

On the weekends we had cabaret but in such a way that the Japanese would not notice it.  If a guard was on the way, we called 'Rood voor' which meant 'Red is on the way'.  The players would make up their own tunes and songs in their own words.  These light points on the weekends kept us going and kept the spirits high.  It would give us a laugh now and then.  We received Red Cross parcels four times a year and we divided them among ourselves.  I am sure that there were enough parcels for each and every one of us, but I suspect that the guards must have taken part of them because their food was also not so good due to war rationing. 

Later on, we got our bath once every ten days in a cement pool about 12 by 15 feet.  The idea was to get in there first and wash yourself.  Even if the water was boiling hot, it was clean only for the first groups.  By the time it was the turn of the last rooms of men, the water would be black but still nice and hot.  So, then they rotated the turns and every time another room was first.  At this time when everyone was naked you could see how skinny we were ribs and bones sticking out.  You could see the special bites of bedbugs and lice as there were welts and marks all over our bodies, but at least we felt clean every ten days.

Then there was a big catastrophe.  Where we were working there were four ships in the docks.  Two near the sea, separated by a movable hollow pontoon door.  The other two were separated again by another movable wall.  When the ships near the seaside were finished and ready to go, the doors of the locks were opened, and the seawater let in.  The ships would rise till they were even with the sea level and then they were pushed out for further completion, but on this day, January 24, 1944, there was a spring tide which happens only when there is a full moon. 

The first door collapsed and the whole dock flooded in no time.  The two ships in the dock were lifted up and pushed against the second hollow movable wall which cracked.  Then the water was seeping into the second dock next to the first one.   We saw that an accident was ready to happen and every P.O.W. got out of there as fast as possible but the Japanese labourers just kept on working which is still beyond my comprehension.  Then the dam burst, and the other two ships rammed the ones which were not in floating condition.  The whole thing happened in a flash.  We pulled lots of Japanese workers to safety.  But many were drowned under the ships.  When we were counted, none of the P.O.W.'s lost their lives.

On both sides of the dock were many concrete floors which were used to supply the ships below with the steel components.  There were ten floors on each side.  While we were being counted on the side of the dock, one of the Japanese workers fell from the tenth floor right in front of us.  His brains were smashed all over the pavement, but the guards apparently found it a big joke.  They were laughing their heads off when this worker had his accident.  Until today I try to understand the Japanese kind of humour!  There was another unbelievable incident where the Japanese workers had to hammer on a big steel plate which just came out of the furnace.  One of them had found a kitten and everyone was stroking it.  For some unknown reason the man threw the kitten on the red-hot steel plate where it gave a shrieking yell which was bone chilling.  Then it slowly burnt to a small heap of ashes.   All the Japs had the laugh of their life like it was a big joke.  These heavy muscled men against a small poor kitten.  Hard to understand!

Some of my friends received mail through the Red Cross.  I was worried about my mother and my brothers.  We were allowed to send a card with three sentences, all standard and I was praying that they would receive it.  After the war was over, I found out that my mother had died on November 3, 1944, in a Japanese prison camp in Ambarawa on Java, Indonesia.  We lived day by day and trusted that one day an end would come to this nightmare.  The rumours were getting wilder and especially when we were at work, we sometimes managed to smuggle in a newspaper.

We would occasionally see badly damaged ships in the harbour which were to be repaired.  The Japanese did not like the rumours we heard.  We were threatened with severe punishment if we would spread them.  In June we heard about the invasion of France and a possible end of the war in Europe.  In March, 1944, we heard the air-raid alarm going off daily and we were overjoyed to see the first B 29 bombers flying over.  It was not possible to have a sign on top of the roofs of our camp buildings to tell them up there that we were a prison camp.  Up there they were free and down below we were P.O.W.'s.  We were put to work by building big tunnels into the rocky hills as air-raid shelters.  The air-raid sirens were now going off several times a day.  On May 14 1944 we saw the first fighters flying over which meant that aircraft carriers were not to far off the coast of Japan or, that the Americans had captured an island not too far off.  We were not sure if the Japanese would continue to fight if the Americans would land on the main island.

On the 27th of May we were told to get ready to be transferred to another location.  Only a few hundred would have to stay behind.   On the 17th of June the names were made known, and I was one of the men to be moved to a coal mine.  We packed our few belongings in a bag and took it with us.  We left around two a.m. to go to the train station and then we did not leave until seven a.m.  The windows were tightly shut, and we sat like sardines in a can.  There was hardly any room to walk over to the toilets. 

We arrived in the evening after an almost 12-hour ordeal.  We had to walk a good 40 minutes to the coal mine camp while a truck took our bags with our possessions.  The camp looked very bad from the outside and we did not know what to expect.  As soon as we arrived, we were told to gather together to listen to a speech from the camp commander.  We were told to work hard not to try to escape... the same old routine.  Then we were searched and counted and counted.  Anything of value was taken, also any writing material.

In every camp we had been, there was a sadist in command.  In Makassar it was Yoshida, in Nagasaki it was Bokubo and here it was 'Crazywind'.  You had to be sure that you had all your buttons closed at all times.  If you had missed one, you would get the punishment of your life, but here the coal miners could take a bath every day and we also received more food.  The rooms were small six men to a room, but it was a little more private.  We were being trained to work in the mines.  It was very dangerous and there were many accidents.  I became skinnier by the day but tried to remain healthy.  We had to walk down the shaft while the Japanese used a little lorry/train.  I did not see the daylight until the weekend as we left very early in the morning when it was still dark, and it was evening when the workday was over.

Then we heard that the planes had been flying over to bomb Tokyo or many other places many times a day.  We felt that freedom could not be far off but I did not want to expect too much.

In Spring 1945, we heard that Germany had surrendered.  Then on August 9 my friends saw a flash in a northerly direction, and we knew something had happened.  In the evening we saw a red glow in the distance.  Another city had been bombed.  On August 15 we saw the Japanese soldiers listening to the radio with long faces.  We did not hear any air-raid sirens anymore and the night shift did not have to go to work in the mine.  The tension in the camp was growing.  We felt that this was the end of the war.  Our officers were invited to come to the main office and were offered chairs to sit on.  There they heard that the Emperor had decided to end the war.  It was hard to make the change over to freedom and to this day, I thank the Lord that I made it.  There were no psychiatrists waiting to debrief us as happens nowadays after hostages are released from capture.

That whole following night nobody slept a wink.  The next day was not like any other next day.  It was just like a dream.  I took a hot bath and washed all my clothes, whatever I still had.  So did everybody else.  We wanted to look our best.  No more working in the mine.  Everything else was stopped, the mine was even closed.  Slowly our officers took charge.  We received the Red Cross parcels out of the storage rooms and the food improved.  Thanks goes to Gys Flamming, our friend who was a male nurse.  He advised us to take just the right amounts of food as our bodies had to adjust to the richer consistency of it.  I saw many men walking around all bloated up after they had been overeating all that better food, which did not agree with their starved bodies.

Then we did paint the roofs of the buildings with the letters P.O.W. and not long after we were attacked by B29's who this time dropped barrels with food attached to parachutes.  Many parachutes did not open, and the drums fell to pieces while the food was scattered over a wide area.  The Japanese even enjoyed the food.  Soon our stockrooms were overflowing with food.  Then our camp commander asked us to sign with mirrors to the B29's to stop dropping down more food but they continued to do it.  Apparently, the telegraphist had just asked for more food while in the meantime he pretended that the B29's must have misunderstood his messages.  On one of the next days, a B29 came so low in a dive that it seemed that we could almost touch it.  We could even see the pilot.  He dropped pamphlets telling us that the war was over, that we would soon be freed and transported.

Then came the first Americans and there were lot of handshakes.  We all made small trips outside the camp.  The population also looked very poor because they also had suffered.  Three of us had our picture taken and we paid with a blanket.  Then came the 18th of September when we were taken out of the camp and went by train back to Nagasaki.  Now every window was open.  We yelled at the farmers in the fields.  Some of us were chewing gum and smoking the best of cigarettes.  The train arrived in Nagasaki where a month before the atom bomb had been dropped.  We were all very quiet when we saw the damage.  The train took about 40 minutes to get to the main station where the American Red Cross was waiting for us.  We could only see some streets and the remnants of some concrete buildings.  Everything was burnt.  The town was no more.  The burning smell was still there, and it seemed the shadow of the dead was everywhere.  We heard only the clicking of the wheels of the train as we went through this mass grave.

How can you put freedom in writing?  We were treated like kings.  There were nice girls and women who served us tea and coffee.  We were taken to a bathhouse to clean ourselves, to be de-liced and disinfected.  All our possessions were burnt, except for a few souvenirs which were also disinfected.  I was flown to Hokinawa, and from there, I went by ship to Manilla, where in a huge tent camp I was to recuperate from my ordeal in prison.

I was sad that it had taken the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to convince the Emperor to end the war which he had started!

All, my friends and I are trying to cope with these experiences even today.  There were no doctors waiting for us as happened in the case of the current hostages from Lebanon.  After the war we spent three months in Manilla in the Philippines to recuperate.  Then we were sent back again to Indonesia by the Dutch Navy to fight there.  We almost had a mutiny on board the ship, which was then diverted to Balikpapan where we had time to calm down.

John Herman Franken returned to Amsterdam but due to the lack of work emigrated to Montreal Canada in 1951.

There he started work as an aircraft hydraulics mechanic with Canadair and later with Air Canada. He started writing to a nurses aid in Amsterdam called Sonja Pagrach. She herself was a survivor of the Holocaust having cheated death three times in Auschwitz when the gas chamber malfunctioned. They married in July 1969.

In 1989 after retiring John suffered a major heart attack After recovering he began to campaign ceaselessly to pressure the Japanese government to apologize for war crimes against POWs and civilians, especially the tens of thousands of “comfort women” raped by the Imperial Japanese Army. That John had witnessed first hand.

Starting on the 7 July, Pearl Harbour day he went three times a year to the Japanese Embassy in Ottawa to protest, with his packed lunch and placard to stand outside alone or with friends. He continued undaunted for twenty years. When an apology did come 70 years late in 2011, it was delivered by a Japanese vice-minister for foreign affairs. Although Canada accepted it John did not, saying he wanted it from the Japanese legislation the Japanese Nation Diet.

In 2012 John had to give up his campaign due to ill health. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands awarded John with one of Netherlands highest honours the Medal of Orange-Nassau.
Given for his work in raising awareness of the suffering of Dutch and Allied POWs'.

Even into his 90’s, John Franken, was an active participant in the Canadian government program called "The Memory Project" whereby war veterans go to schools to tell young people about their wartime experiences in hopes that history will not be repeated.

On the very few occasions I talked to John, he was a kind and generous human being, who showed great interest and support for me wanting to publish, some of the stories of the men he had billeted with in Hanger 6, Morokrembangan. RIP John I will never forget you.

John Herman Franken died after a family reunion in Ottawa on July 12 2016, aged 94.

Further extensive information on Japanese POW's and camps can be found here.  http://www.mansell.com/pow-index.html

Copyright: The Author Mr John H. Franken, written 1997
No unauthorised use of this article in part or whole without the authors consent.
My thanks to John for sending me his memoirs and allowing me to include them on my web pages.
John Franken is one of the contributors to the book "4 Years Till Tommorrow" 1999  ISBN-10 ‏: ‎1895815045   ISBN-13 ‏: ‎978-1895815047

Book written by Rosalyn Franken about her parents "Meant to be" Page numbers source ISBN ‏: ‎0978427416