My grandpa was there for this. He was a Dutch Soldier captured by the Japanese held as a prisoner of war. They had him doing hard labor underground in a coal mine in Hiroshima. When the bomb dropped, everyone in the mine evacuated, believing there was an earthquake happening. Even though he fought gruesome battles, even though he faced tortures / brutalities under the Japanese, it was the melting faces at Hiroshima that consistently haunted him during in his dreams.
Later they moved the POW labor to Nagasaki. They were kept on the outskirts of the city so were safe but still witnessed the second blast. When it happened, the house they were in collaped on him.
He had fought the Boer War for the Dutch. Even captured the regiment that Churchil was with, but luckily released them.
Later in WW2, he fought to protect the Dutch colony in Indonesia from the Japanese - but lost, e.g. the nuclear experiences in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
As far as health effects go, he seem to have suffered effects of radiation and also black lung from all of the coal mining. He died in the late 80s and the story in my family goes like this:
Some government scientists showed up at the house to ask his wife if they could autopsy him for research. Later, when the results were given to my family, we found out that all of his bones were slightly blue-tinted and curved. It is not suspected that this strange effect on his skeleton was caused by the radiation exposure, and that the mysterious pain he constantly experienced was a result of this odd deformation.
I don't get the long life of war vets either, my great grandfather was gassed twice in WWI and caught malaria fighting in Turkey yet lived until he was 99yrs old, didn't stop driving until he was 93.Most of his regiment lived well into their 80s and 90s as well he wrote to most of them his whole life.
If my father was any indication, he came out of WW2 and the Korean War with a vast appreciation for being alive. That had a positive effect on the rest of his life, and he passed at 93.
I think "his late 80's" seems more likely. The GP post mentions his grandfather fighting in the Boer War (~1900) which would make him almost 110 years old in the late 80's
The Japanese had all the Dutch imprisoned in Indonesia, not just soldiers. A number of male prisoners had been shipped off to Japan to work in labor camps.
Of course. At that point though, it would be unusual enough [for a soldier to serve actively in 1902 and in 1945] that when interpreting conflicting points in a story, that you have to consider if perhaps the author hasn't gotten something mixed up in the memory or in the telling.
If I told a story about my own grandfather's service in World War II in the Seabees (by happenstance he was also a coal miner as a civilian), I'd be likely to get something wrong, not out of intention to mislead, but just that I pieced together the story in my own memories in a certain way when I was told the stories as a young boy. I may mix in details from my other grandfather's service or a great-grandfather's time.
Then, weigh that against a non-native speaker's chance to use a common English idiom "in the late 80s" in a non-standard way and against the chance that someone would express some negative interpretation of someone passing in their late 80s as being perhaps related to radiation exposure and black lung.
Perhaps it was his regimen in the Dutch army which had captured Churchill during the Boer war. I.e., the leadership in that regimen were present during that time in the Boer War.
I don't know the story all that well because this is all stories from decades ago. The person who knew it best currently has dementia.
(Wish HN had the ability to edit a comment from 5 hrs ago.)
Yep. Looks like I got that fact wrong. Perhaps it was his regimen which had been in the Boer War in the past, but not himself. Or maybe it was his father. I don't really know. The woman who knows the story is quite old with dementia.
Curved bones sounds like malnutrition, namely ricketts or vitamin D deficiency. Having read some about how the Japanese treated Western POWs, I wouldn't be surprised.
Seems likely. His wife (before they were married) were also held by the Japanese in Indonesia. She was mostly Indonesian by decent, but because she was living in a Dutch part of Jakarta, she and the rest of the people there were all held in camp. There, they allegedly only received one cup of rice per day.
Your grandpa was lucky to have lived through it. The Japanese were preparing to execute all slave prisoners of war in anticipation of the main island campaigns.[1] I think if the nukes had waited another month or two there would have been tens of thousands of allied POWs that never would have made it home.
1. Happy to lookup/provide links if requested. What immediately comes to mind is the story of Louis Zamperini which was captured in the 2014 movie "Unbroken". The book covers how close they all came to extinction (and is also much better than the movie) Also https://www.quora.com/Near-the-end-of-the-war-did-Japan-plan...
Ah. My memory might have duped me there. Perhaps it was his regimen in the Dutch army which had captured Churchill during the Boer war. I.e., the leadership in that regimen were present during that time in the Boer War.
Thank you for this honest post. When I read it I cannot help but think of how your grandfather fought thousands and thousands of kilometers away from his home (Japan, South Africa, Indonesia). In places that have never threatened him, his family or his people. If not for imperial interests, could you please expand on why he did it (if you know it)?
He was a Dutch imperialist fighting Japanese imperialists, and also collateral damage for United States imperialists. Into the 70s, he ended up retiring in the United States, while his brother who also fought alongside him, ended up becoming a Dutch diplomat in Japan. Why did they do it? For the pension, of course. Can't sustain pensions without wealthy governments.
I'm sorry but you seem to be ignoring the jist of his comment [0], and entire centuries of arguably genocidal European (in this case Dutch, but every country and their uncle with the means to do so, did to some extent; lest you think I'm singling out the Dutch) colonialism. Emphasis mine:
[0]>"In places that have never threatened him, his family or his people. If not for imperial interests, [...]"
That is exactly my point. The link dade_ has posted has interesting new and interesting details on that. First sentence under "Dutch East Indies and the war in the Far East" heading is telling:
> On December 8, 1941, the Netherlands declared war on the Japanese Empire.[35] On January 10, 1942 the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).
Experience of the occupation varied considerably, depending upon where one lived and one's social position. Many who lived in areas considered important to the war effort experienced torture, sex slavery, arbitrary arrest and execution, and other war crimes. Many thousands of people were taken away from Indonesia as forced labourers (romusha) for Japanese military projects, including the Burma-Siam and Saketi-Bayah railways, and suffered or died as a result of ill-treatment and starvation. Between four and 10 million romusha in Java were forced to work by the Japanese military.[22] About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in South East Asia, Only 52,000 were repatriated to Java, meaning that there was a death rate of 80%.
As an Indonesian who was kept in a labor camp by the Japanese, my grandma (aforementioned Grandpa's wife) will attest that the Japanese were absolutely brutal. Her sisters were raped in prison. They starved on one cup of rice per day. In occupied Jakarta, a town square with water fountain in the center was filled with crocodiles, and people who resisted the Japanese were thrown inside it - any one who closed their eyes or turned their head to look away was punished. Japanese occupation was objectively bad, although the Dutch were known to be extremely harsh at times too.
Agreed. I was mostly being facetious; although Indonesian independence might not have occurred without the effects of the Japanese occupation, the actuality was obviously nothing to be grateful for.
Later they moved the POW labor to Nagasaki. They were kept on the outskirts of the city so were safe but still witnessed the second blast. When it happened, the house they were in collaped on him.
He had fought the Boer War for the Dutch. Even captured the regiment that Churchil was with, but luckily released them.
Later in WW2, he fought to protect the Dutch colony in Indonesia from the Japanese - but lost, e.g. the nuclear experiences in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
As far as health effects go, he seem to have suffered effects of radiation and also black lung from all of the coal mining. He died in the late 80s and the story in my family goes like this:
Some government scientists showed up at the house to ask his wife if they could autopsy him for research. Later, when the results were given to my family, we found out that all of his bones were slightly blue-tinted and curved. It is not suspected that this strange effect on his skeleton was caused by the radiation exposure, and that the mysterious pain he constantly experienced was a result of this odd deformation.