7 ms·
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 mi
by equalunique 9y ago
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.
- userbinator 9y agoHe died in the late 80s A lot of people don't live that long even without exposure to radiation or coal dust.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- sokoloff 9y agoIf he was 20 in the war, he could have been 65 in the late 80s. (Yes, it's true that not everyone lives that long, but it's on the short side.) "late 80s" there would be more likely to refer to "in the years 1987-1989 or so" than to "at an age of 87-89".
- kmm 9y agoI 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
- sokoloff 9y agoPerhaps. It would seem equally unusual for a 65+ year old soldier to be in a position to be captured as a PoW in Japan.
- dutchieinfrance 9y agoThe 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.
- sokoloff 9y agoYes, but ancestor post says "He was a Dutch Soldier captured by the Japanese held as a prisoner of war."
- doktrin 9y agoAt the end of the day, anyone who fought in the Boer war was born no later than the early 1880's.
- mikeash 9y agoIf he was still in the military at that point, then wouldn’t that be an accurate description?
- sokoloff 9y agoOf 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. It's all speculation for all of us except one. ;)
- hackermailman 9y agoI 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.
- WalterBright 9y ago> long life of war vets 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.
- binarray2000 9y agoThank 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)?
- dade_ 9y agoYour words are painful to read. Many people from thousands of kilometers away, liberated the Netherlands from Germany... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_in_World_War_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_in_World_War_II
- 24gttghh 9y agoI'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, [...]"
- binarray2000 9y agoThat 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).
- user982 9y ago> Many people from thousands of kilometers away, liberated the Netherlands from Germany... Analogously, Indonesia should be grateful to the Japanese for traveling thousands of kilometers to liberate them from the Dutch Netherlands.
- vadimberman 9y ago> He had fought the Boer War for the Dutch Sorry for the dumb question, but... He was in his 60s during WWII when he was captured?
- equalunique 9y agoYep. 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.
- refurb 9y agoCurved 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.
- equalunique 9y agoSeems 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.
- refurb 9y agoIn terms of age, the Boer War ended in 1902. Assuming he was close to 18 then, he would have been in his late 50's during WW2.
- equalunique 9y agoAh. 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.
- DanielBMarkham 9y agoThank you for the story. 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-to-kill-all-Allied-POWs-Are-there-any-existing-written-orders https://www.quora.com/Near-the-end-of-the-war-did-Japan-plan...
- equalunique 9y agoUnbroken was quite accurate. Another movie "Bridge Over River Kwai" paints a much rosier picture and is too sugar-coated for most survivors.
- DanielBMarkham 9y ago"Ghost Soldiers" is also an excellent view into the Japanese POW system.
- vbtemp 9y agoThanks for sharing this story. Thanks and appreciation to him as well for his service to his country and to the defeat of tyranny during the second world war.