Hirohito’s Unconditional Surrender Speech: the End of the War?
On August 14 the Japanese Emperor delivered his surrender speech – the war was over; but was it? Not for us in Camp Halmahera. For a full week, in our camp and many other camps, women and children were still dying. We did not know anything about the outside world. My mother wrote in her secret diary:
“Paula couldn’t sit or stand any more, and the situation couldn’t last long, but we were living life a day at a time. We just existed. We remained inside our house. We were a tightly knit trinity. The little ones had only me and I had only them. We had no more field labor, not even a roll call. We were so tired; we frequently just lay on our mattresses. We couldn’t have done anymore work anyway. Deaths became normal daily events all around us.
On the night of August 22, 1945, I crossed out another day on my little calendar. It would be the last time.”
If you haven’t read my books about our lives in the Japanese concentration camps on Java, please know that you can order the latest version of my book Rising from the Shadow of the Sun – A Story of Love, Survival and Joy from Amazon all over the world, in print and for your Kindle.
To be Continued
I welcome your comments!
Ronny