DOGS AND RATS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 132, 1 December 1945, Page 9

DOGS AND RATS

PRISON FARE IN JAVA

JAPANESE INHUMANITY

When ' Captain J. T. H. Schoon returned to Europe in 1937, after many years of service for his country in the Netherlands East Indies (where he was in charge of a reformatory for boys at Bandoeng) he did not like the sound of so much goose-stepping. So, accompanied by his two sons, he decided to settle in New Zealand. After establishing a home in Christchurcn. one son went on with his art studies, the other entered as a dental student at Otago University. But, instead of passing his days peacefully in New Zealand, Captain Schoon answered the call of the Netherlands when war threatened in the East, only to find himself eventually a prisoner of war in the same reformatory for three and a half years of which he had been the former head. Captain Schoon, still showing the effects of his internment, arrived m Wellington yesterday from Australia, en route to Christchurch, where he will take charge of an office for the Netherlands Indies Welfare Organisation for Evacuees. Captain Schoon returned to the Indies on the advice of Dr. Van Kleffins, the Dutch Foreign Minister, and joined the intelligence section, later becoming liaison officer on the staff of General Sir John Laverock, the A.1.8. commander, at his headquarters in Java. At that time it was hoped to obtain 80.000 Australians from the Middle East, but both British and Australians, on Lord Wavell's orders, had to withdraw from the Indies when Japan entered the war. In March, 1942, the Dutch general staff decided that Bandoeng was to be defended at all costs. Captain Schoon was given the task of organising camps there for women and children. ELANES SACRIFICED. "But we could not fight," he said to "The Post." "The situation was hopeless. What planes we had were sacrificed in Singapore, at Tarakan at Balik Papan, and in the Battle of the Java Sea. But we kept the Japs busy for two and a half months, and saved Australia and New Zealand . from invasion. The help expected from the United States came too late, but it helped you people in this part of the Pacific. If the Japs had not been so engrossed in capturing the Indies, they would have found Australia and New Zealand an easy prey. Their navy was then intact." Captain Schoon found himself back in his "old Borstal," as he referred to the reformatory, but as a prisoner of war, one of 1500 males in an establishment designed to accommodate 300 boys. Later, the internees were removed, and into the same building the Japanese poured 5000 white prisoners of war. "It was nothing but a death trap," he said. "The policy of the invaders was to destroy with deliberation all those men. If the war had lasted for another six months the situation would have been catastrophic. You can imagine what, it was like. Lack of water alone was a most serious problem. There was epidemic after epidemic, outbreaks of dysentery, malaria, beriberi, and other tropical diseases." About 25 per cent, of those interned died, but the mortality rate was even higher at other camps. ' , ' The Japanese refused to supply any medicines. Even medical supplies in Red Cross parcels were taken, likewise those on hand, of course, prior to the war. From the beginning the Japanese halfstarved their prisoners. In the early stages Captain Schoon and his companions were allowed to receive parcels, but that privilege was withdrawn later. "We were allowed no visitors, and as month followed month, we had less to eat," he said. "For breakfast we had a plate of starch porridge, mostly starch. At first we had tea or coffee, but soon we were on water only to drink. For lunch we were given a piece of bread three inches square. At night we received a handful of cooked rice, and a mug of soup that was mostly water." Though the Japanese killed cows for the guards, all that the prisoners ever saw were the entrails. The prisoners were soon eating dofs and rats, searching for snails and frogs, and even frying flying ants, a dish they had seen the natives cooking. "It tasted well," addetf Captain Schoon. "When a man is hungry he is not so particular." HITLER METHODS. Asked how he occupied himself during internment, Captain Schoon said that he gave many lectures on New Zealand: also, for a time, he taught English to classes that numbered 150, many of the internees being high school boys anxious to acquire a knowledge of that language. The Japanese, however, subsequently forbade the teaching of English. All text-books were seized. Books in the Dutch language were forbidden. To possess any volume of history or philosophy meant punishment. Only a few novels were permitted, and their distribution was supervised strictly. The use of paper and pencils was also forbidden. Study of any kind was frowned upon. The Japanese adopted Hitler methods of impressing the native youth, and slogans were instilled into their minds, likewise, of course, a bitter hatred of the white peoples. Among the popular songs taught the Javanese by ! Japanese instructors was one in the Malay language which said they would "hit the English with crowbars" and "iron out the Americans." "The youths so trained are now the backbone of the Indonesian revolutionary movement," commented Captain Schoon. "Japanese control of the Indies would not have profited the Japanese soldier in the slightest. In fact, he became so accustomed to looting wherever he went that his own people did not want him back in Japan. That period would, of course, have passed. The people who would have benefited were the big Japanese family trade monopolies. One of those who participated in this Japanese instruction was Dr. Soekarno. Yet he is the man who now talks of establishing a democratic republic. It is all nonsense."

Captain Schoon expects to be occupied in Christchurch for about a year with problems affecting evacuees from the Indies. He will leave ■ for the south tonight.