Indonesia 1944/45

The death of 11 Dutch SCJs in a Japanese concentration camp at Muntok on Banka Island in Indonesia between 1944 and 1945 is a part of a very complex story. It is tied up with the war crimes of the Japanese against the civil population of occupied countries, the fall of Holland as a colonial power, the rise of an Indonesian independence movement, World War II in the Pacific area, and, last but not least, the life and sufferings of individual SCJs. To be more precise, it is the culmination of many diverse elements coming together interdependently making it difficult to give suitable consideration of the witness given by these SCJs. For these reasons they have often been consigned to oblivion.

On February 15, 1942, Japanese troops overran the island of Sumatra, a part of the Dutch colonial empire. Initially after the invasion the mission work continued unimpeded. This situation changed radically starting on April 1,1942, when all the European nationals were interred. The men were imprisoned in Palembang, while the women and children were quartered in some European homes. Later on the internees were forced to construct with their own hands two concentration camps, one for women and the other for men.

In July and August 1943 the Japanese began a policy of vigorously rounding up of persons suspected of collaborating with the allies. Consequently, many Europeans in the concentration camps in Palembang, and among them many religious, were deported to Muntok on the island of Banka.

Muntok is an arid area with a very harsh climate. The daily ration of rice varied from 100 to 300 grams. This treatment was the practice in Japanese concentration camps to weaken and slowly exterminate prisoners. The lack of nutrition led to the elimination of activities such as schools. Often the internees became too weak to attend camp funerals.

In Muntok, due to the lack of nutrition, 250 out of some 942 men died; similar statistics applied to the women; probably greater numbers of children died. Among those who died were 11 Dutch SCJs: Fr. Heinrich Norbert van Oort, Fr. Peter Matthias Cobben, Fr. Francis Hofstad, Fr. Isidore Gabriel Mikkers, Fr. Theodore Thomas Kappers, Fr. Andrew Gebbing, Fr. Peter Nicasius van Eyk, Fr. Francis John v. Iersel, Fr. Wilhelm Francisc Hoffmann, Br. Matthew Gerard Schulte, and Br. Wilfrid Theodore van der Werf.