Photos recount WWII horror
Photos recount WWII horror
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Tantri Yuliandini
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
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A casual visitor might simply regard it as an odd assortment of
black-and-white photographs of grim-faced, bare-chested, old men.
But a closer look will award them greater insight; it is the
story of war victims.
Each of the 24 men in the photographs, displayed at the
Erasmus Huis Dutch cultural center until the end of this month,
has a profound, yet dreadful story to tell. That of the horror of
life along the Burma and Pekanbaru railway lines during World War
II.
It was the early 1940s, and the Japanese were winning the war
in Southeast Asia. For their campaign against Allied forces in
Burma they planned to build a railway line linking Thailand and
Burma, spanning 420 kilometers (km), for use as a supply route.
To fuel its war machinery, the Japanese also needed easy
access to Sumatra's rich coal fields, and planned to build a 220-
km railway line linking Muaro Sijunjung in the west to Pekanbaru
in the east.
In both places the railway lines had to penetrate inhospitable
jungle, swamps and rivers.
On the Thai-Burma line the Japanese put to work some 60,000
Allied prisoners of war (PoW), of which about 18,000 were Dutch,
and 160,000 romusha (Asian forced laborers). About 100,000
romusha, most of them Javanese, and 6,500 POWs, were put to work
on the Muaro Sijunjung to Pekanbaru line.
Relentless, hard labor on inadequate rations caused huge
losses and, according to historians, more than half did not
survive.
"It was much worse for the romusha than it was for us (PoWs),
because they were tricked into working on the lines. The Japanese
lied to them," former PoW George Voorneman, who attended the
opening of the exhibition, said.
The suffering of the PoWs and romusha moved Dutch photographer
Jan Banning to photograph survivors and research their stories.
Beginning with his father, Frans Banning, who had worked on
the Pekanbaru railway in 1944, the younger Banning successfully
located 24 other survivors within a timespan of one-and-a-half
years. These comprised 16 Dutch and Eurasian survivors and eight
former romusha, now living in Sumatra and Java.
"I started in Holland with my father and with my father's
friends," Jan Banning said on the opening night of his
exhibition. He said that he also placed an announcement in a
military veterans' publication in Holland to grab the attention
of more people.
Banning said that many people telephoned him to set up an
interview, but some later canceled the appointment because it
would dredge up too many unpleasant memories: "They became very
emotional and started crying".
Through old acquaintances and a local non-governmental
organization that had done research on jugun ianfu (comfort
women), Banning got in touch with eight former romusha.
The exhibition at Erasmus Huis showcased the results of many
hours of interviews and lots of unpleasant memories of the
victims. Each man was photographed bare-chested.
"Because that was how they worked. See the men as they are
now, but undressed as they were when they worked on the railway.
It was a connection between the past and present," Banning said.
Beside the large-format, black-and-white photographs are
testimonials of the men.
Frans Banning, born in Makassar, South Sulawesi, in 1921, was
taken prisoner while a military conscript and sent to work on the
Padang to Pekanbaru railway. When the war ended he became an
expert in textile chemistry.
"In the end ... we could only try to stay alive, forage for
food, try to prevent others from stealing it; the rest ... no
hope! That's what numbed the mind. Everything was the same. There
was no news of developments outside the camp. We didn't know
about the development of the war or when it would all end."
Damin, born in Blitar in 1916, became a romusha and worked on
the Pekanbaru railway. After Independence he became a cassava
farmer and was known as Mbah Ubi (Cassava Grandfather).
"People died or lived, just like pebbles that got caught in a
sieve. And I was like a grain of sand that escaped."
The stories of these 24 men can also be found in Jan Banning's
book, Sporen van oorlog. Overlevenden van de Birma- en de
Pakanbaroe-spoorweg published by IF Ipso Facto, Utrecht, 2003,
which can be bought at Erasmus Huis.
George Voorneman was 20 years old when he became a PoW and was
sent to work on the Burma to Thailand line. He lost his right eye
in a shell blast.
"I live by following God's will," 84-year-old Voorneman said.
Tracks of War photo exhibition is open until Feb. 28 at Erasmus
Huis Jakarta, Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav. S-3, Kuningan, Jakarta
12950.