Ladies and gentlemen let’s begin. We commemorate our fellow countrymen who have died in the struggle against the Japanese terror.
De Bie: Everybody was afraid of the Jap, heh. There were sadists, criminals, heh. Underdeveloped beings. So they enjoyed hurting us. They even laughed at it.
Nagase Takashi: Still they make me a target of hatred. Some POW’s will protect me. Some other want to throw me off the bridge of the river Kwae. But some good POW’s want to protect me and want to walk across with me.
May the 5th. In the Thai village Kanchanaburi Dutch ex-POW’s remember their comrades. Some 25,000 prisoners of which some 17,000 Dutch worked at the railroad track. Between May 42 and August 45 they had managed to cover 410 kilometers between Burma and Thailand. The memory of it all is very much alive. Fifty years later, to many the past isn’t buried that easily.
The line is remembered as “The Death Railway”. 100 000 people of which 25 000 allied soldiers lost their lives building it. 3,100 Dutch would never return home. Some 100 kilometers of the original Burma - Siam track is still operational.
Mr. De Bie was one of the Dutch POW’s working the Death Railway. When the Japanese invaded Indonesia he was a soldier of the Royal Dutch-Indian army force. After surviving the South-Eastern holocaust he fled to Europe in search of human dignity. But Asia remained in his blood. 17 years ago he returned and Bangkok his residence. Here he lives with his Thai wife and daughter. Bangkok is only a two hour drive to Kanchanaburi, the place that reminds him of the most painful moments in his life. He guides us through this place of evil events where memories so easily spring to life.
De Bie: Exactly on my birthday, 25 years of age, 25th January 1943 the POW’s and myself were put on the boat, we were pushed into the hold, 400 men in a single hold, one couldn’t lay down nor stand up, with your knees on your chest, you had to sit and you weren’t allowed to get out.
The journey to the Burma jungle took them two weeks. Each and everyone was exhausted. But they had to start working immediately.
De Bie: The first camp where we had to work was Bombardai. Later on the English called it with some sarcasm Non Paradiso. When we first came there, there was absolutely nothing. Woods. When clearing the space we first had to build the huts for the Japanese. And only then we could start to build our own accommodations.
They worked under inhuman conditions. Malaria and dehydration were bold and ruthless killers. Days on end Mr. De Bie had to shovel and dig. Everywhere around him death struck it’s way.
De Bie: You thought it was dreadful, but you weren’t afraid of it. In the beginning when you were young and with your parents and so you had heard about deaths and those burying sites, there where your family went to, all of that was so somber, mystic like, so “heimlisch” (homely with a German romantic connection). But once you were there, you were afraid of nothing, That work is hard and you had seen people die. It was eh, you weren’t afraid of it and you know that sooner or later it will come for you.
This is Nagase Takashi. He was a member of the Kempai Tai, the Japanese military police. He worked as interpreter during interrogation sessions. He is a firsthand witness of the cruelties committed by his people. For fifty years now he tries to straighten out the past.
Nagase Takashi: I hate the emperor and hate my own country. I am ashamed because our own government, emperor and the soldiers never apologized here. Why? They are not human being. So I don’t want to be a citizen of Japan. I want to be a citizen of the world. So I came here many times to pay homage and to apologize for what we did along the railway.
87 times Nagase came to Thailand to apologize at the graves of the dead. Because of this Nagase is in Japan a very controversial figure. His fellow compatriots have turned their backs on him.
Nagase Takashi: I devoted and risked my life to pay homage and to compensate something for the dead people. But the old veteran society treated me as traitor. I spoke the truth about what happened on the railway.
De Bie: It were the strongest among the prisoners that went (died ) first. Not the weak. It may sound as a paradox, but the solution to it is such. The strong ones kept on working. They had the power until one moment it became too much for them. They didn’t realize their powers to deteriorate. It was like a battery until it is gone dry. But the weak they felt it coming. They became sick. The doctor noticed it and they were sent to sickbay (lit.: a lower camp). And thus it was repeated. The survivors you will find them among the weak.
Each and every day living conditions deteriorated. The Japs’ only concern was finishing the railroad on time. Underfed and under a blazing heat the POW’s were forced to fight the impenetrable jungle and its massive rocks.
De Bie: Here we stand at the Hellfire Pass. This pass is made with dynamite, pick-ax and hammers. Many died at it. They pulled it off those Japs, with us. At the cost of us. Life didn’t mean a thing to the Jap. They had too many. We have enough. The more dying the better. There remain plenty. they have manpower enough. Do you quit, well another can take his place. In the beginning heh, I felt a lot of hatred heh, well, you were powerless heh, you wanted revenge, sometimes our hands were itching, but what can you achieve with that itch. If the whole group was to be punished. With the Japs it was so that if one committed a fault the group as a whole was punished. No reason at all and you were hit. I’ve had my share. Four times they hit me with a rifle-butt. You’re up against the wall, what can you possibly do. You just can’t think about your own pride. You can’t do a thing, you’re mad with anger, inside, helpless, the Japs have the power in their hands.
Nagase Takashi: The cruel thing is the Japanese soldiers routine daily life. When the soldiers are conscripted. The first three months they were beaten up every day to be obedient to orders of the senior and to become a soldier and fight to death for the emperor.
Each day 800 meters of railroad track was being built. Beatings and humiliations couldn’t bring Mr. De Bie down. He meant to survive the ordeal.
De Bie: I’m headstrong. Somewhere in the back of my dead, there it was, you will survive, you will pull through, once this thing will come to an end. I’ll manage, but I have to pull through. Well I pulled through. There was only my mother left and that was all. At nights I even dreamed of it so that I began to scream and my comrade sleeping at the other side told me, “hey you dreamed about your mother. Don’t worry” he says “That’s a good sign. It’s nice that you won’t forget your mother.”
Nagase Takashi is committed in his struggle to clean his conscience. He says he himself has never barked at nor ever tortured any prisoner. Nevertheless he too just can’t forget the horrible memories.
Nagase Takashi: In front as me there was a POW, Mr. Roberts. He was lying on his back and the military police poured water in his mouth and he was breathless and he had very much agony. I couldn’t do much for him. So he was crying, “Mother, Mother”, and I was choked and upset. I thought he was dying. So I took his pulse to check. But it was going very well, so I relaxed. I saw the POW crying and I also thought about my mother. And I asked my mother and said, “Mother look at me. Your son is doing wrong.”
Augustm 15 1945. Mr. De Bie and thousand others with him were liberated. Japan never apologized for its warcrimes. Last week the Japanese parliament approved the controversial resolution in which there is a mention of deep regret for the suffering caused by Japan during the Second World War. Direct apologizes there are none. Mr. De Bie sincerely doubts the Japanese sincerity to apologize. Nor does he think those of Nagase Takashi sincere.
De Bie: The majority of them come with the apprehension of they did it, they’ve won. They have a bunch of hypocrites among them. And then there is one who says to be repentful, who has visited Thailand 80 times, who has visited the cemeteries and prayed. That Nagasaki, I don’t know, but just for now I have to distrust him. It could be he’s staging all this, he could be a spy, they say he was with the Kempai Tai, the Japanese Gestapo.
It took us some effort, but we did convince Mr. De Bie to meet Nagase Takashi. We arranged a rendezvous at the POW’s cemetery.
De Bie: I hope I won’t bark at him. That I’ll be able to control myself. The rest, we’ll see. Where is he now? Is that the man?
Takashi: I’m a Japanese interpreter in the army, but....
De Bie: I know that.
Takashi: I want to say something. Because for our emperor, for our government and for the veteran soldiers. I should like to apologise to you for what we did during the wartime. Please accept my apologies.
De Bie: I accept it.
Takashi: Thank you very much,...
De Bie: It’s alright. You are very sorry for what you and your fellow countrymen have done to us.
Takashi: Please, when you go home, take my best wishes home to the bereaved families and the families connected to this Thai Buma railway. Thank you very much.
Nagase Takashi resumes his pilgrimage towards repentance and forgiveness. With almost religious fervor he speaks to each and every TV station that wants to hear his remarkable testimony. Mr. De Bie confesses to us that his relation with the past has from today on taken another turn. He has forgiven the enemy.
De Bie: And we can’t remain enemies for eternity. Past is it that time. I went through a lot. All these years he has had these feelings of remorse and regret. This Nagase has suffered as well. Look, we won’t forget it. To forgive that we can do.
Takashi: ex-enemies, but now friends.
De Bie: We can’t always be enemies. You have apologized and I have accepted.