Girl Out of Place

My connection with Girl out of place

My father ate a banana every day and spread sambal on everything on his plate. He had developed this habit when he was sent to the Dutch East Indies in 1947 as a conscripted soldier. He never wanted to speak about this time. Or maybe he did speak about it, but I never wanted to listen to his stories.

A few years ago I became friends with Nora. She is of the same generation as my father.
Nora was born in the Dutch East Indies. During theJapanese occupation she was in a Japanese internment camp in Java. After the capitulation of Japan she was released and went searching for her father and finally had to be evacuated to Singapore to escape the violence of Indonesia's struggle for independence.
I realized I knew nothing about this past. My children knew even less while the Dutch East Indies is part of who we have become.

It has never been the great history that is the most important, but it's the personal experiences. That's why I tell a little story, which resembles the life of Nora.

A few years ago I became friends with Nora. She is of the same generation as my father.

Nora was born in the Dutch East Indies, experienced the Japanese occupation, was in a Japanese camp,.after the capitulation of Japan went in search of her father and finally fled to Singapore to escape the violence of Indonesia's struggle for independence.

I realized I knew nothing about this past. My children knew even less while the Dutch East Indies is part of who we have become. The way we remember the past is decided by personal experiences. That's why I want to tell this little story, which resembles the life of Nora. So this story will be remembered.

Based on a true story

As a teenager, Nora Valk was imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp in Java. From the age of twelve to fifteen she lived in a internment camp in Ambarawa, together with her mother. Three months before the liberation, her mother died of hunger and a lack of medicine. After the war she was reunited with her father. She tells about her experiences at schools, among other things, so that the war is not forgotten.