This ambition was torpedoed rapidly, but in the meantime, I got very intrigued by such names as as Soekarno, Hatta, Westerling, APRA, and Lingadjati.
press here for the Indonesian version of
the "History of Indonesia."
Although the
War was over in May, 1945, the damage was so large that
it took years to 'normalize' life. Many food-items remained unavailable and for years the hated couponsystem (distribution) remained in force. Emaciated family and friends who had spent years in Japanese camps returned to cold Holland from the tropical Netherlands East Indies. Considerable political problems there
caused fighting and endless negotiations.
In 1948, the
Marshall Plan was initiated and literally saved Europe. The Dutch were
very grateful for this help, but hated the American interference in
the East Indies; it is largely due to Foster Dulles and Ellsworth Bunker that
Indonesia became independent by 1949 and New Guinea in 1963.
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We continued living on the Admiralengracht till spring 1947,
when my grandfather died and we moved to
Amstelveen. I rode to the
Hervormd Lyceum on a small second hand bicycle bought from Joop Stelpstra, who later married my cousin Mary Holtz.
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I struck up a friendship with the son of a missionary who lived upstairs after
returning from 3 years in camp in Java. He taught me some "Maleis",
the lingua franca of the East Indies, and I was most intrigued by the
tropics and planned to become an
"ambtenaar BB", or Netherlands East Indies government official. This ambition was torpedoed rapidly, but in the meantime, I got very intrigued by such names as as Soekarno, Hatta, Westerling, APRA, and Lingadjati. press here for the Indonesian version of the "History of Indonesia." |
| I wrote my first English letter
in 1946 to an Aunt in America, followed that same year by a second "through
the intermediary of the "World Friendship Association
to an English girl, Nancy Picker.
We corresponded for years and I invited her to Amstelveen in 1948
for the crowning celebrations of Queen Juliana when our beloved
Queen Wilhelmina stepped down. In the Fall of 1947, I joined the Boy Scouts of the Jac.P.Thijsse Troop 23 in Amstelveen. I learned much from the games, camps, expeditions and tours and climbed up to the rank of a Crown Scout with Golden Cords by the time I left in 1950. |
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