Tjideng Birthday

Tjideng Birthday

A Tjideng Birthday had ceased to have meaning , and the case of many like me, had been feared. Boys ten years and older were forcibly removed from the care of their mothers and left to fend for themselves in “boys camps”. If they were very luck they might be reunited with their fathers, but this was rare. Birthdays had long been abandoned as a milestone of life not worth celebrating.

When it was my turn to have a Tjideng birthday, on 25 August 1945 , that threat of removal by the Japanese Army was gone, but its fear haunted me for several years after the war. My mom did her best to let me celebrate my 7th birthday in Tjideng by giving me a present camp and an unknown photographer a short while later captured the scene. Discovering this image was a matter of astonishing pure luck. This is how it happened

In order to research material for the book Tjideng Reunion I had arranged a visit to the NIOD office in Amsterdam where all documents related to the second world war, both in the Netherlands and the Netherlands East Indies, had been archived. My quest consisted of two objectives: the search through documents that had a bearing on our own stay in Indonesia, and to seek permission to include in my planned publication some of the photographs that they possessed. Pictures I had in mind were those I had seen in other publications.

I was startled to suddenly confront an image of myself that I had never seen before and about which NIOD knew no more than its catalogue number and that it had been taken in Tjideng at an unknown date “probably by a Eurasian photographer” who had been left at liberty during the Japanese occupation.

This is an image of yours truly at age 7 standing with bare feet by the solitary water supply serving our house at number 91, Laan Trivelli, Batavia. Before the war it had been a typical single family three bedroom dwelling, but after 11 May 1945 accommodated, if that is the right word, one hundred and ten souls. The septic field for this house that had once been adequate had long ago ceased to function. Chapter ten of Tjideng Reunion provides a description of life during this postwar period of incarceration in a Hellhole. Elsewhere in Java a new conflict was breaking out.

The rather well-dressed young gentleman standing by my side had, for the occasion, donned the Indian headdress accompanying an exceedingly uncomfortable, long-sleeved, long legged heavy brown cotton Indian suit that mom had given me for my birthday on August 25. Jakarta then as now is hot. He has finally (2016) been identified as Pieter ten Cate, who had traveled with us from Tjihapit in May 1945.

scene of my Tjideng Birthday — 91 jalan Tanah Abang II, Jakarta

Number 91 Jalan Tanah Abang II, Jakarta, is still a house, now in much better shape than when it served as our accommodation, but this neighbourhood of Jakarta has undergone a profound change and what we used to call a “garden,” for want of a better term, is now a second hand car lot . The garden wall is gone, the water supply access where I had posed for my portrait, once more covered over.

Birthday at Tjideng camp Photo from NIOD ( Netherlands Institute of War Documentation)

9 Responses to "Tjideng Birthday"

Robert Meyer says:

January 24, 2009 at 3:50 pm

I enjoyed your website, Boudy, very well done. I hope you get lots of traffic on it. Bob
felicity baker says:

February 16, 2009 at 7:12 am

Dear Boudewijn,
I am fascinated to be able to put a name to the young boy whose picture I have seen so often!
I would be interested to know if you were at 93 Trivelli towards September 45 as my mother in law, Joop Hillen – Baker and her three children were still at no 91 (in Tjideng from July 1944: Ampasiet C6, Tjoedjoengweg 15). Interestingly her husband Howard Baker and fellow POW Fred Byrnie (brother of Sanneke Pull) were I believe the first European POW’s to walk in to the camp to be reunited with their families and remained about a week. They had ‘broken out’ of Baros 3 and flashed a Fortnum and Masons card at the Tjideng gate guards to get in.
Joop’s daughter Jennifer was about your age – perhaps a little younger – and there were two brothers, John (5-6) and Peter (3.5). Nearby were also Astrid and Anthony Montford with their mother Rese; Astrid was also about your age. There are photos of the family on my site – see above.
The water supply: was that the infamous drip which people organised rotas to use? Joop wrote of her ‘turn’ to fill a bucket coming in the middle of the night. I believe there is a piece of Australian film of it somewhere, possible title ‘Japan Calling’. Is it the same?
I am interested in your point about a lack of any rehabilitation/counselling program for the liberated children: on their arrival in the UK, my three in-laws refused to be separated and despite peter being only 4 he was allowed to attend school with the others. They spoke a mix of Dutch, Indonesian and English, with a smattering of Japanese. They ought to have been prime targets for bullies, but: never having seen so many people in one place apart from Tjideng, they knew the ropes and at playtime the three assumed the role of Japanese soldiers and lined classmates up for tenko. keirei, naorei and kiotsuke followed as they trained the other children in the Japanese art of bowing – to the great amusement and admiration of the other children and they immediately became celebrities.
Howard was in the LOG, Malang, Larok Waroe, then took the ‘hell-train’ to Soekamiskin, followed by Vierde Battalion and Baros 3.
I do hope I hear back from you; I’ve been in touch with Marguerite, and hope to get a photo of her Ampasit house while we are in Java from March 8th. Any photos you need?
By the way, I am the daughter in law of Howard and Joop; my husband Hans was a post-war baby. Both parents are dead now (Howard at 86 and Joop at 93 – they made them tough!) Howard’s book ‘Nanyo’ is in the Imperial War Museum in the UK; Joop wouldn’t talk about the camps at all. if anyone needed some counselling it was Joop.
Regards,
Felicity Baker
Boudewyn van Oort says:

February 16, 2009 at 10:13 am

Hi Felicity,
As far as I can figure out my home in Tjideng was at 91 Trivelli. I have a very clear memory of our house being separated fromthe camp wall by a single property. We were in the second house from the gate. Numerous maps have been produced of the Tjideng camp and gradually more details have been noted down, including house numbers. From diary entries I know that hours before our arrival in May 1945 the guards had “encouraged” the residents of a few homes to vacate them posthaste. The gentlemen of the main gate had a charming methodology to ensure immediate compliance with such instructions. Marguerite seems to have lived in Trivelli 93 for a while. She may have been our neighbour, and may have shared that address with my Grandmother and family friends, who found the garage/empty of human occupants but bedbug infested. Those family friends are still alive and have assisted me with my story. both women have formiddable (but not necessarily infallible) memories.

I wonder if there is any family conection between your “Hillen” family and that of Ernst, author of “the way of a boy”? I have recently read is second book ” Small Mercies, A boy after the war (Viking press). I was curious to know whether Ernst had touched on a subject that fascinates me and that I am trying to put into words: how the end of the war affected the children? It had a profound affect on me , and yet , I know that I emerged relatively unscathed compared to many others . Hell, I made it to Oxford. Ernst touches slightly but also inadvertently onthis topic. It is worth exploring in greater depth but the topic is very personal and therefore difficult to write and writing it in such a way that others want to read it is an even bigger challenge. We can only try.
You are going to Jakarta in March? I would appreciate fotos of Trivelli- the school, and the two or three houses to the east of that building. I think that the house that had been used by the camp commandant has been turon down and is replaced by a two or three storey building. Tanah Abang station.

Cheers
Boudewyn
Rita Karhof says:

June 30, 2009 at 7:37 am

Hallo Boudewijn,
Our house at Laan Trivelli had the same watersupply as yours on the photo. We were one of the few in the camp and we had long queus day and night of people with buckets to collect some water. Two young women in our house attended the drip, a long queu from outside and a small line of buckets from our house which where alternately filled by the girls. We also needed water to collect the daily supply of cooked rice . My sister had to call out the house numbers that were to come to the rice kitchen and she always had to add the sentence “bring water, no water no rice”.
Cheers,
Rita
Piet Verhaart says:

July 24, 2009 at 2:50 am

At last I now know the meaning of:
Daar onder bij die mielies bij die groen doringboom
Daar woon mij Sarie Marais.
Ik heb jouw boek met heel veel belangstelling gelezen, je hebt zo goed het verloop van de oorlog als achtergrond gebruikt en heel serieus speurwerk gedaan.
Ik verliet Tjideng in augustus 1944, samen met alle andere jongens van 12 en ouder. Voor ons vertrek waren we in de ‘jongenshuizen’. Jij hebt later in een van die huizen gewoond.
Jouw boek heeft bij mij veel herinneringen losgemaakt. Als het je interesseert zal ik het aan een email binden.
Een paar aanmerkingen op het Maleis/Indonesisch. Het is Tukang botol of tukang loa. Peringatan is heel dicht bij ‘reminder’. Wellicht is jou dat allemaal al door snellere reageerders verteld.
Voordat we de jongenshuizen indraaiden woonde ik op Laan trivelli 106, op de hoek van de Moesiweg. Lies Muthert woonde daar ook. Later heb ik haar aantekeningen mogen copieren, ook het verslag van haar proces verbaal.
Tot zover.
Beste groeten van Piet Verhaart
Eileen Harryvan says:

August 12, 2009 at 9:52 am

Hello, I just found your site. It is very well done and thank you for sharing your experiences. My mother in law was (I think) at Tjideng. Does the word sound like chi-dong in English?
She speaks very freely about her experience in the camp, maybe because she too was only a child. I believe she was there from age 4 to nearly 9. Did you know the van der Goes family? Her name is Nelleke – or Nelly I think they called her then. I dont know their names but she was with an older brother, older sister & her mother gave birth to another son while there having entered the camp pregnant. I hope you might respond. I have been asking Nelleke if she might let me help her to write about her experiences, tell the story, because no one here in the states seems to ever have known about it. Today is her birthday by the way! Many good days to you all.
Wout Hardeman says:

March 8, 2012 at 3:41 am

Dear Boudewijn van Oort,

First of all I (born Bandung 1935 ) want to thank you for this beautiful site which only recently came to my attention. My mother and I stayed in Tjideng from 1943 till 1945, when we moved to the little camp at the Bilitonweg. We stayed at Moesiweg 22, Moesiweg 14 (?) and Tjioedjoengweg 38. In 1995 I visited the last address with my son and was kindly received by a lady who had also been emprisoned in Tjideng but whose parents in 1949 had opted for the Indonesian nationality. She still spoke excellent Dutch.
The videos were very moving. You will have noticed that the newsreel ( with sound) contains scenes from the silent video. Moreover most people seem well fed and there are men and adolescent boys. The chaos is obvious. This reminds me of Lady Mountbatten who visited the camp when the British had landed and who was said to be appalled by the low hygienic standards of the camp and the stench of the open sewers, that were blocked. She inferred, wrongly I think, that the women had a low morale.
We were allowed to send a telegram to Holland with a fixed text: Save in British Hands.
From what I noted in the last paragraph I conclude that the films have been taken around November 1945, when the first Dutch navy ships were allowed to enter Tandjong Priok. I still remember the taste of the white bread that had been baked on HMS Tromp: wonderful!
I suppose that the Japanese have made propagandafilms but they certainly would not have considered this mess to be fit as propaganda.

With kind regards and best wishes,

Wout Hardeman
John says:

August 28, 2020 at 12:44 pm

Dag Boudewyn,
Weet je nog welke kleur je kleding had en dat van Pieter?
groet,
John
Boudewyn van Oort says:

September 6, 2020 at 9:04 pm

Alles was grijs
Ken jij dat jochie dat naast me stond?

Tjideng Birthday

Birthday at Tjideng camp Photo from NIOD ( Netherlands Institute of War Documentation)

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