The Diary of Prisoner 17326: A Boy's Life in a Japanese Labor Camp

World War II: The Global, Human, and Ethical Dimension

by John K. Stutterheim, Mark Parillo (Contributor)

In this moving memoir a young man comes of age in an age of violence, brutality, and war. Recounting his experiences during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, this account brings to life the shocking day-to-day conditions in a Japanese labor camp and provides an intimate look at the collapse of Dutch colonial rule.

As a boy growing up on the island of Java, John Stutterheim spent hours exploring his exotic surroundings, taking walks with his younger brother and dachshund along winding jungle roads. His father, a government accountant, would grumble at the pro-German newspaper and from time to time entertain the family with his singing. It was a fairly typical life for a colonial family in the Dutch East Indies, and a peaceful and happy childhood for young John. But at the age of 14 it would all be irrevocably shattered by the Japanese invasion.

With the surrender of Java in 1942, John’s father was taken prisoner. For over three years the family would not know if he was alive or dead. Soon thereafter, John, his younger brother, and his mother were imprisoned. A year later he and his brother were moved to a forced labor camp for boys, where they toiled under the fierce sun while disease and starvation slowly took their toll, all the while suspecting they would soon be killed.

Throughout all of these travails, John kept a secret diary hidden in his handmade mattress, and his memories now offer a unique perspective on an often overlooked episode of World War II. What emerges is a compelling story of a young man caught up in the machinations of a global war—struggling to survive in the face of horrible brutality, struggling to care for his disease-wracked brother, and struggling to put his family back together. It is a story that must not be forgotten.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

284 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 2, 2009

Reviews

[Xandra Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daughter of a survivor

This book is very well written but personally hard to read. My great grandmother, grandmother, father and aunt also spent years in Japanese civilian concentration camps in the same towns that the author was in. Only my grandmother and father survived and neither would talk about their experiences. My grandfather was in the Dutch Navy and I believe his ship is mentioned although not by name as it was one of the first to be sunk by the Japanese in 1942. Thank you for recording this history. May it never be forgotten.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the great thing about ebooks has been the amount of older books which are being offered at very modest prices to readers. I get regular emails offering a variety of titles and I regularly buy them and this was one such purchase. Written in the 1990s, this is a memoir of a man who was a teenager living in Indonesia when WWII started. His parents were Dutch and of course when the Japanese invaded, they all ended up in internment camps: his father in one and his mother, brother and himself in another (actually several, they were moved a number of times). Eventually John and his brother Anton were moved away from the woman's prison into one with older men and teenage boys who were made to labor in fields for the Japanese. As with so many who survived horrible treatment in WWII, the survivors only started telling their stories as they came to the end of their lives. I have read a number of these memoirs and this one was very well written and engrossing and of course quite sad as you read about what people do to other people.

[Patience Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horrifying look at Japanese internment camps

Well written and full of detail of the atrocious behaviors of Japanese soldiers who starved and beat boys from 10 years old to old men in the Dutch East Indies. It made me cry.
A slice of history most people don’t know and prefer not to.

[Agus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Dara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly interesting narrative about a chapter in world history that is not sufficiently represented.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing memoir of a Dutch teenaged boy in the Dutch East Indies who ends up in a Japanese concentration camp for three years. Hard for me to put down but I love history especially about WWII.