The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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207351 Johannes Jacobus "Kotje" Coers Dutch Army from:Djakarta, Indonesia My father whom we called pappie had served in the Dutch army and had been imprisoned for four years by the Japanese in Burma. Before his capture but shortly after his deployment his first wife was hospitalized and died due to some illness. Pappie had been called away from his post. He was guarding the waters of a very hot spot for casualty, and was told his wife grew gravely ill and he was needed at home. On his way there the soldier who had taken his place as guard was shot and killed by enemy fire and Pappie's wife died just as he was approaching the steps of the hospital. It was said that Pappie's life was saved by the death of his wife. At that time Pappie had two children that were being taken care of by one of his brothers while he went back to war. I remember bits and pieces of the life Pappie had shared with me while he had been in the Japanese prison camp. It was while he was there that my grandmother was taken to a Japanese concentration camp in Indonesia. She died while there. The bitterness Pappie had towards the Japanese ran so deep and that bitterness continued to be there for the rest of his life. He had been afflicted with so many different jungle diseases, beriberi, malaria, dysentery, black water fever. He also suffered from tuberculosis while there but miraculously it had scarred over and didn't show up again until over thirty years later. One story he told us many times was when he grew ill from beriberi. The Japanese doctor had given Pappie a tracheotomy and placed a tube to draw out the fluid build up from his intestines. Pappie's stomach and testicles were swollen and only a drop every few minutes came out of that tube. The guards would laugh while relentlessly poking and prodding his testicles with their machetes. The doctor had said that Pappie would be dead by morning. After Pappie heard the diagnosis he called out on the Lord and begged for his life. He reminded the Lord that he had two motherless children back home and that they needed him. Where did that faith come from? Somewhere in the deep recesses of Pappie's heart was a stirring of something he had known and always known all his life. God was there and it was He that could do something to save Pappie from this circumstance. Shortly after that prayer Pappie would muster all the strength he could to get the guards attention by hitting the side of his bed with his hand and asking him for a bowl to urinate into. As Pappie told me this continued all through the night. By morning his stomach and testicles were back to normal size. The doctor said it was a miracle because they had no other explanation for it. The next day he was taken out of the infirmary and placed back to work on the railroads. He was forced to work shoeless the entire four years which caused some rather deep calluses on both his feet. He'd suffered due to those calluses all the rest of his life. Pappie had witnessed first hand the brutality of war. His meals consisted of rice and water and whatever he could find crawling or slithering the jungle floors. He shared with me another time when he'd been sick in the infirmary and the prisoner next to him had died leaving behind an egg next to his bed. Pappie reached over and took it deciding it was better off with him. Another time one of Pappie's fellow prisoners and close friend was tied to a tree and whipped to a pulp then left there for the tree was crawling with red ants. He remembered the man screaming even more fiercely while being eaten alive. Those screams stayed in Pappie's mind forever. I knew this because each time he would relate this story to me his face grew sullen and his eyes would get watery and he'd say, 'oh, God' and he would hang his head as if maybe if just maybe there could have been something that he could have done to save his friend. Pappie knew that it was his believing and his prayers that ultimately gave him the strength to go on. When he spoke of God there was a deep reverence to his tone of voice. This is just part of the story I'd written about my father. I just wanted to share this little bit. Thank you. Mary Reiter Add to this record.  Related Content: Burma & India Campaign Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? 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