News item | 15-08-2025 | 00:00
If the Indian clock reads, thousands of people are already waiting at the Indian Monument in The Hague. King Willem-Alexander walks there with a stately pass. The Melati pin shines on his lapel, the Indian jasmine that many Indian Dutch people wear on 15 August. They commemorate the victims who fell in the former Dutch East Indies during the Second World War.
The king today lived the commemoration of liberation of Dutch East Indies In because the capitulation of Japan is now 80 years ago. It meant the final end of the Second World War. Prime Minister Dick Schoof and defense minister Ruben Brekelmans were present on behalf of the government.
After his speech, the king put a wreath at the monument. Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces Lieutenant General Ludy Schmidt also did that on behalf of the armed forces. He was assisted by his operational commanders or their deputies.
In addition, wreaths were laid by, among others, ambassadors and people from the first generation of war victims.
Indian Our Father
Apart from the ringing of the clock, the ceremony began as every year with the starting of the banner. This year the standard guard consisted of soldiers of the Royal Navy. The Indian Our Father was also played again. The Royal Netherlands Air Force orchestra listened to the commemoration musically.
The historic plane Catalina brought a tribute with a Flypast over the Indian monument.
Defile
At the end of the ceremony, King Willem-Alexander opened the parade along the Indian monument. That consists of 17 Bronze statues, a map of India and the text ‘Overcomes the Spirit’. The then Queen Beatrix opened the monument in 1988. That was in memory of, among other things, the 100,000 Dutch people who were detained in crowded conditions under miserable circumstances. 13,000 of them died.
All civil and military victims of Japanese oppression were commemorated today. The war experiences and the large -scale displacement still continue working today. This not only applies to the 2 million Dutch people with an Indian war story in the family, but also to society as a whole.