‘I am not very happy with the conclusions of this study,’ says Ad Jansen (96), in his home in the Insula Dei residential care center in Arnhem. He has donned his veteran beret for the occasion. He has collected things from his Indonesian time around him. He points to a cigarette case with a floral pattern: ‘Real Javanese carvings.’
The Indonesian War of Independence may now be known as a blot in Dutch history, but Jansen also has fond memories of his time there.
‘You cannot deny that things went wrong at the time’, says Jansen. Apologize, pay compensation if necessary. But you also have to pay attention to the context in which it happened.’ According to Jansen, “excesses” is a better term to describe what happened many years ago. He does not agree that Dutch soldiers were guilty of ‘structural and frequent’ war violence, according to the researchers.
‘You can be a historian as much as you want, and as much as you want, but you never have the experience of the moment. You’re not in it. You judge it from the outside.’ According to Jansen, ‘the Indonesian militias’ also behaved cruelly. The researchers also acknowledge that claim.
Volunteer
Ad Jansen from Esch in Brabant was 19 when he volunteered to join the Marine Brigade. The Second World War was not yet over. ‘All over the world soldiers had come to liberate us. And there they were still under the Japs. We wanted to do something about that.’
By the time they arrived in Surabaya, the Japanese had already capitulated. Jansen found a completely destroyed city. “Buildings had burned down. There was no light, no water, no infrastructure. Nothing.’
Jansen had just received a medical course at an American army base. That came in handy. “These people were covered in sores, had no clothes, were totally starved. We immediately got to work’, says Jansen.
‘People came from far and wide from the kampongs to be treated for their eyes by our battalion doctor, who was very skilled in this. That story is never told.’
Jansen says he has never seen or heard about war crimes. “Our commander PA de Bruyne would never have accepted that either.” When the first ‘police action’ took place, Jansen was already back on the ship. He had already been employed for two and a half years, so the contract expired. “We were more expensive than conscripts, so they wanted to get rid of us.”
cheated
According to him, it is typical how the Dutch government treated them. “They made all kinds of promises to us. When we returned, we would receive student grants and a veterans’ institute would be established. I’ve never seen any of that. We’ve been cheated and left out in the cold.’
The Dutch government, he says, sent conscripts without training and proper equipment. “No wonder things went wrong.”
If Jansen could go back in time, he would sign up again. ‘I am grateful for what I have been able and allowed to do.’
Jansen hopes that the Netherlands and Indonesia will strengthen ties in the coming years. ‘It is with great pleasure that I see that many Indonesians come to study here. I am convinced that we can work together again in the future.’