april 2004
The State of the Netherlands still in debt with its World War II Jap Camp victims.
JES and EJOS loose all claims against Japan.
It has been officially announced that the Japanese Appellate Court has rejected the appeal of the
Honorary Debt procedures by JES and New
Zealand’s EJOS.
This final verdict terminates 12 years of legal court suits to make Japan pay compensations for 3
to 3,5 years of concentration
camp life and the loss of everything. Twelve wasted years of false hope and expectations. Why
were we so ignorant?
We now know that a special commission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs came to the
conclusion that the San Francisco Peace Treaty
(SFPT) of 1951 blocked all claims of victimized nations and their nationals, and that this Treaty
could not be overruled by time laps,
or other international treaties and protocols. Therefore, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Professor P. Kooijmans strongly advised JES not to
start a File Case against Japanese State. Why was the advice to deaf ears?
The US Government had paid $ 20.000 to the Japanese community, who were interned during
1942, after the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7,
1941. In 1989 the Federal Government of the USA decided that a compensation should be paid
to all 120.000 Americans of Japanese origin,
who had suffered the degradation of internment. The second trigger was the payment of the
German State. A role model for decency, that paid
a sum total of over 100 billion D-marks to their victims and victimized nations during the Nazi
occupation, the looting and the cruelties.
Anyway, there was no such a thing as the SFPT, which the Allied Powers, including the
Netherlands, signed in 1951. Article 14B compelled the
victimized nations and their nationals to waive all compensation and reparation claims. An
article that seems to have an eternal value, as becomes
evident from the verdict of the Japanese Court:
“In other words, individual rights of the Allied Forces and their citizens seeking
compensation were renounced by the Allied Forces
themselves and the substantial rights to claim compensation lapsed at the same
time.”
in other words: You owe it to your Government that Japan was safeguarded against all
responsibilities towards your country and yourselves.
So due to the fact that our Government signed the SFPT with Japan at the time, we Japan’s
victims, lost every right to compensation and
rehabilitation, contrary to the victims of Nazi Germany. After half a century the UK and its
Commonwealth Countries, Australia, Canada and New
Zealand, finally decided to accept the consequences of their Governments’ signature. They paid
each and every victim or his deceased
next-of-kin an ex gratia payment of ? 10.000 (15.000 euro’s) instead of Japan. France and
Norway followed. Only the Netherlands is lagging
behind. Or did the Government of Former Prime Minister Kok (1998-2002) really think that
the responsibility towards the victims of the Japanese
Camps was fully compensated with the ex gratia payment in 2000/2001 (Het Gebaar).
If so, why was the total amount of 250 million guilders, meant for the victims of the Japanese
Camps had to be shared by people who were not
incarcerated; which made the group three times as large, while the amount was only increased by
a mere 100 million?
The grounds for the payment were, according to former Minister of Welfare, Ms. Els
Borst-Eilers, a compensation for the assumed shortcomings
in the post-war redress, and the far from hospital reception in the Netherlands between 1946 and
1966.
A very cheap deal, if we may say so.
Not included are the separation and compensation of all things lost, backpay, and 3,5 years of
inhuman suffering in Japanese Concentration Camps.
These conditions were accepted from Japan on signing the SFPT.
The Dutch Government still owes a settlement to us, and our deceased next-of-kin.
Isn’t it the duty of our Government to take over all responsibilities for compensations we that are
not covered by third parties?
Now that we are quite sure that Japan waives all responsibilities according to the SFPT. The
State of the Netherlands is now compelled to
take over all responsibilities, according to National Law.
Postwar redress has nothing to do with reparation and compensation for all things lost, including
3,5 years of incarceration.
© Lilian Sluijter, St. Vervolgingsslachtoffers Jappenkamp 1942-1945
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