A Dutch–Indonesian childhood shaped by war
Peter Van de Graaff was born into a Dutch family in the Netherlands East Indies (NEI), today’s Indonesia. His father served as a captain in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger, KNIL). When Japan invaded the archipelago in 1942, the family’s lives—like those of many Dutch and Indo-European civilians—were upended.
Father in uniform: KNIL, the Burma Railway and Changi
As a KNIL officer, Peter’s father was captured by Japanese forces and sent as a prisoner of war to work on the Burma–Thailand Railway. During captivity he developed gangrene and was later transferred to Changi Prison in Singapore—nicknamed by POWs the “Changi Hilton.” In an almost surreal post-script, early in 1952 he received a cheque for ten shillings and sixpence from the Burmese government, ostensibly in recognition of his “valiant efforts” on the railway—an amount that underscores the gulf between suffering and post-war bureaucracy.
Mother, children and the Java internment camps
Peter’s mother and her four children were interned in women’s and children’s camps on Java. His sister Nelleke was only two months old at the time of internment. Peter, then a toddler, later recalled sneaking out of a window after curfew and making his way to the Japanese officers’ mess, where he remembers sitting on an officer’s knee and helping himself to a rice bowl. The officers he encountered were, in his memory, family men with wives and children far away.
After liberation, the mothers in the camp approached Allied officers and urged them to treat the camp commander with respect and to allow him to retain his ceremonial sword. Their reasoning was simple: within the brutal system, he had behaved humanely and had not ill-treated his captives. It is a rare vignette that complicates the usual binaries of war memory.
Liberation, Bangkok and a brief European interlude (1946–47)
Following Japan’s surrender in August 1945, displaced families were regrouped and evacuated in stages. In 1946 the Van de Graaff family was sent to Bangkok for roughly six months. From there they travelled to the Netherlands. Post-war austerity, coupled with an abrupt shift from tropical to European climate, made life difficult; after about nine months they returned to Java.
Revolution, departure and the road to Australia (1947–1952)
As Indonesia’s independence struggle intensified, daily life remained unsettled. Peter recalls being at school as Spitfire fighter planes streaked past open windows, releasing under-wing rockets; teachers would send the children home early and advise them to lie in roadside gutters if shooting started nearby. With the Indonesian Republic’s position consolidating, the family again departed for the Netherlands, staying for around two years. In January 1951 they migrated to Australia, joining thousands of Dutch and Indo-Dutch families who rebuilt their lives here after war, displacement and decolonisation.
Family notes and small corrections
An oft-retold tale has Peter “biting a Japanese guard on the bum.” He has since clarified that the biting incident actually occurred years later and involved a local boy who was harassing his older brother, John—not a camp guard. Peter also notes his siblings were among those interned with their mother on Java, including baby Nelleke.
What the experience meant
Peter writes with gentle understatement that he “could go on and on.” His childhood spanned internment camps, a father’s survival of the Burma Railway and Changi, the turbulence of Indonesia’s revolution, and two post-war migrations—first to the Netherlands, then to Australia. These recollections put a human face on broader patterns central to Dutch–Australian heritage: KNIL service, civilian internment, the ambiguities of occupation and liberation, and the post-war migration that helped shape modern Australia.
Terminology note
“Nederlandse Indonesian Leger” is an informal phrasing. The formal name of the colonial army was the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army—Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger (KNIL), a force distinct from the Royal Netherlands Army and raised for service in the East Indies. Its air arm was the ML-KNIL (Militaire Luchtvaart van het KNIL).
Chronology
• 1942: Father, a KNIL captain, captured by Japanese forces; sent to the Burma–Thailand Railway; later moved to Changi Prison
• 1942–45: Mother and children interned in women’s and children’s camps on Java; sister Nelleke was two months old at internment
• 1945–46: Liberation and regrouping
• 1946: Family sent to Bangkok for approximately six months; then travelled to the Netherlands
• c. late 1946–1947: After about nine months in the Netherlands, the family returned to Java
• late 1940s: Amid the Indonesian independence struggle, family departed again to the Netherlands for roughly two years
• January 1951: Migration to Australia
• Early 1952: Father received a cheque for 10 shillings and sixpence from the Burmese government
Sources
Personal communications from Peter Van de Graaff, August 2025 (emails 8–11 August 2025); correspondence via Roger R. Marks.
