In 1941, in the then Dutch East Indies, thousands of people were forced into internment camps by the invading Japanese army. It is a slice of history almost forgotten today, along with so many other wartime atrocities. It is something Chieko van Santen remembers every day, as the Japanese widow of a Dutch national whose father, a civilian businessman, died in one of the camps.
From her home in Wassenaar, a small town north of The Hague, Chieko, 67, now volunteers to help aging Japanese nationals living overseas with her organization, Nichiran Silvernet Foundation.
Chieko was born at the end of World War II in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, and was raised by a single mother. Everywhere in Japan, life was difficult in the aftermath of the war, but her mother "really gave me everything," she recalls. "Whatever I showed interest in, she found a way for me to do it. Ballet lessons, Japanese dance lessons, ikebana, tea ceremony and all kinds of things."