Lawsuit against state for war damage to the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies

Japanese Debt of Honor begins a lawsuit against the Dutch state to enforce compensation for the physical and psychological damage suffered by the Dutch in the Dutch East Indies during World War II. The foundation has that announced on Tuesday. According to the organization, the state refuses to take responsibility for the damage suffered by victims of the Japanese occupation, while “the route to full compensation” has been “cut off” by Japan as a result of the 1951 peace treaty with that country. With this, the Netherlands would have refrained from claims against Japan from Dutch victims.

The Japanese Empire occupied the Dutch East Indies in 1942 and locked up many of the Dutch who lived there in internment camps, where thousands of them died. Victims of Japanese war crimes, the foundation writes in a press release, in addition to incarceration, were also faced with torture, starvation, denial of medicine and the destruction of their homes, household effects, neighborhoods and villages.

The fact that no one has been held legally liable for this and thus acknowledges the damage suffered “hurts, even if this pain arose 75 years ago”, according to Japanese Debt of Honor. According to the organization, the Netherlands is obliged to recognize liability “for the position to which it has placed those involved” by signing the peace treaty.

Japanese Supreme Court

That peace treaty resulted in 2004 in the Japanese Supreme Court declaring the case brought by victims to hold the Asian country liable inadmissible, says foundation chairman Jan-Frederik van Wagtendonk. The Council would then have ruled that the peace treaty settled the issue of Japanese liability. According to Van Wagtendonk, the Netherlands has “abandoned the Dutch” by signing.

Since that judgment, Van Wagtendonk says that he has repeatedly addressed the state about its responsibility and that he has offered to help think “about possible solutions”. However, the Netherlands would not have responded to this. According to Japanese Debt of Honor, this is “all the more painful in this important anniversary year.” A lawsuit would now be the only way to “break the 75-year stalemate between the state and the Indian community.”

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