His Excellency Yoshihide Suga,
Prime Minister of Japan.
The Hague, 11 May 2021
Subject: The meaning of Remembrance Day in The Netherlands for us.
The Dutch National Remember Day is each year on the Fourth of May. The war victims are remembered by those who survived the horrors of the war in Europe and Asia. But also, by the next of kin of those who did not survive the war or died after the war, many due to the cruelties by the Japanese military and their aides. The two minutes of silence at the Dam Monument in Amsterdam moves us all. We relive on what happened. After the war we were left alone with pain, sorrow, and disbelief. The Dutch community closely related to the Dutch East Indies remains angry that Japan continues to worship its war criminals at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. We realize that after more then 75 years there is no peace for us. We can not forget the Pacific War with the widespread cruelty by the Japanese military and their civilian aides.
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East of Tokyo tried and sentenced 25 major Japanese war criminals for plotting and waging the Pacific War. The Dutch judge on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East Prof Bert Roling made it clear that he made his verdict only based on legal evidence. He passed subsequently the death penalty on 9 war criminals. Between 1945 and 1951 Allied Military Commissions assembled war crimes committed throughout the Far East during the Pacific war. They condemned 920 Japanese military and civilians to death and sentenced some 3.000 others to prison terms. The accused had been found guilty of war crimes. Today I remind you of the war crimes conducted by the Japanese military collectively and individually during the occupation of Dutch East Indies during World War Two. At that time, I was young, but I remember the helplessness and fear. Later I learned what had happened to my father and grandfather.
On 5th of May the Chancellor of Germany Mrs. Merkel made it clear in her remembrance speech that there is no time limitation in punishing war crimes. Stop worshipping war criminals. Do not visit the Yasukuni Shrine. Why visit the Yasukuni Shrine whilst so many of the Japanse citizens suffered from the conduct by the major Japanese war criminals? Condemn war crimes in accordance with the United Nations conventions!
On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts.
J.F. van Wagtendonk