Enabling Remembrance: Japanese-Indisch Descendants Visit Japan

Abstract

Intimacy between Japanese men and Dutch-Indisch women during the Pacific War in the Dutch East Indies (1942–45) resulted in offspring who often were unaware of their descent. Even though, after the war, they were considered compromising consequences of fraternization, in recent decades the Japanese government has invited ex-POWs and children of Japanese fathers for a visit to “promote a spirit of reconciliation with Japan and the Japanese people.” This article examines the images and sentiments produced in the context of these travels, asking how Japanese-Indisch descendants envision their affinity to an unknown fatherland and what is at stake for the Japanese organizers.