Wim de Jonge was born in February 1920 in Rotterdam, Holland. His parents were both teachers. The family moved to the Dutch East Indies which was a colony of Holland at the time. Today the nation is called Indonesia. At the time of the move, de Jonge was only eight years old. He had a younger brother. De Jonge attended school following the family's relocation to Indonesia. After de Jonge's brother's failure in his studies, his brother was sent to a boarding school in Holland. De Jonge was 16 years old and was made to accompany his brother to keep an eye on him. De Jonge's brother improved his grades. De Jonge graduated at 19 years of age. Things were looking bad in Europe with the gathering storm so de Jonge returned to the Dutch East Indies. His brother remained to graduate but was not able to leave Europe after the war started. The voyage for de Jonge to reach his home in Bandung, Indonesia was tiresome. The nights were cool in Bandung but the days were hot. A few months after arriving home, de Jonge was drafted by the army. [Annotator's Note: de Jonge was drafted into the Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, or Royal Dutch East Indies Army, also referred to by the acronym KNIL.]

Wim de Jonge was drafted into the Dutch Army [Annotator's Note: de Jonge was drafted into the Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, or Royal Dutch East Indies Army, also known by the acronym KNIL] and sent to an artillery garrison 30 miles from his town. His unit was a horse artillery outfit that was sent into the mountains. The guns had to be disassembled for transport and reassembled after reaching the assigned location. After nine months of service, de Jonge was released. He went to Batavia, today's Jakarta, where he attended law school. After about a year, Pearl Harbor was attacked. De Jonge was ordered to report back to the Army in a town called Malang. De Jonge's cousin, Paul, reported to a different unit and would ultimately be captured. His cousin was killed by Allied aircraft strafing the Burma railroad where he was forced to work. Paul's father had come to the tropics as a naval officer. After discharge, he worked for the customs office. De Jonge never saw his uncle after the war. The Dutch Army at Malang was not prepared or trained to handle the oncoming Japanese. Neither were the British troops in the Malaysian Peninsula. Soon after they capitulated, the next stop for the Japanese was the island of Java where de Jonge's unit was stationed. A ship carrying American artillery bound for Australia sought port in Java for replenishment of the ship. Prior to the ship departing, the Japanese Navy surrounded the island. The American force [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment, 36th Infantry Divison] had to disembark. The Dutch Army sent an officer to liaise with the American artillery force. De Jonge enjoyed being with the Americans because he was fluent in English. The artillerymen from Texas were very enthusiastic. The quality of weapons issued to the Dutch was inferior to that of the Japanese. Likewise, the enemy soldiers who landed on Java had combat experience in China while the Dutch soldiers were green. De Jonge's commanding officer abandoned his post when the invasion occurred. De Jonge elected to stay with the Americans to aid them since they could not speak Dutch. The rumor circulated that captured Americans would be shot.

Wim de Jonge was a member of a Dutch artillery battery liaising with an American artillery unit under Captain Thomas Dodson [Annotator's Note: US Army Captain Thomas A. Dodson was an officer in Battery E, 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment, 36th Infantry Divison] of Austin, Texas. The order came to surrender to the Japanese. The soldiers were enclosed in a soccer field with two machine guns trained on them. Shortly afterward, they were moved to a camp where they were incarcerated. De Jonge was sent to join other Dutch prisoners and the Americans were separated and sent to forced labor in Japan. De Jonge subsequently learned that most of the Americans survived the war. He also learned from Captain Dodson's wife that her husband survived the war but was a broken man. He did not live very long after. De Jonge always viewed the Americans favorably. In the POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp, there were several different work groups under Japanese supervision. The supervision was often cruel and harsh. De Jonge was hit in the back by one Japanese soldier. There were nails in the stick that struck de Jonge's bare back. De Jonge wanted to file a complaint with the Japanese commander, but his officer was reluctant to do so for fear of potential punishment. Finally, de Jonge's officer complied and went with him to file a complaint. The Japanese commander looked at de Jonge's injured back and told him to go. The next day the guilty Japanese soldier who beat de Jonge appeared before the POWs. It was obvious that he had been severely beaten as a result of his harsh treatment of de Jonge. The Japanese could be very ruthless to their men as well as the POWs. After some time, the Dutch POWs were transported by truck to the port and taken to Singapore.

Wim de Jonge reached a prison in Singapore where he was guarded by Indian troops who had formerly served in the British Army. He never discovered if their service was voluntary or forced. De Jonge worked at the port and enjoyed being in the open. The Japanese would occasionally beat the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war]. A German ship was docked at the port near a beating incident. One of the German sailors came off the ship and in turn beat the Japanese soldier. The German admonished him not to beat a white man. The Japanese police subsequently attempted to board the German ship, but the captain of the ship told them not to do so. The German crew had weapons aimed at the Japanese who ultimately withdrew. It turned out that the German sailor was a good German for the POWs. [Annotator's Note: de Jonge laughs.] After a few weeks, the Dutch POWs were loaded aboard a train railcar with standing room only. They traveled for two days and two nights. There was no food. Sanitation facilities were non-existent. The POWs ended up in a jungle where there was nothing man-made. It was Thailand.

Wim de Jonge arrived at the beginning of the railroad through Thailand which was to be completed in Burma. It was intended to support the Japanese troops in Burma. The POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] were kept in the jungle with no protection. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a derogatory period reference to the Japanese] were sleeping in tents while the prisoners built barracks for their captors and later for themselves. Mosquitoes were plentiful and malaria would become a big problem. De Jonge had malaria for two years with no medicine to help him. Large monkeys populated huge trees. The animals screamed at night, disrupting sleep for de Jonge. Treatment of prisoners by their captors was very harsh. Deaths came quickly from disease and maltreatment. De Jonge met a large Dutchman who refused to eat because he simply gave up hope. That man was one of the first of the POWs to die. In moving from camp to camp, the food was basically rice. That was no problem for de Jonge as he had an appetite for rice. Many other captives did not care for it. More of those fellows died than the Dutchmen who were used to eating rice in the Dutch East Indies. The POWs learned to catch and eat snakes. They were hungry enough to enjoy the meat. Snails were fried. A lost cow was butchered and eaten one time. Clothing was sparse. Men were provided with one pair of shorts. If it was stolen, a man would have nothing to wear. Shoes rotted away in the jungle resulting in men working barefooted. As the POWs moved from camp to camp with the progress of the work, they witnessed deaths of many of their comrades. They would be buried in the jungle along the railway. After completion of the railroad, the survivors were shipped back to Singapore. Of the 14 members in de Jonge's workgroup, he was the only man left alive.

When he returned to Singapore, Wim de Jonge ended up in the same prison where he had previously been held. [Annotator’s Note: de Jonge returned to Singapore after surviving forced labor to construct the Thai-Burma Railway between 1942 and 1943]. In 1944, he was put on a ship that he knew was destined for Japan. America ruled the sea. The Japanese refused to mark the ship as a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] ship. The prisoners were kept in the dark hold of a ship with little to eat. People died during the voyage. The bodies had to be removed from the hold and cast overboard. Once a week, the POWs were allowed on deck to wash with sea water. The convoy transited for three to four weeks. It started with five ships and ended with only the one that de Jonge was aboard. De Jonge was convinced that they knew that POWs were aboard the ship. [Annotator's Note: No specifics are given as to who de Jonge is referencing but it is supposed he is referring to the American submarines prowling off the coast of Japan.] His vessel finally reached Japan. As they went down the gangway to the dock, the Kempeitai [Annotator's Note: Japanese military police] was there. They greeted the captives by using sticks to beat them as they disembarked. The next night, a submarine sank the ship which proved to de Jonge that they knew it. After ten days, the prisoners were shipped to the southern island to work in the coal mines.

Wim de Jonge worked in unsafe conditions in the coal mines of Japan. He was there for about a year. That was the toughest time because there was little food. The Japanese suffered from lack of food at this point in the war. There was no heating during that harsh winter. He lost his malaria in Japan due to the severe winter. He had contracted malaria in Thailand. He also had dysentery. Cholera was brought in to the railway workgroups by the Malaysians who buttressed the workforce. Working in the front of the Japanese mines was the most dangerous position. While working the mines, prisoners would exchange places with each other. They started in the back and worked forward until they returned to the rear. De Jonge had a severe leg injury during a mine cave-in. One of the overseers wanted to beat him as if he had caused the accident. [Annotator's Note: de Jonge chuckles at the irony.] Another Japanese guard prevented the beating from happening. Despite a critical injury, de Jonge returned to the mine the next day. There were never any days off from work. Unlike previous camps, there was a doctor available to the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] in Japan. The Australian doctor who went to the camp commander was severly beaten because he requested time off for de Jonge due to his leg injury. De Jonge found orange peelings in town as he walked to the mines. He ate those later when he returned to his barrack. When the prisoners were granted a day off from their work, they suspected that the war had ended. After a second day off was announced, they knew the war was over. [Annotator's Note: de Jonge chuckles.] The camp commander spoke through a translator to tell the POWs that the war had ended. The men knew nothing about the bombs [Annotator's Note: the atomic bombs]. Planes dropped information that the POWs would be rescued shortly. Importantly, they dropped food and clothing to the prisoners. Some of the food was too rich for the emaciated captives. De Jonge became sick from eating some of the food dropped from the airplanes. [Annotator's Note: de Jonge laughs.] When their rescuers reached them by land, the POWs were told they would be shipped to Nagasaki by train. The men still did not know about the atomic bombs. When de Jonge first viewed the destruction of the city, he thought the Allies had bombed the hell out of the city. They still did not know about the atomic bomb. When they exited the train, they were greeted by a Negro jazz band. It was the first music the POWs had heard in almost four years. De Jonge was lifted by the music and could have spent a week there. The men showered and were issued new uniforms. The released men boarded an aircraft carrier and ate their fill of good food. The ship captain ordered the galley to cook more food. De Jonge enjoyed the voyage to Okinawa and then on to Manila via a hitched flight in a fighter plane. The POWs were gathered at Manila for repatriation to their native country. There was plenty of entertainment there including music and movie stars. The men were supplied with three bottles of beer per day. The Americans were shipped back to the United States quickly. De Jonge was anxious to return to his parents in Indonesia. His parents had been held in separate camps for two years not knowing the status of the other. They never knew the status of their son either. They were shipped back to Holland. Shortly thereafter, they all discovered that each of them had survived the war.

While in Manila, Wim de Jonge was ordered to return to the Dutch Army to fight an uprising in the Dutch East Indies. Arriving at Borneo, he and 50 other men were trained to control the militants. He was shipped to Batavia which is now Jakarta. There were also British troops in the camp. There were frequent attacks but no follow-up. After a few weeks, more troops arrived. The combined forces went after the rebels. With the uncertainty of who was the enemy, it was a tough war to fight. At one point, a raft was sent down the river to the Dutch forces. It contained dead Dutch women who had been raped, their breasts cut off, and their eyes were removed. Five Muslim men were captured in the town upriver of the camp. They admitted to fighting the Dutch but not killing the women. They were executed. Rebels killed soldiers that they captured. One captured Dutchman had to be shot to relieve his misery after being tortured by the militants.

Wim de Jonge accompanied an officer to Jakarta. They traveled alone in a jeep through the mountains without convoy protection. While slowly climbing the mountain, rebel machine gun fire opened up and the officer was wounded in the head. De Jonge managed to get to the other side of the mountain where he reached British Gurkha troops. They were fantastic troops. De Jonge spoke with the commander, and his wounded Dutch officer was loaded aboard an ambulance. Meanwhile, the Gurkhas went into the mountain and killed the rebels who had fired on them. A convoy came and de Jonge and the ambulance with his officer joined them. While en route, shooting started again. De Jonge felt something wet on his left leg. It was blood. A man fell out of the tree after being shot by friendly troops. It was strange that de Jonge did not feel the pain until later. His right leg began to hurt. It had been struck by the same bullet which was never removed. Several men were wounded in the ambush. De Jonge's wounded officer was worked on but died the next morning. De Jonge was shipped to the military hospital in Jakarta where a cast was put on his leg. The wound did not improve after a few months. When it finally healed, he was put in the Army and stayed there until it was time to get released. A colonel told de Jonge that he had been recommended for a military decoration. He was offered officer school in Holland, but de Jonge refused the opportunity to advance in the Dutch military.

Wim de Jonge returned to Holland where found that the government was not willing to pay his three and a half years of back pay. That refusal angered him. Later, he was given only a portion of the pay. When he received a letter from Amsterdam saying that he would be decorated for his service, he refused the medal. He later agreed to take it but gave it to his son. He met his future wife in Rotterdam. He assured her that he would not remain in Holland. He planned to migrate to either the United States or Australia. He refused to stay in his homeland and would leave with or without her. During this time, de Jonge worked for an American company in Holland. He was offered his supervisor's job but refused. He was focused on leaving Holland. His wife doubted his sanity. [Annotator's Note: de Jonge laughs.] He entered the United States and, though it was tough at first, he grew to enjoy his citizenship. He was surprised at how hard people worked in the United States compared to Europe.

Wim de Jonge could tell when he left Holland for the East Indies that war was looming. He was not concerned with leaving his brother in Holland. They both survived the war. They have been in communication through the years. De Jonge never appreciated the expense his father had to pay for his brother's education in Holland or the fact that he had to return to Holland to chaperone his sibling. De Jonge loved the Dutch East Indies. Had it remained a colony, he and his parents would have stayed there. De Jonge was drafted because war was coming. Prior to that time, it was an all volunteer army [Annotator's Note: de Jonge is referring to the Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, or Royal Dutch East Indies Army, commonly referred to by the acronym KNIL]. He heard over the radio and in the newspaper about the attack on Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese landed, he had no confidence in his equipment or the training he received. His artillery training was inappropriate for the conditions. He was just issued a pistol for his protection. He used a Sten gun that was relatively inaccurate. The American artillerymen were also armed only with side arms. [Annotator's Note: Around the time the Japanese landed on Java, elements of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment, 36th Infantry Division had landed on the island. Being fluent in English, de Jonge had been assigned to the officer who was liaising with the American troops as an interpreter.] At one time, the forces were driven by the Japanese into a zoo. While he was taking cover near a tree, the enemy opened fire. There was terrible screaming behind him. De Jonge thought the enemy was in his rear but it was monkeys in cages that were being hit by the bullets. After surrendering, he realized that being a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] would result in a long-term captivity.

Wim de Jonge's Japanese captors disrespected the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war]. Prisoners would be beaten for little cause. The man being beaten had to just take it and not defend himself or he would be killed. Daily life revolved around continuous slave labor from early morning until time to sleep. There was no time off. De Jonge lost a lot of weight. He weighed less than 80 pounds when the war ended. There was death and torture but escape was impossible. There was no way to reach Burma through the mountains and jungle with the snakes and hazardous conditions. If recaptured, the escapee would be tortured or beheaded. Natives would report an escapee to get the reward for his capture. De Jonge knew that his only chance to survive was to work at it. His belief in God helped him. God did not want him to die. Rats were a problem in the rice warehouse. The Japanese made the POWs dig a trench around the warehouse. One group of POWs hit the bags of rice to drive the rats out and into the trench. A group of POWs, including de Jonge, were in the trench. They had to kill the rats. They sometimes ended up in the morning soup and had to be fished out before serving. There were two meals a day. The quantity of food in Thailand was acceptable but in Japan the POWs starved. In Thailand, Malaysians in custody brought in cholera. De Jonge never got nervous about being around the sickness when he had to go to the hospital. He had a vacation when he was in the hospital. Red Cross shipments were confiscated by the Japanese guards for their own use. The packages were kept from the prisoners. That did not surprise de Jonge. He would have been more surprised if the POWs actually received the Red Cross packages. The Salvation Army did enter the camp at one point. They provided food for the POWs. After that, they were prevented from entering. De Jonge has supported the Salvation Army through the years as a result of their assistance to the POWs. There was a Salvation Army captain in de Jonge’s Dutch Army unit. [Annotator's Note: de Jonge was a member of a mountain artillery battery in the Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, the Royal Dutch East Indies Army, also referred to by the acronym KNIL.] He refused to carry a gun and was allowed to carry a whistle to warn the others while he was on guard duty. De Jonge accompanied him to protect him. De Jonge pleaded for the man to be released. The individual was ultimately discharged from the army.

Wim de Jonge was a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] and worked for the Japanese on the railroad through Thailand and Burma. The POWs attempted to sabotage the work through small deeds. That work was by far the most grueling experience of de Jonge's incarceration. While being transported to Japan, he feared that the Americans might sink his ship. He was suffering from malaria at the time and had given up caring about living. After going through a harsh winter in Japan, the malaria disappeared. He lost many good friends during that period in various prisons and after the war. Many survivors died young after the war. One even committed suicide. De Jonge feels guilty about that. His best friends were those who shared his horrible experience and now they are all gone. De Jonge worked until late in life and was reluctant to retire. He looks younger than his age which is an advantage for him. He enjoys physical activity at a health center every day. He has a network of friends. He refuses to give up on life. While in Japan, de Jonge had no contact with any local civilians except for one nice man who worked with him in a mine. He was the only individual from Japan who showed him any kindness. He told de Jonge that the war would soon be over. The man was right. After the war, the Japanese were scared of the POWs. De Jonge traveled on crowded trains then. He told Japanese passengers to get up and give him their seat. They did.

Wim de Jonge feels that The National WWII Museum is an important institution to maintain. The young people of today are not the same as those of his generation. People back then thought it necessary to serve the country. Vietnam and other conflicts started to turn that commitment around. De Jonge's grandson is an intelligent individual but refuses to serve the country even if a war was to break out. America may not respond to crisis similar to the way it did in World War 2. De Jonge deeply respects those Americans who served during the World War. Without them, de Jonge and his fellow POWs would have been killed or would still be in prison. American entry into the war turned the tide of the conflict.