On September 9, 2014 J.F. van Wagtendonk, President of Netherland’s “Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts,” a Non-Government Organization (NGO) that has been active in trying to get Japan to acknowledge and apologize for the atrocities that Japan committed in Asia during WWII] wrote a letter to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan.

This letter was triggered by the April 2014 message that Abe sent to an annual memorial ceremony honoring Class-A (and other Japanese war criminals) and referred to those executed by the Allied powers as “the foundation of their nation.” The opening sentence of Mr. van Wagtendonk’s letter was “Your message sent to the annual ceremony honoring class A and other war criminal is truly disgusting.” (Bold and underline are mine.) The letter also said “The people of Japan must now realize and recognize the true colors of their Prime Minister. He honors Japan’s convicted war criminals, forgets their atrocities, and glorifies them to cover up the role and activities of his ancestors. The Japanese citizens will realize that the war criminals are not ‘the foundation of modern Japan,’ but give Japan a lasting bad name. … Your so called peace agenda is wrought by the past and lacks repentance.”

During WWII, Indonesia was a Dutch colony, and many of the comfort women were Dutch. That explains the existence of this Dutch NGO. They have been especially active on the comfort women issue. As a matter of fact, similar to the Koreans’ weekly Wednesday demonstration in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debs organizes weekly Tuesday demonstration in front of the Japanese Embassy in Amsterdam.

For the complete letter, click here.