Projects by country or regio - Netherlands

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Projects by country or regio - Netherlands

Country or Region	Period for Applications & Project Implementation	Project Description
The Netherlands	15 July 1998 - 14 July 2001	Provision of medical and welfare goods and services (valued at 245 million yen)

Background

When the Netherlands signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, in accordance with Article 14 of the Treaty, it waived all reparation claims, claims to material restitution and the right for claim both at national and individual levels. The position was that, although Japan had an obligation to pay reparations, it was not possible to obtain payment in light of the need to maintain the possibility for Japan's economic survival.

With regard to the persons who had suffered hardships as prisoners of war, Japan paid compensation under Article 16 of the Treaty through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). However, the interned civilians were not subject to the provisions of Article 16, and from the point of view of civilian sentiment, this situation was not acceptable. In this regard, on 7 and 8 September 1951, just before the Netherlands signed the San Francisco Treaty, Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Dirk Stikker exchanged letters with Prime Minister of Japan Shigeru Yoshida, and both sides came to an agreement under which the Governments of the Netherlands stated that it did not consider that waiving reparations claims under Article 14(b) of the Treaty would extinguish the right of individual Dutch nationals to claim compensation. In response to this, the Japanese Government stated that it did not consider that the private right to claim of nationals of the Netherlands would immediately become non-existent, but that, under the Peace Treaty, allied nationals would not be able to obtain satisfaction regarding such claims, although there were certain types of private claims of allied nationals which the Japanese Government might wish to deal with voluntarily.

The Stikker-Yoshida Agreement eventually led to the signing, on 13 March 1956, of the Protocol between the Government of Japan and the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Relating to Settlement of the Problem Concerning Certain Types of Private Claims of Netherlands Nationals. The Government of Japan tendered the amount of 10 million dollars "voluntarily" to the Government of the Netherlands "in order to express sincere remorse and regrets for the irreparable pain suffered by the Dutch Nationals."

In this way, the Peace Treaty legally settled the post-war issues between Japan and the Netherlands, and the above-mentioned Protocol between the two countries confirmed that the Government of the Netherlands would not make any claim against the Japanese Government. Despite the measures set out in the Protocol, however, the incurable physical and psychological trauma suffered by the victims during World War II still remained.

Thus, for example, the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts (JES, established in the Netherlands in 1990) demanded that the Japanese Government recognize legal responsibility and pay compensation. It began a campaign demanding about 20,000 dollars per person. JES also took up the issue of comfort women. The standpoint of JES was that only the Japanese Government was directly responsible for compensation.

Immediately after the Asian Women's Fund was established in 1995, the Foreign Ministry of Japan began preparations to facilitate implementation of Asian Women's Fund projects in the Netherlands. Because the right to claim reparation for war damage had been already settled through the San Francisco Peace Treaty, the Government of the Netherlands urged Japan to speak directly with those concerned. As the result, discussions took place with those who were related to the JES.

It appeared that in choosing the type of projects to be implemented, the wishes of the Governments of the Netherlands was taken into account, and that it was carefully considered how to achieve a balance with the types of projects already being discussed for other countries. During the discussions, payments to individual victims were requested by the Dutch side. After long negotiations, it was agreed that medical and welfare assistance was to be provided for the individuals and the total amount of the fund from the Japanese Government was to be 255 million yen.

In order to implement the above projects, from the Dutch side an organization had to be erected. Under Dutch law, an organization must have the legal status and independence to work together with other parties and to operate independently. General of Army (ret.) G.L.J. Huyser was willing to establish such a foundation, namely, Project Implementation Committee in the Netherlands (PICN). As the first chairman of the PICN, General ret. Huyser signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the PICN and the AWF on 15 July 1998. On behalf of the AWF, Tatsuo Yamaguchi, then the Vice-President signed the MOU(Full Text).

On the same day, the then-Prime Minister of Japan, Ryutaro Hashimoto sent a letter to Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Willem Kok(Full Text), expressing the Japanese Government's feelings of apology and remorse for the comfort women issue. The letter, as explained below, was said to have brought former comfort women a great solace.

Project implementation

In accordance with the MOU, the AWF was to grant 255 million yen to the PICN with the purpose to improve the living conditions of Dutch victims, as a way to express the feelings of atonement of the Japanese Government and people. All of this money would be provided from Japanese Government funds. It was decided that the entire amount of 255 million, with the exception of a maximum of 10 million yen for administrative expenses, would be used for victims wishing to participate in the project.

In August 1998, the PICN launched the projects by placing advertisements in newspapers and other media in the Netherlands and in different parts of the world. The application deadline was set for 15 March 1999, and applications were received from 107 people.

Attention to all those who in the period 1942-1945 (WWII) suffered extreme mental and physical harm on account of being forced into prostitution by the Japanese occupation forces in South East Asia. This group of victims must have had Dutch Nationality at those time. The AWF (Asian Women's Fund) is planning to pay compensation to this group of victims in the form of a Project to improve the living condition of those victims. In this regard, the foundation PICN(Project implementation committee in the Netherlands) urgently request those who belong to the category, but have yet to register, to do so on or before 15 January 1999 by mail. Requests after 15-1-1999 cannot be deal with anymore. Send your letter to the lady entrusted with this registration, addressed as follows;

The application deadline was set for 15 March 1999, and applications were received from 107 people. The PICN followed strict criteria standards when examining the applications, and approved 79 people as project recipients.
Conditions for approval included Dutch nationality at the time, and that the victim had been forced through physical means into prostitution by Japanese occupying forces during World War II. Other factors considered included location, frequency, nature of trauma, and causes of illness, etc.

Victims approved as recipients were provided with goods and services valued at an average of approximately 50,000 guilders (3 million yen) per person. In implementing the project, the PICN first listened to the victims' wishes regarding types of medical and welfare services, and designed programs based on those wishes. In order to realize the individual programs, financial support was then given to individual recipients.

Following the request made by the PICN, a copy of the letter in English from Prime Minister Hashimoto addressed to Prime Minister Kok of the Netherlands(Full text) was delivered to each victim in April 1999. It repeated the contents of the letter of apology that the Japanese Prime Minister had written to victims in the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan. The letter began with this sentence: "The Government of Japan is painfully aware of its moral responsibility concerning the issue of so-called wartime comfort women." The letter also points out that the Asian Women's Fund implements the projects in order to express the national atonement on the issue and that the Government cooperates with the AWF. It is further made clear that the purpose of the medical and welfare projects in the Netherlands is to "express atonement of the people of Japan." The official statement issued in 1995 by the then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama was incorporated into the content of the letter and the words "apology and remorse" were repeated twice.

In November 1998, Mrs. Marguerite Hamer - Monod de Froideville became the President of the PICN to succeed General of Army (ret.) Huyser, who then became the PICN Main Advisor.

I value Mr. Hashimoto's apology. I sent a copy to my sister to have it translated. While I was on holiday with the Reuma Fonds (Rheumatism Fund), my husband called me to tell me about the letter.

I am greatly satisfied with Mr. Hashimoto's letter. Finally there is some form of recognition after all those years. My emotions make me tremble. Thank you once again for your efforts.

I am very pleased with the statement made by the Japanese Prime Minister.

I herewith thank you in advance for everything you have done for me and will do. Not only this financial compensation, but also the recognition of all the misery I had to endure as a 15 year-old girl. It salves the open wound, which I have endured throughout my life.

President Mrs. Marguerite Hamer - Monod de Froideville conveyed the content of these letters to the Japanese Embassy, and said that "despite the fact that pain from the past still remained, the recipients' reactions generally indicated that the projects had brought some solace, and especially that Prime Minister Hashimoto's letter had given the victims a kind of satisfaction, because it communicated an understanding of their pain."

In November 1999, it was reported that a Japanese textbook publisher had applied to the then-Ministry of Education to change an entry in its junior high school textbook for social studies by removing the word "forcibly" from the following sentence: "They were forcibly sent as comfort women to the warfront." When this was made known in the Netherlands, PICN President Mrs. Marguerite Hamer - Monod de Froideville, in the name of the victims and the members and advisors of the board of PICN, sent a letter dated 15 November 1999 to the Ambassador of Japan in the Netherlands, strongly objecting to the application made by the textbook publisher. The news, she wrote, "had been met by an extremely emotional response from the victims, and was a great shock to their sensitivities." She went on to say that "if the textbook entry was watered down, the victims' feelings would be even more gravely hurt." Changing the entry, she wrote, would go against the words in Prime Minister Hashimoto's letter, turning them into a falsehood. It would also make it possible to say that the very existence of the Asian Women's Fund and the PICN represented a sham, and would result in future generations of Japanese not having a correct understanding of Japan's history during the World War II period. A copy of her letter was sent to the Asian Women's Fund.

In response, the Japanese Government explained that Japan's textbook authorization system is based on respect for freedom of expression‎, gave examples of the many other entries in Japanese textbooks, and reconfirmed the Japanese Government's position concerning the interpretation of history, which had been indicated in Prime Minister Murayama's statement.

On 13 July 2001, a ceremony was held in The Hague to mark the conclusion of atonement projects in the Netherlands. At the ceremony, PICN president Mrs. Marguerite Hamer - Monod de Froideville said:

Although the Project was established not until 53 years after the end of the War, and although no money in the world can ever compensate for what they had to endure in their young days, yet it did indeed bring a sort of peace to the victims, and a kind of justice to them, which they needed. Their lives really have been improved thanks to the AWF, not only because of the financial compensation in the form of the Project money, but also because of the recognition of the wrong doings of the past Mr. Hashimoto's letter has conveyed to them.

Also at the ceremony, deep appreciation to the PICN was delivered through messages sent by President of the Asian Women's Fund Tomiichi Murayama and Minister of Foreign Affairs Makiko Tanaka.
On 13 July 2001 the PICN published an eval‎uation report of its activities(Full Text).