From Brown Dutchmen to Indo-Americans: Changing Identity of the Dutch-Indonesian (Indo) Diaspora in America

‘The past should not affect the children’: intergenerational hauntings in the homes of Indo-European families

“…Collective suffering experienced during two consecutive wars, the Japanese occupation of Indonesia (1942Indonesia ( -1945 and the Indonesian National Revolution (1945)(1946)(1947)(1948)(1949), are often haunting memories for Indo-European families (Tajuddin and Stern 2015). During the Japanese occupation, European families were torn apart as men and boys over the age of ten were separated from women and children in internment camps.…”

“…Indo-Europeans could initially remain outside these camps if they both renounced their European status and could prove a desirable degree of Indonesian ancestry, but many of them were later also interned regardless (Dragojlovic 2011). Both Indonesian and European people suffered due to the harsh living conditions inside and outside of the internment camps, as well as from forced labour, torture and executions (Tajuddin and Stern 2015). The period after Japanese capitulation, leading up to Dutch recognition of Indonesian independence in December 1949, can be characterized by mass violence between Indonesian nationalists and Dutch military forces.…”

“…Following Indonesian independence, Indo-Europeans were pressured to either adopt Indonesian nationality to remain in Indonesia or leave the country. The majority left the country, dispersing themselves primarily in the Netherlands, Brazil, Canada, the united States and Australia (Tajuddin and Stern 2015). From 1945 to 1967, around 300,000 Indo-Europeans repatriated to the Netherlands, carrying with them memories from war violence, racialized violence and displacement (Captain 2014).…”

“…For following Indo-European generations, it can be challenging to reconcile the contradictions between the widely-held idealized memories of colonial life, the Dutch public narratives, and parents' and grandparents' silent grievances and suffering (Dragojlovic 2014;Pattynama 2012). Azlan Tajuddin and Jamie Stern (2015) illustrate in their study with Indo-Europeans in the united States that repression cannot guarantee full erasure of trauma. Indeed, narratives are crucial to reconstructing experiences, both for trauma to be acknowledged, accepted and communicated and to integrate the past, present and future (Blackman 2012).…”

“…Often, it is not the trauma itself but rather the secrecy and lack of knowledge that surround it that haunt descendants and invoke questions concerning ancestry and silences (Dragojlovic 2015;Tajuddin and Stern 2015). These secrecies can have pervasive effects on later generations and may even create deep personal connections with traumatic family histories.…”