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Dutch child survivor of Japan’s WWII camps breaks silence
It has taken Tineke Einthoven 80 years to be able to speak about what she lived through as a child in brutal Japanese internment camps during World War II without breaking down.
“Now I can talk about it without crying,” said the Dutch woman who was four when she and her family were captured and held in “horrible” conditions in a camp on the Indonesian island of Java.
Her three-year nightmare began early in 1942, a few months after the Japanese attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
“There was a lot of bombing and the Japanese arrived. We had dug a big hole in the garden to shelter my parents, my brother and my two sisters, as well as the family of our servants,” the 87-year-old psychologist recalled, speaking publicly for the first time about the ordeal.
Indonesia was a Dutch colony at the time, and Imperial Japan was keen to get its hands on its oil fields and rubber plantations.
The Japanese separated her father, Willem Frederik Einthoven, from the rest of the family, and they did not hear from him for a year.
The son of Nobel Prize winner Willem Einthoven, the inventor of the electrocardiogram, he was an engineer who headed Radio Malabar, the communications link with the Netherlands, but he refused to collaborate with his captors.
– One in 10 perished –
His wife and children were sent to a camp in Tjibunut, near Bandung, where they were held with thousands of other Dutch, British and Australian civilians.
The vast majority of the 130,000 Allied civilians held by the Japanese during the war were Dutch, with more than one in 10 dying in the camps.
The fact that there were more than twice as many Dutch civilians as military prisoners of war has meant that their ordeal is more “vivid in Dutch collective memory”, said historian Daniel Milne of the University of Kyoto.
“We often had nothing more than a bit of rice to eat,” said Einthoven.
“Since I was the smallest, I would slip under the fence to find food outside the camp, but I could only get weeds,” Einthoven added. Parents were punished if a child was caught. “We risked the death penalty.”
“We suffered from hunger, lack of water, the heat, a total lack of hygiene and hours spent under the sun being counted and recounted.”
One of Einthoven’s friends named Marianne, to whom she had given a doll, died of diphtheria.
“I wondered if that doll would also cross to the other side; it was my first questioning of death,” she said.
– Convoys bombed –
Then, in January 1944, the family was reunited and deported to Japan, where the Japanese military wanted her father and his team to invent a radar system.
During the journey, their convoy was bombed by the Americans, but their ship was spared. Many were not so lucky, with thousands of Dutch POWs perishing on the voyage, their ships sunk or torpedoed.
The 60 or so camps that held “some 1,200 civilians in Japan” are little known, said Mayumi Komiya of the POW Research Network Japan.
Some of the prisoners did not survive, including Tineke’s father, who died of pneumonia at 51, weakened by the lack of food and the long march to the laboratory that had been set up for him.
The family was then sent to a temple 300 kilometres (185 miles) west of Tokyo, where they survived in isolation.
They heard about Emperor Hirohito announcing Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945 from “some Italians, who were also prisoners not far away. One of them threw himself into my mother’s arms, and she was very embarrassed,” Einthoven recalled.
She still remembers licking soup off rocks with other children from cans that had shattered during a failed American parachute drop to them.
Repatriated via Australia to the Netherlands, Tineke worked after the war as a psychologist in Geneva, Nice in France, and neighbouring Monaco, and had two children.
But she never shared her experiences of those years with anyone beyond her family.
“I am speaking out today to show that even if one has lived through something horrible, one doesn’t have to suffer your entire life. You can move on if you choose to free yourself from the victim status,” she said with a smile.
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A British man accused of driving his vehicle into crowds celebrating Liverpool’s Premier League title win faces an additional 24 criminal charges, prosecutors revealed Thursday at his latest court hearing.
Former British Marine Paul Doyle, 53, appeared tearful as he joined the hearing at Liverpool Crown Court via videolink from prison, when details of the new counts stemming from the May 26 incident emerged.
Merseyside Police now say 134 people were injured when Doyle allegedly drove his Ford Galaxy Titanium into crowds who were leaving Liverpool’s waterfront after a victory parade.
The 31 charges in total now filed involve 29 victims, aged between six months and 77, the court heard.
Six relate to children including two babies — one aged six months at the time and one aged seven months — who were injured when the car hit people massed on Water street in the city centre.
Supporters of the city’s world-famous football team had thronged its streets to celebrate the club’s record-equalling 20th English top-flight title when scenes of joy turned to horror.
Doyle, a father-of-three from the Croxteth neighbourhood in the city, was initially charged with seven offences, including dangerous driving and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
He now faces multiple additional counts under that and other charges, including 19 for attempting to cause grievous bodily harm, three of wounding with intent and one of affray.
Doyle, wearing a grey T-shirt, did not enter any pleas during the 20-minute hearing, which several relatives of the victims and more than 20 members of the media attended.
Judge Andrew Menary adjourned the case until September 4, when Doyle is expected to enter pleas.
Earlier this year, a provisional trial date was fixed for November 24, with the case expected to last three to four weeks.
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…As WTO, ITC, NEPC launch WEIDE Fund to empower women entrepreneurs
By Juliet Umeh
Director-General of the World Trade Organization, WTO, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has warned that Nigeria’s low internet penetration, with more than half of the population still offline, could limit the country’s ability to tap into the fast-growing global digital trade market.
Speaking at the launch of the Women Exporters in the Digital Economy, WEIDE, Fund in Abuja, on Thursday, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala said only 45 percent of Nigerians are connected to the internet, far below the global average of 67 percent.
WTO DG said: “No nation can truly digitize without a steady supply of electricity and reliable, affordable internet. More than half of Nigerians remain disconnected, and this gap must be closed if we are to seize the opportunities of digital trade.”
According to her, “Nigeria is one of four countries chosen for the WEIDE Fund’s 2024 rollout, alongside Jordan, Mongolia, and the Dominican Republic, after a highly competitive selection process.
“The Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC, led by Executive Director Nonye Ayeni, will implement the program locally.
“Over 67,000 Nigerian women entrepreneurs applied for the fund. Due to the exceptional quality of entries, the number of beneficiaries was increased from 100 to 146 awardees.
“Sixteen entrepreneurs in the Booster Track will each receive up to US$30,000 and 18 months of technical assistance.
“One hundred and thirty entrepreneurs in the Discovery Track will each get up to US$5,000 and a year of business support.
“Beneficiaries operate across sectors such as agriculture, IT, fashion, hospitality, beauty, and manufacturing.”
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala stressed that digital trade, valued globally at US$4.25 trillion, is the fastest-growing segment of commerce, yet Africa’s share remains below 1 percent.
She urged inter-ministerial collaboration among the Ministries of Communications, Industry, and Power to close the connectivity gap, improve infrastructure, and empower women to compete globally.
She added: “When women trade internationally, they earn almost three times more than those who sell locally. The WEIDE Fund is about giving Nigerian women the tools, skills, and market access to multiply those gains.”
Also in his remarks, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, committed to supporting the initiative, noting that women entrepreneurs bring a unique ability to connect products to real-life problems.
Tijani said: “Empathy is women’s superpower in business, and it is this empathy that creates solutions with lasting impact.”
Also in his remarks, President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture, NACCIMA, Dr. Dele Oye, praised the programme for positioning Nigeria in the digital trade ecosystem and supporting the country’s ambition to build a $1 trillion economy.
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Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has listed several behaviour it considers unruly following the controversy raised by Comfort Emmanson’s clash with Ibom Air crew members.
The AON listed the behaviour that may be considered unruly in a statement released on Thursday by its spokesperson, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, after charges were dropped against Emmanson following intervention from the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo.
The statement said, “Consequent upon the intervention of the Honourable Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, CON, FCIArb (UK), and appeal to lift the life-time ban placed on Ms. Comfort Emmanson by its members for unruly behavior onboard Ibom Air Flight Q9 303 from Uyo to Lagos on August 10, 2025, the AON, having considered all the circumstances of the matter, including the exhibition of remorse for her behavior, as reported, the withdrawal of the complaint and consequent striking out of the charges, and release of Ms. Emmanson from custody, the statement of Government that it takes aviation safety and security very seriously and decision to draw a line after these clemencies, and the proposed retreat to retrain AVSEC personnel and airline crew on the handling of unruly and disruptive passengers, the AON hereby:
“Lifted the life ban placed on Ms. Comfort Emmanson from flying with any AON-member airline for life.
“Calls on the relevant aviation agencies to immediately commence the sensitization of the public on the dangers and consequences of unruly behaviour at airport terminals and onboard aircraft, as spelt out in section 85 of the Civil Aviation Act, 2022 and Part 17 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations, 2023.
“Believes that incidents of unruly and disruptive behaviour at airport terminals and onboard aircraft will greatly reduce if passengers are aware that such behaviour poses a danger to flight safety and are offences under the law, punishable with a fine or imprisonment or both.
“Unruly behaviour includes but is not limited to:
“a) Assaulting, intimidating, or threatening any flight or cabin crew member;
“b) Using a mobile phone and/or other communication/electronic gadget on board aircraft against the instruction of the pilot-in-command or flight crew or cabin crew;
“c) Smoking on board aircraft or in a non-smoking area of the terminal building;
“d) Fighting or other disorderly conduct on board an aircraft or at the terminal building;
“e) Any conduct constituting a nuisance to other passengers;
“f) Disobedience of lawful instruction issued by the pilot-in-command, flight crew, cabin crew, check-in-staff and/or security screening staff;
“g) Any conduct that endangers the safety of flight operations;
“h) Tampering with smoke detectors or other aircraft equipment.
“Reiterates the power of the pilot-in-command or an AVSEC officer, as provided in the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations, to restrain and de-board an unruly and disruptive passenger and to take all necessary measures to protect the safety of the aircraft, the terminal building or of persons and property therein, to maintain good order and discipline on board or at the terminal building and to enable him deliver such person to competent authorities.”
The statement further said that the AON “confirms that members shall cooperate with the relevant aviation agencies and participate in the retraining retreats on how to handle cases of unruly and disruptive passengers as proposed by the Honorable Minister.
“Reaffirms its zero-tolerance policy towards unruly passenger behaviour and enjoins aggrieved passengers to follow proper channels in expressing their grievances.”
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