Our annual “Dialogue in Japan” will take place at the Dutch Embassy in Tokyo on November 16th. Every year Dutch victims of WWII visit Japan through the Peace Exchange Program of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On that occasion the Stichting Dialoog NJI organizes an event for a dialogue between these Dutch victims and normal Japanese people especially young people. Unfortunately most Japanese do not know much about the history in former Dutch East-Indie during the war. That is why together with the Dutch Embassy the Stichting invites them to learn about this history so that they have a basic knowledge for their dialogue with Dutch people.
This year again Prof. Mrs. Aiko Utsumi will be our guest speaker. Yukari Tangena will give them some basic information about reconciliation between Dutch and Japanese and she will report about the activities of the Stichting Dialoog NJI. Afterwards all the participants will meet the Dutch guests and have lunch together.
The invitations were sent in the beginning of October and within a week 40 seats were already fully booked. Yukari Tangena hopes this will help more Japanese to be aware of their history and necessity of reconciliation.
(Yukari in action in 2014)
it took me 70 years to come to terms with what had happened to me and all my family during our years of imprisonment on Java (Tjideng) / Burma railway and Japan with the Japanese.
It was through dialogue that reconciliation and forgiveness happened . Thank you for facilitation these events.