Two Years of Tenko: Life as a Sixteen Year Old in a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp

In 1941 Elizabeth van Kampen was a fourteen year old Dutch girl living with her parents on the island of Java. In January 1942, the Japanese invaded Java and her father was taken to an all male internment camp. Elizabeth's mother was now left alone to look after her daughters. Four months later the van Kampens were sent to a women's internment camp where food was scarce to non existent. For the next two years they were subjected to unspeakable horrors and deprivations at the hands of a barbaric enemy. When the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, the Van Kampen family returned to Holland. Elizabeth was desperate to obtain news of her father and was devastated to learn that her father had died in the internment camp. In the year 2000 she visited Japan and despite her harrowing experiences, she harbours no lasting bitterness towards the Japanese. This is her story