Pakket 5 pagina 2

Pakket 5 Pagina 2

That he acknowledges being partially responsible for what happened in Semarang; as described in the indictment (and with regards to his fellow-accused in the verdict of the Krijgsraad, of 24 March 1948, has been declared proved;
That he, around January 1944, working in Semarang, in the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in the military training school for officers, as a general leader of the tactical training for cadets, directly subordinate to the commander of the school, the general-major, during a conversation with colonel XXXX, also working in the military training school, about the undesirable circumstances in Semarang; concerning the minor control of the prostitutes at that place, the lack of sufficient healthy women in the brothels meant for Japanese militaries, the establishment of which was decided and the enlargement as a consequence of that lack, about the venereal diseases, whereby colonel XXXX informed him that he intended to make a proposal for improvement to general XXXX, after which accused accompanied XXXX to XXXX;
That XXXX proposed to general XXXX to recruit women from the detentioncamps for the brothels to be newly established in Semarang;
That general XXXX seemed benevolent to the proposal, but hesitated whether the approval needed for taking the women away from the camps, still under civil administration, and that would have to be given by the Headquarters of the 16th Army, that was also involved in the establishment of the brothels, could be obtained;
That during these discussions the condition of voluntariness was never an issue, because that was considered obvious;
That the part of his interrogation during the investigation, 12006/R, date 11 June 1946, held before him, in his reply to the question: ‘What was being talked about with XXXX?’, he would have stated the opposite, is untrue and [daarin] notwithstanding his, accused’s, protest with his interrogator, mr. Schouten, and also several other statements, against which he also protested, yet with no result, has remained in the interrogation;
That nevertheless his interrogator each time, when he objected against certain parts in the record, that were in contrast with the statements of the accused, said that the differences were not very important and that what was written in the report boiled down to the same: both the interrogator and the interpreter, a certain XXXX, did not want to abandon their point of view that the accused must have known, that in the process of taking women from the camps and station them in the brothels, deceit and violence had taken place; referring to the statements of the accused with regards to the above mentioned conversation with general XXXX, the interrogator has said that the accused must have known that taking women and girls from the detentioncamps by force and deceit, was against the laws and customs of war, at which the accused replied that he knew that very well and that that was why it was obvious that was not being talked about, because they only thought of voluntary recruitment;
That he has also never, as mentioned in the record, declared that immediately after his return from Tokio, he had learned that violence had been committed;
That he nevertheless signed the record, be it under protest against the false parts as referred to above, expecting to be able to put things straight in court;
That the discussion as referred to took place shortly before his departure for Tokio, around the end of January 1944;
That meanwhile, in the course of the approximately two weeks prior to his departure, he did his utmost to find sufficient prostitutes among the free population of Semarang, though with no satisfactory results;
That he still not quite agreed with XXXX’s plans, because he foresaw practical problems, but when local recruitment did not proceed smoothly, by order of the general he made a plan to present to the Headquarter;
That in view of his departure, major XXXX, who was appointed as his deputy, was selected by colonel XXXX, who was enthusiastic about the plans, to further elaborate those;
That he, the accused, had no further involvement in the case, yet travelled to Batavia together with major XXXX, while knowing that major XXXX went to Batavia to get the approval of the Headquarter, among other things;That shortly after his return to Semarang, approximately by the end of March 1944, during a dinner in Semarang, he heard that the plans had been executed;

The original transcripts are in Dutch, you can find them, by scrolling to page 2 here