2020/2021
Collection 16

Fish Tree

1944; Halmaheira Prison Camp, Samarang, Java, Indonesia

In the 1930s, Indonesia was a Dutch colony. I lived there with my husband, Ari. In 1941, Japan bombed American ships in Hawaii so they could take over the Dutch East Indies.

My husband wanted to fight the Japanese. I hoped the Dutch Army would win so we could go back to living normally, but Japan was powerful. Soon we surrendered.

Everyone had to live in a concentration camp. The men were separated from the women and children. In a house built for a family of six, the Japanese forced twenty people! Everyone slept on the floor. We had to sleep like salmon in a basket.

The weather there was always changing. Sometimes it was dry. Sometimes it was wet. It was always hot. No matter the condition, we always worked. We dug ditches and planted gardens. I often got huge blisters from all the digging.

Sadly, the Japanese guards prevented us from harvesting the gardens. The plants turned brown and withered away. It was heartbreaking to see things we could have used for food leave us slowly. The Japanese let us cook in a community kitchen — but only porridge. We never had enough, so everyone got only one scoop. I was glad I didn’t have children. I felt bad for those mothers who had to watch their children go to bed starving.

We lived on an island. In the middle of camp was a gigantic tree where herons nested. The mother herons wanted to feed their young as much as we wanted to feed ours. Every morning they caught fish. Once in a while, a baby heron was a bit clumsy, and the fish fell from the tree. When that happened, mothers in the camp sent their sons to look for the fish. If a boy saw one, he looked around to make sure there were no Japanese guards. If the guards saw him with a fish, he may not be allowed to eat for two days! If the boy did not see guards, he ran out, grabbed the fish, and ran back to his house. The prisoners split the fish evenly and ate it raw. They couldn’t cook the fish, because if they used the kitchen, the guards would smell it and the prisoners would be punished. Getting the fish was such a treat that we did not mind eating it raw.

I was ecstatic when a boy came back with a fish. It reminded me of the Bible story where God promised Elijah that ravens would bring him meat when he was hungry during a famine. God took care of Elijah, and God took care of me.

After the war ended, the Japanese went back to their country. I had been in that camp for three and one-half years, and I was anxious to see Ari again. Thankfully he had not died in the war. Soon we had a daughter. We named her Dorothea, meaning “gift from God.”

Annika Railsback, great-granddaughter of the narrator; Colorado, USA

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