The Indo Project Finding the Words
For those of us with roots in the wartime Dutch East Indies, our family’s stories often contain unspoken gaps. I’ve always been deeply curious to understand what my parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents experienced in the camps. It’s a difficult journey, but I’ve been wanting to acknowledge their strength and better understand how they endured and survived such a dark chapter.

In this piece, I review two powerful novels set at Tjideng Camp in Batavia (present-day Jakarta) that I highly recommend: The Songbird and the Rambutan Tree by Lucille Abendanon and Under the Java Moon by Heather B. Moore