Dear Japanese

Dear Japanese documents the offspring of Japanese soldiers and Indonesian women, born during the Pacific War, now living in the Netherlands.

When Japan attacked and occupied the former Dutch East Indies (Now Indonesia) in 1942, many Indo males were jailed, leaving their wives and daughters to fend for themselves. Japanese children were born as the fruits of relationships based on love or economic need, while a few were from sexual assaults. During the postwar chaos of Indonesian National Revolution, the Indo people had to escape to their unknown homeland, The Netherlands. Almost 70 years after the war, many of them are still searching for their fathers as an important missing piece of their identities.

As an immigrant from a former enemy country, Japan, Okuyama could share their pride in being Japanese, coupled with feelings of alienation and guilt.