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Paper short abstract

This paper examines the racial and gender dynamics, which have made the existence of Japanese Indo-European children born of war a family secret. Their stories highlight the impact of family silences, as well as the emancipatory effect of counternarratives which challenge community memories of WWII.

Paper long abstract

The existence of Japanese Indo-European children born of war has long been a taboo within the Indo-European community in the Netherlands: born between 1944 and 1946 to Indo-European (Dutch-Indonesian) mothers and Japanese men who were members of the Japanese Occupation of the Dutch East Indies, their existence has been associated with the brutality and suffering inflicted by Japan on the Dutch community. Raised in communities deeply affected by war, it was only in the 1980s that JINers, as they call themselves, stepped into the public. While their primary goal has been to form a community and search for their biological fathers in Japan, their stories also challenge the wartime narratives that have made it difficult for mothers to tell the story of their conception. Based on 25 life story interviews and ethnographic research with JINers in the Netherlands, this paper explores the community and family dynamics that have made the existence of JINers a family secret. Their stories not only reveal the consequences of racialized images of Japan on children born of war, but also the emancipatory impact of discovering their roots, and alternative perspectives on the circumstances of their birth. They highlight the gender dimensions of wartime narratives, which confine women’s experience to victimhood or treason, and make their sexuality an object of a struggle among men. JINers’ counternarratives provide a window on the racial and gender dimensions of family and community memories and the meaning and significance of changing the narrative for war children’s well-being and identity formation.