User:Bvanoort

Tjihapit.
During World War II this, largest of all women and childrens prison camps, existed in Bandung, Java. The camp was created as part of a policy of racial segregation whose ultimate aim was to eliminate the European presence from Japanese occupied territories. Tjihapit, located in north east Bandung began its existence in November 1942 by being designated as a "protected area" for European women and children, but only after all other population groups had been evicted from this suburb. By January 1943 Tjihapit was cut off from the outside world by a bamboo and barbed wire wall, and the population rapidly approached 7000, or three- four times times the prewar population. During this early stage of internment the camp was managed and guarded by Indonesian personnel employed by the Japanese Imperial army. Over the subsequent months the population grew to over 13,000 as internees from smaller camps elsewhere in western Java were transported to Bandung, and as the dragnet for undesirable aliens was refined. Older men (over 60) and boys (between 10 and 17) were continously winnowed out from this population group and interned elsewhere. At the same time the definition of "undesirable alien" was modified when Jews were no longer considered Asian, and when citizens of former Axis allies such a Rumanians and Italians, were also interned. Because of the lack of good surviving documentation the maximum size of this camp is not known. Van Dulm for instance estimates that the camp population exceeded 14,000. Owing to the sharply increased population density of this part of Bandung, combined with a general deterioration of municipal services, brought the hygienic conditions to a disastrously low level. This combined with an acute food shortage contributed to a rapid deterioration in the health of the population and a mounting death toll. In March 1944 a changed Japanese occupation policy took effect when the camp came under direct Military supervision. In November 1944 another policy change was implemented with the removal of all internees to concentration camps elsewhere on Java, mainly in the vicinity of major coastal towns (Batavia (today's Jakarta) and Semarang in central Java. This was achieved by transporting internees in groups of 600- 700 by rail over a seven month period. . After May 1945 only some 30 women were left in Tjihapit to make final administrative arrangements . After the war Tjihapit was once again populated with refugees from internment camps who had now come under threat from a rapily escalating war of independence waged by the Indoneisan population against the re-establishment of Dutch Colonial rule.