Published on April 18, 2019.
This piece discusses the Dutch demand to rebuild Dejima in postwar Nagasaki, the execution of Lieutenant Colonel Toyoaki Horiuchi, the loss of Dutch colonial control over Indonesia, and the posture of European nations regarding reparations claims against Japan.
Interwoven with criticism of Asahi Shimbun reporting, it portrays the historical resentment and anti-Japan retaliation said to lie behind the image of the land of windmills and tulips.

2019-04-18
Incidentally, Britain, the United States, and France waived their rights to claim reparations from Japan, but the ones that meanly collected them were former ally Italy and perpetually neutral Switzerland.
Prince Takamatsu appealed to Queen Juliana, but they executed him in May of that year.
A chapter I published on 2018-05-01 under that title entered the official hashtag ranking at No. 20 in Portugal.
What follows is a continuation of the previous chapter.
The anti-Japan Asahi Shimbun carried a story about the restoration of Dejima in Nagasaki.
It said that shortly after the war, the Dutch ambassador to Japan told Shigeru Yoshida, “Restore it quickly.”
And even, “If necessary, the Netherlands will restore it and charge the cost to Japan as wartime reparations.”
Contained in just this much are many lies typical of an anti-Japan newspaper.
First of all, it was not “shortly after the war.”
It was in 1948.
The MacArthur Constitution had come into effect in May of the previous year, and the Class-A war criminals were executed at the end of 1948.
Many hundreds of thousands still had not been able to return from Russia and China.
At such a time, they said Nagasaki, reduced to ashes by the atomic bomb, should restore Dejima.
That was astonishing malice.
Moreover, the Dejima in question had already had its ownership abandoned by the Dutch at a fairly early stage in the Meiji period, and the land had been sold off.
As its name suggests, Dejima was an artificial island created by reclaiming one corner of Nagasaki Bay, and a bridge had been built for passage.
Here, “Dutchmen going out without permission” and the coming and going of “women other than courtesans” were forbidden.
Which means that the prostitutes of Maruyama were free to pass.
Siebold’s lover Otaki also crossed over disguised as a courtesan until a house was built for her in Narutaki.
Before the war, the surrounding area had been reclaimed and private houses lined the district, so there was no trace left of old Dejima.
It is unusual for Japanese, who value historic sites, but in fact the Dutch had been disliked by the Japanese since the Edo period.
The Swede Thunberg wrote, “The Japanese deeply hated the Dutch, who whipped their slaves.”
Their filth and strong body odor were even mocked in a senryu: “Flies trail after the red-haired men on their way to the castle.”
At the end of the Edo period, Hirohachi, the leader of a troupe of entertainers who toured Europe and America, praised every country, yet of the Netherlands alone he wrote, “The people are bad, and the country is bad as well.”
In fact, from 30 years of relations with Portugal, dozens of words entered Japanese, such as rasha and shabon, but from Dutch there were astonishingly few.
That suggests there was somewhere in the Japanese heart a dislike of the Dutch, and that Dejima may therefore have been quickly buried over.
Even so, why did the Dutch ambassador deliberately choose the time when Dr. Takashi Nagai and many other citizens of Nagasaki were suffering from the damage of the atomic bombing.
In fact, at that time a cause of anger among the Dutch people was unfolding.
The Netherlands had colonized Indonesia for 400 years and had continued a cruel exploitation.
The profits were enough to fully sustain the national finances, and there were ample gains from the oil of Palembang.
After the war, when they went to take it back, those once obedient natives had been transformed into something formidable through the guidance and training of the Japanese military, and they resisted fiercely.
Independence could no longer be stopped.
The Netherlands was losing its source of income and was falling back into the poor small country it once had been.
Everything was Japan’s fault.
From that point on, they wanted to torment Japan by every possible means.
One example was the trial of Lieutenant Colonel Toyoaki Horiuchi, commander of the naval airborne unit that had parachuted onto Celebes Island and captured it with ease.
Against a lieutenant colonel for whom there was no charge at all, the Dutch pronounced a death sentence for the reason that “he was Japanese.”
Prince Takamatsu appealed to Queen Juliana, but they executed him in May of that year.
And the second act of harassment was this demand for restoration.
According to the history of Nagasaki City, including land expropriation, the total cost reached as much as 2 billion yen.
In today’s money, that is about 200 billion yen.
Incidentally, Britain, the United States, and France waived their rights to claim reparations from Japan, but the ones that meanly collected them were former ally Italy and perpetually neutral Switzerland.
And the Netherlands as well, which extracted reparations twice, once in the era of Queen Juliana and once in the era of Queen Beatrix.
And now again, Chinese are trying to extort money by claiming that the Japanese military committed the Zhengding Incident, in which a Dutch priest was killed by Chinese.
The shadow behind windmills and tulips is very dark.
This article will continue.