AMSTERDAM - Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, on the final day of their visit to the Netherlands on Friday, met locals, including the granddaughter of a former Dutch general who survived a Japanese internment camp as a child during World War II.
Greeting the imperial couple at a hotel in Amsterdam, Inez Schelfhout, 42, told them she works as a clinical psychologist treating and researching war-related trauma while advocating for the preservation of wartime memories.
Schelfhout's late grandfather was incarcerated in what is now Indonesia after it was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army during the war. In 2000, he attended a ceremony at which then Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko laid flowers at a war memorial during their visit to the Netherlands.
Schelfhout said after the meeting that she felt honored to meet the imperial couple and that they had listened with interest and were very approachable.
On Wednesday, Emperor Naruhito and his wife observed 90 seconds of silence at the National Monument honoring the victims of war.
Schelfhout said the gesture left a lasting impression on her, showing how both countries acknowledged the past while looking toward the future.
The invasion of the then-Dutch colony of Indonesia by the Japanese military led to the internment of around 40,000 Dutch soldiers and about 90,000 locals.
Prior to the trip, the emperor said he wished to extend his thoughts to people in the Netherlands who continue to suffer from memories of that time. During the 2000 visit by his parents, when anti-Japan sentiment remained strong, they bowed for about a minute as they laid a wreath at the monument.
The imperial couple, who left Japan on June 13, is on a 14-day trip to the Netherlands and Belgium, where they arrived on Saturday.
