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SuperKato1K185 karma

I was told later that Stephen was uncomfortable but I didn't mean to.

I think it just took him a little bit to understand your humor and figure out how to work off of it.

SuperKato1K172 karma

I suspect it meant that at a certain point, when the Japanese were withdrawing/surrendering, that Japanese control of the camp effectively ended... but that people were told it would be safer to stay in the camp. As the Japanese were no longer strictly controlling the camp, it became possible for civilians/relatives to enter to visit camp residents. When they decided to leave, they were still afraid someone might try to shoot them.

I could be wrong, but I think that's probably what she meant, more or less.

(Edit: Wanted to add, since Carmen's grandson responded that the above was correct, once the camp had been effectively abandoned by the Japanese it was still considered "safer" to stay because Indonesia immediately entered into a period of revolution against the Dutch. During 1945-1946 there were many massacres of Dutch citizens by revolutionary Indonesian militants. That may have been who the camp residents feared being shot by as they left the camp, as the Japanese would have at that time already been disarmed throughout Indonesia. Just an interesting, and tragic, period of time in that part of the world.)

SuperKato1K114 karma

I once had the honor of meeting Sidney Rittenberg, the only American to have been allowed to join the Chinese Communist Party. Over time he came to recognize the terrible things being done to the Chinese people in the name of the CCP. He bravely spoke out, while still in China, against some of the excesses and missteps of CCP leadership and ended up in solitary confinement for 16 years. Upon release he returned to the United States and drew upon his love of the Chinese people and his experience with the CCP to tell a cautionary tale of what can happen when good people with noble ideas are given absolute power.

Why, I wonder, have you not learned this lesson? Even the Chinese themselves now acknowledge that the period of time that you still seem to romanticize was a horror never to be repeated.

SuperKato1K75 karma

I completely agree. This woman is unrepentant in the face of the horrors she promoted.

I once met Sidney Rittenberg, the only American to actually be admitted as a member of the Chinese Communist Party. He was an Army interpreter who decided to stay in China following the close of World War 2. He became a true believer in the revolution, but over time recognized that what had developed was not a people's revolution at all, but the entrenchment of one faction of opportunists, profiteers, and the power-hungry. He eventually returned to the US (following 16 years in Chinese solitary confinement after he spoke out) and has used his experiences to tell a cautionary tale of what can happen when people with noble ideas become enthralled by power.

I respect and value his story. I find hers to be pathetic and self-deluded.

SuperKato1K64 karma

This is a fascinating bit of reality that seems to be ignored by a lot of people today, possibly because it contradicts the idea that's quite popular with activists these days that there are no innate differences between men and women.