André Schram
2024

The objective of this project is to make the textbook The story of Johan, three years in Japan but not voluntary available in Indonesian, Japanese and English. The book contains the story of a young Dutch navy sailor who was taken to Japan as a prisoner during World War II.

Johan worked as a forced laborer in Japan for three years. The aim is, using his story, to have the war history in Asia more widely known and to emphasize the importance of processing and commemorating the events which occurred during that war time. 

The joint involvement in WWII/Asia of the Netherlands, Japan and Indonesia and also the USA, GB and Australia and Johan’s past during the war forms the basis for the publication of this renewed lesson booklet in the other languages. The lesson booklets will become available online during the second half of 2025.

André Schram studied Biochemistry (University of Amsterdam) and obtained a PhD in the field of congenital metabolic diseases. After his retirement as Professor at the University of Amsterdam, he started to focus on education for young people about the Second World War in Asia. This arose from the fact that his father was held as a prisoner of war in a camp in Nagasaki/Japan during WWII under harsh conditions. The importance of commemorating, reconciling and learning from history is emphasized. Based on the above, André Schram has written the lesson booklet The story of Johan which is available in Dutch for interested teachers and students here.