Airfield Labour Camp in Amahei

Other name: Julianakamp
Internees: prisoners of war
Number of internees: 1.026
Number of deceased: 31
Information: Prisoners of war were put to work near Amahei laying a new airfield. They comprised 1,026 Dutch prisoners of war from Batavia, brought to Ceram via Ambon on the Kunitama Maru. Because they arrived on Ceram on Princess Juliana’s birthday, the camp was called the Juliana Camp. The prisoners of war were housed in barracks they built themselves from bamboo and atap, surrounded by barbed wire. After the airfield was completed they were taken in October 1943 to Palao (Haroekoe).
Commendant: sgt. Kawai Yoshijiro
Guards: Koreans
Camp leaders: ritm. J. Erkelens; kpt. R. Korteweg
Literature: Audus, L.J., Spice Island slaves. A history of Japanse prisoner of war camps in Eastern Indonesia, May 1943-August 1945 (Ham 1996)
Veenstra, J.H.W. e.a., Als krijgsgevangene naar de Molukken en Flores. Relaas van een Japans transport van Nederlandse en Engelse militairen 1943-1945 ('s-Gravenhage 1982)
Kesasar, Totok, Geen saai leven. Het leven van een thee- en rubberplanter gedurende de jaren 1926-1947 [1982])
Korteweg, R., De 1000 van Amahei (Batavia [1946])
Lansdorp, S., Hoe was het ook alweer? Herinneringen aan de jaren 1942-1945 [1990])