Pauline Kok

From November onwards, it is impossible not to notice that Christmas is in the air. Sparkling colored lights decorate town centers and...

My parents were Dutch. That makes me Dutch also; but I am Indonesian-born – a country which a Dutch writer, Multatuli, named: ‘The...

Continued from: Was it necessary for the United States to end World War II by dropping the second bomb on Nagasaki? The entire historical...

Was it necessary for the U.S. to end World War II by dropping two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Seventy years later this question...

“Some of us die twice – the first time when earth and life disappears, and the second time when nobody mentions your name any more”. I...

Hello Darling, you should be so proud! The world has opened wide before you. At this time, allow me to send you some of the same words...

Despite my best efforts to manage my negative feelings towards the Japanese soldiers for killing, raping, and breaking the spirits of...

I would like to share an opinion of someone who, like me, spent almost 4 years in Japanese concentration camps during WW II. I’ve done my...

If you are wondering why it’s taken me so long to add to this blog, it’s because one of my sisters from Holland paid us a visit. She...

2015 could potentially be an interesting year for World War II survivors, which ended exactly 70 years ago – almost a generation ago....

Too often, it seems there are situations or coincidences that take me back to those years so long ago – years of war, prison, terror and...

In one of my previous blogs I wrote about the Dutch Royal couple visiting the Japanese Emperor and his wife. The last section of that...

“Silence” is a concept that instills many emotions for me. Abstract emotions, but often also very real and concrete. I love silence ‑...

JEANNE One of my few very dear friends is dying. She has been dying for quite some time, fighting against the debilitating, consuming...

BlueInk Review is an organization that provides credible and unbiased reviews exclusively for self-published books. In 2014, I was the...

I received a terrible verdict, my heart and mind shocked to the core; it made me numb, it had me breathless as I began to float –...

Hello darling, Just a bit of advice for you from me; for I am very old and your life has just begun You are a living wonder on this earth...

Not so long ago I received the NICC Magazine (Translated: Dutch-Indonesian Cultural Centre) which is focused on Indonesia, its people,...

Last year October King Willem-Alexander and his wife, Queen Maxima visited Emperor Akihito and his wife, Empress Michiko after receiving...

There is more than enough written about the executions in Paris, where many people (both guilty and innocent) were masacred within a...