Flight to Freedom

Reinier Annas Bovendorp stood in the searing sun wondering when he could finally leave Java, now Indonesia. He was very thin, malnourished, weak, dehydrated and in need of medical care, food and shelter. But he still had hope that one day soon he could leave this prison camp.

It was more than a month since World War II had ended, and he was still languishing in a prison camp. No longer under the thumb of his Japanese captors, but nevertheless, still a captive of the repatriation effort that would take months.

A sailor with the Dutch navy, Reinier was part of a contingent guarding a fuel depot on Bintan Island off Singapore when he was captured. At the time he was only 21 years old. His father, mother and little sister were also in civilian internment camps. He never saw his father again.

He spent the rest of the war in various POW camps. enduring three and a half gruelling years until August 1945. They were years of deprivation, threats at gunpoint and regular beatings.

Like so many of his generation, Reinier didn’t often talk about his war time experiences. One story he did tell was when he was threatened with execution unless he made a suit for his Japanese warden by sundown. It meant a lifetime as a great seamster, but also one of anxiety, anger and what we now know as PTSD.

As Reinier lifted his face to the sun, he heard a sudden announcement over the camp’s loud speaker. “We have a plane leaving for Australia. Come to register now if you want a seat on board.” It was a Catalina flying boat, his ticket to freedom.

Reinier dropped what he was doing and ran to secure a precious seat on board. He quickly packed his remaining few possessions and dashed to the Catalina. No more waiting, his time had come.

Catalina flying boats played a vital role in these kinds of rescue operations in the Pacific and Southeast Asia regions as part of efforts to recover survivors of Japanese internment camps and to assist in post- war repatriation operations. Catalinas were particularly suited to these types of rescue missions as they could land both on water and land, which made them ideal for areas with limited airfields or access.

Reinier’s flight to freedom crossed land at Perth and he felt an overwhelming sense of relief and anticipation. It then flew on to Melbourne where he and fellow ex-POWs were put to work on the wharves unloading Dutch cargo ships. There was industrial strife at the wharves with local workers refusing to unload. The Australian Government intervened to find less strenuous work for these men who had experienced enough hardship.

Reinier made his life in Australia and eventually married a German migrant who had also suffered the trauma of war in Berlin. They raised a family and he anglicized his name to Ray Bowen. He returned to Java a number of times, but only journeyed to the Netherlands for his mother’s funeral in the late 1970’s.

Story from Bernie Bowen, Ray Bowen's son.