Herewith a short update on our Senshi Sōsho project, as was published on August 20th on the website of Stone and Stone.

“After producing two excellent translations of Japanese histories—The Invasion of the Dutch East Indies and The Operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal—the Corts Foundation is well on the way to completion of the third and final volume on operations in the NEI, The Army Air Force Operations in the Invasion of the South.

Here's a report from the very talented translator, Willem Remmelink:

We are still on schedule and finished last month the translation of the main text. Now working on the maps, indices, etc.

The provisional title will be: The Army Air Force Operations in the Invasion of the South, with an addendum on the Invasion of Northern and Central Sumatra. "The translation covers the main text of Vol. 34 of the Senshi Sōsho minus the chapters on the Philippines, Malaya, and Burma, as well as chapter 4 of Vol. 5 dealing with northern and central Sumatra.

The Articles of Association of the Corts Foundation limit its activities to the area of the former Dutch East Indies, so we reluctantly had to drop the more detailed chapters on the Philippines, Malaya, and Burma. Nevertheless, the remainder of the book (the general sections and the chapters on Singapore, Palembang, and Java) give a good description of the whole campaign.

If all goes well, we hope to publish the book in the first half of 2021.

In recent years automated text recognition has developed impressively, and now it seems to become applicable to digitized archives. A computer can actually be taught to read and also 17th and 18th century Dutch in scanned VOC archival sources. A breakthrough is in reach in the near future. Texts of old manuscripts made digitally searchable can assist historians and other researchers in disclosing archives.

Not all archives are in prefect condition. Because of archival damage text recognition can be difficult.
Marco Roling (advisor of The Corts Foundation) has conducted research recently on the application of text recognition on archives with damage, and has looked at the effects of ink corrosion and discoloration. This article also takes a first step towards measuring archival damage and the possibilities of improving scans digitally.

The research is public and free, and can be downloaded here >>>

Dr. V.I. van de Wall, working for the historical department, was granted his request in 1926 by his superior, the famous historian dr. P.V. van Stein Callenfell, to map the so called ‘thuynen’ (country houses and gardens ) in and around Batavia.This included measuring, drafting floor and garden plans, researching the history of the building and successive inhabitants, and last but not least making photos of (parts of) famous residences when it still was possible to discern them. Most residences were constructed after 1730. The first coffeeplants that were introduced into the Dutch Indies from Ceylon were planted at ‘Residence Struiswijk’. Javanese silk was made at the first breeding place of silkworms at ‘Residence Leenhoff’s Weergade’.

The Corts Foundation digitized this second expanded edition of ‘Oude Hollandse Buitenplaatsen van Batavia’ of 1943, and made it fully text searchable

The digital version (in Dutch) can be viewed and downloaded here:
Van de Wall (1943, 175 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 14mb]

Read more ...

The Corts Foundation publishes relevant Japanese war sources (the Senshi Sōsho volumes 3 : "The invasion of the Dutch East Indies" (2015), and vol. 26: “The Operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal” (2018), while parts of Senshi Sōsho vol. 34 “Army Air Drive to the Southern Pacific Area” and Senshi Sōsho vol. 5 “Operations in Burma” are due at the end of 2020). These downloads are available by Open Access and as download on this website. As these volumes reflect the Japanese vision of the second world war, it is proper to share on this webste also the official view of the Dutch government (in the Dutch language) as a reference to these texts.

Therefor The Corts Foundation made three volumes which are dedicated to the war in the former Dutch East Indies: 11a (1984), 11b (1985) and 11c (1986), five books, available and searchable on our website. They are part of the ‘Magnus Opus’ of prof. dr. L. De Jong, who was commissioned by the Dutch government (from 1955 till 1991) to research and write about the history of “The Kingdom of the Netherlands in the second World War”.
These complete series encompassed fourteen volumes in 29 books in the Dutch language and are all available on line at the website of “The National Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide studies- NIOD” in Amsterdam. De Jong was the founder and manager of this institute from October 1945 till his retirement in May 1979.

In Holland prof. dr. L. De Jong (1914- 2005) was well known by his presentation on the National Dutch television of a series concerning the occupation of the Netherlands.

The first of volume11a describes Indian society and government. The second part concerns the buildup of Indian defenses till the Japanese invasion. Volume 11b focusses on the Japanese war in Asia, while the second part highlights the sufferings of prisoners of war and Dutch internees, and the developing situation of the Indonesian independence. The last volume 11c concerns the armed forces, merchant navy, intelligence, the return of the Dutch including the revolutionary situation.

The digitale version (in Dutch) can be viewed and downloaded here:
De Jong deel 11a, first part (1984, 572 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 10mb]
De Jong deel 11a, second part (1984, 645 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 11mb]
De Jong deel 11b, first part (1985, 516 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 11mb]
De Jong deel 11b, second part (1985, 614 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 14mb]
De Jong deel 11c (1986, 758 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 18mb]

Additionally it is worth mentioning that volume 13 “Annexes/ register (1988) provides an overview of all amendments. The period of August 145 1945 till the date of devolution of sovereingty on December 27 1949 is included in volume 12, second part “Epilogue” (1988). Comments were collected and edited in volume 14 “Comments” (1991).

Read more (in Dutch):
https://www.niod.nl/nl/het-koninkrijk-der-nederlanden-de-tweede-wereldoorlog/de-boeken
https://www.niod.nl/nl/download
https://www.niod.nl/nl/nieuws/heruitgave-de-bezetting
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loe_de_Jong
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Het_Koninkrijk_der_Nederlanden_in_de_Tweede_Wereldoorlog
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_bezetting