Children who Survived Japanese Concentration Camps: Clinical Observations and Therapy

The majority of children who survived concentration camps have remained silent about their experiences. Their memories, rather than fading with time, have intensified. In the 1970s previously silent Jewish child survivors declared themselves through books and films. Child survivors of Dutch origin who were the victims of Japanese concentration camps are similarly emerging from silence. Parents and even psychiatrists do not credit child survivors with their ability to remember. As a result, child survivors have difficulty verifying their memories and have spoken very little about them. The numbers of patients with this particular childhood experience are increasing as noted in Dutch clinics devoted to the care of victims of war. This paper focuses on two such patients in order to alert North American psychiatrists to their existence and to crucial aspects of their care.