Herman Adriaan Van Karnebeek, Dutch IOC Member, a Man for All Seasons
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An Olympian Life: Herman Adriaan van Karnebeek, Dutch IOC Member, a Man for all Seasons Anthony Bijkerk — The Netherlands The disastrous social, political, and economic circumstances of World War II resulted in severe un- certainty for the world of international sport, including the affairs of the Modern Olympic Movement. The thirty year post-war period of the Olympic Movement (1945-1975) called for leadership featuring individuals of strong conviction, energetic character, hearty constitution, and steadfast willpower of the utmost calibre. Certain International Olympic Committee (IOC) names spring readily to mind: Sigfrid Edstrøm, Avery Brundage, Lord Killanin, and others, among them the name of Herman Adriaan van Kar- nebeek. Long a sportsman in his native Holland, and involved in the nation’s Olympic affairs for more than a decade, Karnebeek was recommended for election to the IOC in 1970. Avery Brundage, as he did for most new IOC member-candidates during his tenure as IOC President (1952-1972), personally shepherded Karnebeek’s candidacy through the IOC electoral process. Herman Adriaan van Karnebeek, Junior Herman Karnebeek was born in the The Hague on 11 November 1903. He died 86 years later, on 13 July 1989, in the city of his birth. He was the eldest son of Herman Adriaan van Karnebeek, Senior.1 He spent his early youth in The Hague and, after fi nishing high school, matriculated at the Dutch Economic University in Rotterdam. He was an avid and skilled soccer-football player, a fi rst team member of one of the oldest and most distinguished football clubs in the The Hague, HVV (Haagsche Voetbal Verenig- ing, founded 1883, today known as Koninklijke Haagse Cricket en Voetbal Vereniging). For a time he was captain of the team. An all-around sportsman, van Karnebeek also played several other sports. He was an avid cricketer and fi eld-hockey performer, loved fencing, and played a strong game of tennis. His favourite sporting pastime was horseback riding. Some six months short of his eighteenth birthday, an event occurred which, in the end, had immeasurable consequence on the very preservation of his life, as well as his stature as a heroic fi gure in both military and sporting matters. That event is briefl y described below. Providence: The Karnebeek — Hirohito Connection In the year 1921, to be precise on 3 March 1921, Japan’s Crown Prince Hirohito2 departed Tokyo aboard the Japanese Imperial Navy pre-dreadnought Katori3 on an orientation visit to Europe. On 8 May 1921 the Crown Prince arrived in England, the Katori docking in Portsmouth, the home port of the British Home Fleet. After a visit to Great Britain of almost a month, the distinguished Japanese party crossed 230 the English Channel and journeyed to Amsterdam, arriving by train at the city’s Central Station on Wednesday, 15 June 1921. Hirohito visited the Netherlands for four days. On his arrival in Amsterdam the Crown Prince wore the full dress uniform of a Major in the Imperial Army of Japan, displaying the Grand-Cross of the Dutch Order of the “Nederlandse Leeuw” [Dutch Lion], which had been awarded to him almost two years previous by Queen Wilhelmina4 of the Netherlands on her state visit to Japan. in early May 1919. The Crown Prince was welcomed by Prince Consort Hendrik5 of the Netherlands, who wore the full dress uniform of a Grand Admiral in the Royal Netherlands Navy. The chest of his uniform coat was adorned with a variety of decorations, including the Japanese Order of the Chrysanthemum. On 16 June 1921, Crown Prince Hirohito departed Amsterdam for a visit to The Hague, where he had been invited for an offi cial dinner at the Palace of the Queen-Mother Emma. Queen Wilhelmina and the Prince Con- sort Hendrik also attended. After fi nishing dinner the Japanese party departed for the offi cial residence of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Herman Adriaan van Karnebeek, Senior. At a soiree given in honour of the occasion, Herman van Karnebeek, Junior met Hirohito, spoke with him, and exchanged a handshake with the Crown Prince on the departure of the Japanese guests. A photograph was taken of the moment depicting Herman and Hirohito shaking hands. Herman’s father was also present in the picture. Together, each was frozen in time, indeed “immortalized” with the later Emperor of Japan. That soiree, that meeting, and especially the departure moment captured by the camera would make the dif- ference between life and death for Herman van Karnebeek, Junior some two decades later. Before exploring the consequences of the Karnebeek/Hirohito meeting, I offer a few remarks about Van Karnebeek’s life between 1921 and 1941. After studying economics in Rotterdam, Van Karnebeek visited the United States to gain experience in the oil industry. In the United States most of his time was spent in Oklahoma. In 1927 he joined the N.V. Standard Vacuum Petroleum Maatschappij (STANVAC Oil Company) in the Ne ther lands East Indies. His fi rst assignment was on the Island of Borneo. Later, he worked in Sumatra; much later, he became general manager in Batavia (today Djakarta, Indonesia). His sports career in Indonesia was limited to the occasional round of golf; but he was not without clout on the local sporting scene—he was elected president of the South Sumatra Football (Soccer) Association. In time, he became president of the Batavia Sport Club, as well as president of the Batavia Golf Club. These roles signifi ed the beginning of a dedicated volunteer career in sports-administration. On 17 November 1937 Herman van Karnebeek married Miss A.J.Th. Pauw van Wiel drecht. Their son Dick was born in 1939. “The Hirohito Photo” and World War II Herman van Karnebeek had been a reserve-offi cer in the Royal Netherlands Army (Field-Artillery); as a consequence he was nominated Commander of the “Landstorm,” the local ‘guard’ in Batavia, a semi- military organization. When the World War II started in the Pacifi c with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Van Karnebeek was summoned to active military service. The vast oil reserves of Southeast Asia, much of it owned and exploited by Dutch interests, quite naturally, were critical to the general Japanese military plan in the Pacifi c. Scarcely two months after the infamous Pearl Harbor event, in February 1942, the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies. Van Karnebeek was ordered to Sumatra to take charge of the destruction of oil-installations near Palembang, one of the most important oil fi eld regions in the South-eastern Hemisphere. He fulfi lled this diffi cult task with his usual effi ciency. 231 Bijkerk Denied the critically important Palembang oil reserves, the Japanese invasion forces rapidly deter- mined who the perpetrator of destruction had been. In the intensive search that followed Van Karne- beek was taken into custody. In those early days of the war in the Pacifi c, the Japanese had few qualms about sentencing to death anyone who sought to deter their war effort. For those who performed acts of sabotage similar to that of Herman van Karnebeek, the swift punishment was the death penalty, usually carried out by having one’s head cut off with a Samurai-sword. Van Karnebeek was held in a “death- cell” while waiting for his sentence to be carried out. The Japanese commanding offi cer in Bogor, West Java was informed about the sentence, and told that among van Karnebeek’s personal possessions seized was a photograph where the condemned victim was pictured standing next to the now Japa- nese emperor, Hirohito, shaking his hand at the conclusion of the soirée in The Hague on 16 June 1921. Prompted by some uncertainty, the commanding offi cer arrived at a decision to intercede; he cancelled the death penalty proceedings. Any person who had “the good graces” of the Emperor had to be a very special person and certainly could not be killed in the name of an Emperor who might still hold special feelings for the condemned. Van Karnebeek was taken from his death-cell and transferred to the prison Struiswijk I in Batavia on Java. The Japanese, recognizing Van Karnebeek’s organizational abilities, made him the “representative commander” of the 3,500 internee’s of the Struiswijk prison. It soon became evident that the Japanese made a wise decision. Herman van Karnebeek was a born leader; he could and would stand up for his fellow-sufferers. In 1944 he was transferred to one of the largest internment-camps on Java; he be- came “representative commander” in the camp at Bandoeng. This camp, called “Tjikoe dapateuh”6 (also known as “Vijftiende Bat”), at the time interned over 10,000 male inter nees of all ages. This internment camp, in time, received some 860 boys, creating, a special “boys-town” for them. I was one of those unfortunate youths. Van Karnebeek was assisted with his immensely burdensome task by Johannes Dirk Thijs, an interpreter who originally came from the nearby ADEK-camp. Together, the two men were a formidable duo. Thijs was an outstanding interpreter of the Japanese language and traditions. He had been engaged as translator for the Dutch military authorities during the negotiations for the surrender of all Dutch and Allied forces in the Dutch East Indies. These negotiations had taken place on Sunday, 8 March 1942 at the airport of Kalidjati, near the city of Bandoeng.7 On 1 April 1944 all civilian internees came under the jurisdiction of the Japanese military forces; no longer were internees regarded as civilians, but rather as prisoners-of-war (POWs). In June/July 1944, following this change of policy, the Japanese authorities ordered that all military personnel “hiding” in the civilian camps should identify themselves as soldiers.