Supervisor Williams Reflects on Indonesian Roots for AAPI Heritage Month
County Supervisors Declare May Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Prompting ‘Remembrance’ of Grandfather Who Served in WWII
Supervisor Das Williams, who is famously descended from Indonesian pirates, took a stroll down memory lane this Tuesday as the board of supervisors declared May Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
“Remembrance is so important,” Williams said. Without it, he elaborated, it’s all but impossible to see how much progress has been made.
Williams cited the case of his maternal grandfather, who during World War II served in the Royal Dutch Navy against the Japanese. As an Indonesian serving in an intensely segregated navy, Williams’s grandfather and other Indonesians practically starved so that Dutch seamen could eat their fill, Williams said. “‘I was not a White boy,’” Williams said, quoting his grandfather. “‘I was a colored boy. So that’s the way it was.’”
The segregation-induced starvation rationing was so bad, Williams said, that his grandfather joked, “Needless to say, the food got better when we got put in the prisoner of war camp.” His grandfather, Williams said, was a prisoner of war for four years.
The story, Williams said, highlighted how much things have changed over the span of three generations. That same spirit of remembrance, he added, was necessary now in response to “the rising tide that is dragging us back to another dark age.”
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