4 A
❘
WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ FEBRUARY 10, 2016
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
RYAN CRONK , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
E XTRAORDINARY P EOPLE
Wim Mesman
C ATHERINE J. R OURKE
For the Siuslaw News
_____________
handshake,” he said. “Betrayal was-
n’t tolerated, and you were shamed
if you didn’t keep your word. If we
could only accept our differences,
with more tolerance for opposing
beliefs, it would create a foundation
for peace.”
The island’s former harmony
turned to discord during the
Japanese invasion in 1942 when the
Mesman family was forced to leave
the city for the plantation to the
north at the mouth of the Marana
River near Maros. Wim watched B-
17s on their way to bomb Makassar.
“They flew right over my head,”
he said.
Japanese military colonists seized
the main house and the plantation,
forcing the family into another
dwelling.
“We were very accepting and did-
n’t know what bad was,” Wim said.
“My mother was strong and fearless
and taught me not to complain and
accept everything for the best.”
But things went from bad to
worse. The Japanese deported those
of Dutch descent to concentration
camps where many were beaten, tor-
tured and killed.
W
sumed he was transmitting messages
to the enemy.”
The Japanese needed the
Mesmans to run the plantation to
supply food for the troops, tolerating
the family because they maintained
good relations with the native peo-
ple. They remained on the plantation
from 1942 to 1945 while the war
raged and Wim watched bombers
crossing the sky.
“I was too young to understand
what was really going on or what
fear was,” he said.
But Wim grew up quickly one
night at age 10 when Japanese sol-
diers called for the women during a
hard night of sake drinking. His
mother and four sisters escaped by
hiding in the mangroves.
Wim remembers standing with
them neck-deep in the river all night,
watching for water snakes and igua-
nas whose sharp teeth and powerful
jaws could inflict serious wounds.
That’s when he learned one of his
greatest lessons.
“If you are kind to people, they
will be kind to you,” he said,
describing how his family had
always treated the natives well as
workers on the plantation. In turn,
when these natives heard the
Japanese were looking for the
women, they rescued them by boat
and housed the family in a nearby
village until the Japanese eventually
left.
“That was a turning point for me,”
Wim said. “The return kindness
saved us from harm and I’ll never
forget it. I learned to treat all people,
all nationalities and all religions with
respect. Who is to decide right from
wrong?”
That moral remained with Wim
during the course of his life, from
continent to continent, through his
im Mesman’s story spans
three continents, three
cultures, eight decades,
two marriages and one world war.
Its roots lie in an archipelago large
enough to fit within the entire
United States and end nearly 8,000
miles away in Florence. A cross
between an epic documentary and
suspense thriller, his life reveals a
journey of trials and triumphs, gains
and losses.
It all began in the city of
Makassar on Sulawesi, the world’s
11th largest island east of Borneo. A
major Indonesian shipping port
favored by the spice, pearl and rattan
traders of the Dutch East India
Company, Makassar sat poised
between two cultures on the brink of
war, the East and the West, when
Wim was born there in 1934.
The firstborn son of Dutch-
Indonesian parents tracing their roots
there two centuries prior, he was
raised with four
sisters and two
“The loss of material things
brothers on a large
fish plantation
doesn’t matter. Everything we need
deeded to the fam-
is right there inside of us.”
ily in the 1800s by
—WIM MESMAN
the local “raja.”
Wim enjoyed an
idyllic childhood, sailing on “per-
Wim saw his father, Willem, for
ahus,” the traditional fishing boats.
the last time when the Japanese
He recalls a polyglot of 17,000
arrested him and two plantation fore-
islands, 3,000 languages, four reli-
men on suspicion as enemy inform-
gions and multiple cultures. Despite
ants. The family learned of Willem’s
their vast differences, Wim describes
death in the camp six months later.
a “peaceful but not docile” people
“We were just innocent civilians,”
living harmoniously side by side.
Wim said. “My father simply had a
“Everything was done with a
radio wire atop a mast, but they pre-
PHOTO BY CATHERINE ROURKE
Wim Mesman holds a handcrafted silver “kris,” an 18th century Indo-
nesian dagger exchanged between families as a “gift from the soul.”
service in the Green Berets, his engi-
neering studies and his tech career.
He married his first wife from
Holland a year after emigrating to
America in 1962, “drawn by the
wide open spaces,” and settled in
San Francisco, working as a
machine specialist for United
Airlines for 32 years.
Wim embraced some additional
lessons from his first marriage (“a
balance of compromise”) and when
he lost a small fortune in a bad
investment.
“The loss of material things does-
n’t matter,” he said. “Everything we
need is right there inside of us.”
Wim discovered Florence during a
coastal drive 20 years ago and
immediately felt at home.
“I lived at the mouth of a river my
whole life and Florence fit that bill,”
he said. “So much green and so few
people.”
Now, at 81, Wim focuses on life’s
top priorities: healthy living, his sec-
ond marriage and his combined fam-
ily of five grown children.
“You have to cut your losses and
move on,” he said. “It’s not what
you have but who you are inside that
really counts.”
______________________
Catherine J. Rourke is an award-
winning writer, journalist and book
editor who teaches creative writing
at the Florence Regional Arts
Alliance. She may be contacted at
CJReditor@gmail.com.
LETTERS
A heroic story
Thank you Siuslaw News for the front-page
story (“The Finest Hours,” Feb. 3) featuring the
opening of the film “The Finest Hours.”
How special and appropriate that City Lights
Cinemas owner Michael Falter and Disney
could afford our U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) sta-
tions in Umpqua and Siuslaw rivers a “sneak
preview” of a true, heroic story about their her-
itage and devoted duty to save lives and protect
us all.
This is a tremendous family movie. It is also
a perfect date-night film.
Go see it before it leaves our community the-
ater. And, I wish the USCG members in
Newport could still be invited to the theater, too.
We appreciate all of our USCG stations and
families in Oregon, and we need to fight to keep
the helicopter services in Newport in this con-
gressional budget cycle.
Bill Olson
Florence
ty to save our taxpayers $4 million” by passing
this bond measure and using the proceeds to
help tear down the old high school and build a
new one.
Angal explained the reason for building a
new high school is that the 46-year-old existing
high school has “reached the end of its useful
life because systems are starting to fail and we
are starting to have to invest a lot of general
fund dollars in repairing and replacing systems
like heating, cooling and water.”
Reading this I thought a 46-year-old building
does not seem to me to have reached the “end of
its useful life.” I researched what ever happened
to the middle and high schools I attended in
Milwaukee, Wis.
The middle school I attended, Steuben
school, is still being used to educate students. It
was built in 1929 and is therefore 87 years old.
New high school
I read with interest that the Siuslaw School
District will receive a $4 million grant if the
taxpayers pass a $30-plus million bond measure
to help build a new high school (“Siuslaw Wins
State Lottery,” Feb. 6).
Siuslaw School District Superintendent Ethel
Angal stated that the district has the “opportuni-
L ETTERS
TO THE
The high school I attended, Washington High
School, is still being used to educate students. It
was built in 1911 making it 105 years old.
Obviously, these buildings did not reach the
end of their useful lives when they passed the
46-year-old threshold. I’m sure during the life
of these buildings, systems failed and were
repaired and replaced. But the Milwaukee
School District obviously concluded that it was
not fiscally prudent to tear them down and build
new because of system failures, thereby unjus-
tifiably burdening the taxpayers in their school
district.
As a homeowner, when my hot water heater
fails, I repair or replace it. When my furnace
fails, I repair or replace it. I certainly don’t con-
template tearing down my house and replacing
it when systems begin to age, because to do so
would be fiscally irresponsible.
E DITOR P OLICY
The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the editor concerning issues affecting the Florence area
and Lane County. Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All
letters should be limited to about 300 words and must include the writer’s full name, address and
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Write to: Editor@TheSiuslawNews.com
I believe Superintendent Angal has been
intoxicated by the lure of getting a $4 million
grant that she feels is “free money” that she
must spend or lose, without considering the tax
burden a $35 million expenditure for an
unneeded new high school will put on Siuslaw
School District taxpayers.
Angal should contemplate the waste associat-
ed with “premature replacement” before she
tries to sell me on how she is saving me $4 mil-
lion by spending $35 million.
Ron Duzy
Florence
Bev Holman
Thank you for publishing the beautiful pic-
ture of Bev Holman on your Opinion page Feb.
3. Those of us that knew her as a sister in heart
and spirit will always remember her kindness,
gentle wisdom and depth of character.
Bev was someone that did a lot for our com-
munity in quiet ways and never worried about
taking credit for what she did. One of her many
community contributions was as a member of
PEO (Philanthropic Educational Organization),
in which she worked locally and at the state
level to provide funds to further women’s edu-
cation.
It was a privilege to have known her.
Rosemary Lauria
Florence
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Postmaster, send address changes to: Siuslaw News, P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439; phone 541-997-3441; fax
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Pres. Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
Gov. Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, OR 97301-4047
Governor’s Citizens’ Rep.
Message Line 503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email:
Sen.ArnieRoblan@state.or.us
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753/FAX: 202-228-3997
541-465-6750
State Rep. Caddy McKeown
(Dist. 9)
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email:
rep.caddymckeown@state.or.us
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416/ 800-944-9603
541-269-2609/ 541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5)
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
West Lane County Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email:
Jay.Bozievich@co.lane.or.us