My Rusche Family

WELCOME, WELKOM, SELAMAT DATANG to

My Rusche Family

A family history site of Art Rusche

My name is Arthur Denis Rusche. I was born in The Netherlands and my family immigrated to the United States of America in 1961. I created this site to document my family’s amazing history.

These are the stories of my mother and father as wealthy Dutch Colonialists to the horrors of WWII, refuge to The Netherlands then immigration to the United States of America.

  • Stories of Dutch Colonization and Nutmeg Plantations and  in the historic Banda Spice Islands of Indonesia.
     
  • Horrors of WWII in the Pacific Theater.
    • Prisoner of War of the Empire of Japan  for 1215 days!
    • Onboard the sinking of the Hell Ship called the Junyo Maru
      The worst single shipwreck in the Pacific Theater.
      There were 6500 onboard and 5,620 POWs lost their lives .

    • 723 POW survivors were taken to work as forced labor on the Pekanbaru Death Railway.
       
    • Out of the 5,620 POWs aboard the Junyo Maru, only 96 survived after WWII
    • Johan Rusche was among the 96

I dedicate this site to

My sisters Joyce & Peggy and their families.

And of course 
Joopie and Conny.

UPDATE: June 8th, 2021

After years of persistent work by my sister Joyce, The Kingdom of The Netherlands posthumously presented our father Johan Albert Rusche, The Mobilization War Cross and The Star of Order and Peace. This was for his service to the kingdom during World War II and pre and post-war Dutch-East Indies/Indonesia.This event had been postponed due to COVID-19, but representatives from The Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D.C.  were able to make it out to the other Washington on June 8th.

The event was held at home of the Honorary Consulate of the Netherlands, Leo Van Dorps. Colonel Paul Everding and Sergeant Major Dennis Oranje were there to present the medals. Our cousin Ronald Van Wijk from San Antonio also flew into Seattle for the ceremony.
In attendance was Joyce and her husband Jerry, Peggy, her husband Graham and her children and their partners Lauren (w/ Noah) and Alex (with Maria). Also Toni Mommersteeg Moore and Betty Wilde Dutch friends of Joyce were there.
 Afterwards we had a great family gathering with Indonesian food at Joyce & Jerry’s home.

UPDATE: June 8th, 2021
Johan Albert Rusche was awarded the Mobilization War Cross and The Star for Order and Peace
> Medal Ceremony video
> A Toast to Johan video
> Presentation Pamphlet

At the home of Honorary Consulate of the Netherlands, Leo Van Dorps with the Rusche family and Colonel Paul Everding and Sergeant Major Dennis Oranje.
Representatives of The Kingdom of Netherlands:  Sergeant Major Dennis Oranje and Colonel Paul Everding
Peggy, Sergeant Major Dennis Oranje, Colonel Paul Everding, Joyce and Art.
 Sergeant Major Dennis Oranje and Colonel Paul Everding

Mobilization War cross

Star for Order and Peace

 

  • You will see links in orange that take you to Wikipedia articles about that topic.
  • The links in white go to more in-depth information about a relative.

     Some pictures have been colorized using  .

Thank you for viewing this work in progress. 
Last update: 6/9/2021
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