Johanna Van Dijk

Johanna van Dijk was born on March 8, 1922 on the island of Java, Indonesia. The daughter of Gerrit van Vonno and Tio En Nio, Johanna spent her early years enjoying the beautiful countryside and botanical gardens of her native Java. In August of 1941 she met Gerrit van Dijk, a Dutch soldier stationed in Indonesia. He became her lifelong love.

They dated until the Japanese invaded Indonesia in June of 1942. It was World War II and she was imprisoned in a women's concentration camp. There she spent three and a half years enduring the cruelty of war. Clinging to hope, she shared her caring and compassion with those imprisoned with her. Upon liberation in August of 1945, she set upon her journey to find her beloved Gerrit. Both were searching for the other. In February of the following year they were reunited and, in a simple ceremony, were married in Batavia, Indonesia on May 16, 1946.

Under political upheaval they fled to Holland in 1950. In April of 1960, the family (now with six children) was sponsored by the First United Methodist Church and arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah to start a new life in the United States.

Johanna will be remembered for her love of life, family, her deep faith, compassion, kindness to others, her laughter and her belief that “chocolate makes everybody happy!” Her legacy is left in her book, ¬Clinging to Hope - I Survived the Japanese Women's Camp, written with the goal of sharing with future generations that the horror and suffering of war never happen again.

In addition, she bestowed upon her children a cookbook filled with her famous and favorite Dutch and Indonesian recipes put together with her love, Gerrit as “taste tester.”

She is preceded in death by her Mother, Father, infant son (Johan) and her beloved Gerrit (1995). She is survived by her seven children, Lucas (Delia) of Utah, Gerrit (Joanne) of Colorado, John (Debbie) of Washington, Marianna (Karel Ann) of Arizona, Gerda of Texas, Tineke of Utah and Margje of California; 11 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and one great, great-grandchild.

Though her passing was one day shy of her 93rd birthday, it was the morning of March 8th in Indonesia.