Jean Victor de Bruijn alias Jungle Pimpernel.
In the summer of 2012 the IISH received a supplement to the papers of the Papua-leader Viktor Kaisiëpo (1948-2010). Surprisingly, this supplement also contained the papers of the Dutch government official for New Guinea, Jean Victor de Bruijn.
De Bruijn was born in Mageland on Java, Dutch East Indies, in 1913. After graduation from his secondary school in Semarang, he started to study Indology at Leiden University, the Netherlands. In 1938 he was appointed aspirant controller on Saparoea and West-Ceram. In 1939 he received his doctorate and was appointed controller of the Domestic Government for the Wisselmeren (lakes) district in the central highlands of New Guinea. He took expeditions to the terra incognita northeast of these lakes. His post was occupied by the Japanese in 1943, and De Bruijn ended up in resistance and intelligence work. He escaped eventually after a long march through the jungle with a group Papuans to Australia. His experiences during the Second World War and Japanese occupation were a model for Anthony van Kampen’s book, Jungle Pimpernel. After the war De Bruijn worked in Sydney, again on New-Guinea, in Nouméa, French New Caledonia, and the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. De Bruijn died in Driebergen, the Netherlands, in 1979.
The large amount of papers (more than 3 meters long) shows De Bruijn as one of the key figures of the Dutch administration of New Guinea from the end of the 1930s until the transfer of sovereignty to New Guinea in 1962.
The papers contain documents from the years of the Second World War. There are two notebooks (“Journaal”) from the period of May 11, 1943 until July 26, 1944, in which De Bruijn describes in detail operation “Oaktree.”
The most extensive part of the papers deals with languages, dialects, traditional jurisdiction (“adat”), and the administrative structure of New Guinea. The “Ethnographic Notes” from Biak include several volumes. Just how detailed De Bruijn wrote about the languages of New Guinea is clear from his enormous study Introduction to “Ekarisch.” De Bruijn’s papers also include studies by others, such as the travelogue by J.W. Schoorl of an expedition to Frederik Hendrik Island, located off the south coast of New Guinea.
Apart from these, the collection also contains many detailed maps of New Guinea.
There is an interesting letter, dated New York, January 17 [1962], from Mary T. Rockefeller, the wife of former US vice president Nelson Rockefeller. Their youngest son Michael , born in 1938, disappeared mysteriously on New Guinea around November 18, 1961. The cause of his disappearance has not yet been established (due to sharks or the local head hunters?). Michael’s parents thanked De Bruijn for his letters: “It is a comfort to know of your affection and regard for our son and to know that you deeply understand his character and his basic motivations.”