Overall, the newsreel-style orchestration is shaded with an Asian palette of metal and bamboo flutes, gamelan, koto, shamisen and percussion.

The film was directed by Ned Lander, Carol Ruff and James Bradley and won the 1994 Logie for best documentary. DVD available from Ronin Films. Jan’s new book from HarperCollins.

The scenes in Amsterdam were a chance to lighten the mood with some accordion.

Sounds derived from an analog synthesiser came into play as Jan strolled the streets of Tokyo after giving testimony. A particular breathy noise suggested both sighs of relief and the effort of pressing on resolutely. This evolved into the end title theme.

Jan’s story is so compelling, and her spirit and faith so vivid, my chief task as composer was to blend a mosaic of material from various sources and locations into a flowing whole: catching the place, matching the emotions and providing triggers for memory.

Jan provided some specific references to pick up on. Mendelssohn’s On Wings of Song was a piece of piano music from her idyllic childhood on an estate in pre-war Java. And her husband Tom loved the clarinet, so it features during their courting days and family gatherings. A plaintive and gracious oboe figure became Jan’s main theme.

For the flashback rape sequences I appropriated the instruments of gagaku, the wailing, jarring music of the Japanese imperial court, still used in high ceremonies. Click under the top photo to hear it.

For the Japanese, they were spoils of war best forgotten.

But when in the early 1990s Korean women sought compensation for being forced to provide sex for the Japanese military during World War II, Adelaide grandmother Jan Ruff-O’Herne came forward and revealed that as a Dutch teenager in colonial Java, she and six other Western girls were placed under house arrest where they were repeatedly raped by Japanese officers acting under tacit sanction. After 50 years of keeping it to herself, she had to speak out.