Koos Sinninghe Damsté
Jacobus Smede "Koos" Sinninghe Damsté (1902–1995) was a lawyer in colonial Indonesia during 1927–1942, prosecutor of Japanese war criminals during 1946–1947, chairman of the national business association in Indonesia during 1948–1954, and head of the Netherlands Security Service during 1955–1967. Life and career 1902–1926 Youth and education Sinninghe Damsté was born in Huizum, near Leeuwarden on 16 July 1902. He was the son of Willem Sinninghe Damsté (1869–1952), a medical practitioner, and Barbara Bakker (1872–1909). His parents married in October 1901 but separated soon after his birth when his mother returned to her native Zaandam. Damsté completed high school in Leeuwarden in 1921 and his undergraduate studies in Law at the University of Groningen in 1926. He then migrated to Indonesia to work as a lawyer in the city of Surabaya. 1927–1940 Lawyer in Surabaya To avoid being drafted for military training after arrival in Indonesia, Damsté first completed partial military service in the Netherlands in 1926. He then departed for Surabaya to work as a lawyer and solicitor at the long-established law office of P. Leendertz and M.J. van Nieuwkuyk. Damsté's professional life was relatively uneventful, although various newspaper reports associate his name with regular appearances in court to