Meanings
nounromusha (plural romusha or romushas)
plural romushas · alternative rōmusha
- A forced laborer, especially one of those made to work in the Dutch East Indies under Japanese occupation during the Second World War.
Javanese workers were known as romushas (the Japanese translation for the colonial term ‘coolie’) and put to work on Java, its neighbouring islands and across Southeast Asia.
2017, Lizzie Oliver, “‘Like Pebbles Stuck in a Sieve’: Reading Romushas in the Second-Generation Photography of Southeast Asian Captivity”, in Journal of War & Culture Studies, volume 10, →DOI, page 272
Origin
- Japanese労務者“laborer; forced laborer”
- Englishromusha
From Japanese 労務者 (rōmusha, “laborer; forced laborer”). Compare Indonesian romusa.
More words from Japanese
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
romusha. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/romusha
MLA
“romusha.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/romusha. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “romusha,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/romusha.
Source: romusha on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.