interior decorator. At this time he was contacted by a Dutch publishing company whose primary holding was a Dutch newspaper. They asked if he would convey his war experiences for a series of articles to run in their paper and they proposed to send a ghost writer to take down narration and compose the pieces. After twenty years in the business world, he longed to return to his first calling of writing. He wanted to write about what had happened to him and his friends during the war. As a writer, he had the ability to express himself about what they had gone through, where he knew the others could not. Steensma supported his decision. He agreed to write the articles himself, if they would give him an advance and publish them in book form at the end. They agreed and he set about his task. After a year of work his book was published in 1970 under the title (The Rattlesnake Cave). Roelfzema was not happy with the book, the title, the cover, the publisher or how the book was being promoted. After six months it had sold some 13,000 copies in Holland. Roelfzema purchased the rights to the book, reworked it to make the stories flow together better, changed the title and got Prince Bernhard to write a foreword. This second presentation was titled "" (Soldier of Orange), for his association with the royal family. It became an international bestseller. In 1971 his son Erik invited him to visit him at his home on Maui, at the time a remote location. Roelfzema found the landscape, climate, smells and friendliness of the islands reminded him of his childhood home in Java. He felt he was coming home, purchased land there and after introducing his wife Karin to the island, the couple moved there together. They lived on Maui for a number of years before moving to a more remote location on the big island of Hawaii. Prominent Dutch film maker Paul Verhoeven took an interest in Roelfzema's and brought it to the screen. He cast Rutger Hauer in the part of Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema. Roelfzema was on the set as a consultant and the two became lifelong friends. With the release of the film in 1977, Roelfzema gained greater public attention and Hauer was made into an international film star. The film won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association