Japanese Occupation- Dato' Param.pdf - Malaysian Paediatric ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

gone”. And there we were standing worried about my sister who was in the Convent Light Street Penang, taking her Senior Cambridge exam. All we could do was pray, and hope for the best. And then our prayers were answered. She suddenly appeared, my sister with her hair dishevelled, looking like a bedraggled doll. There were tears in her eyes. She looked exhausted and frightened. My mother quickly brought her in. My father put his arms over her to comfort her. My mother then made her a cup of her favourite teh tarik, and gave her some ‘vadais’(an Indian pastry) which she had specially made for her, knowing she would be hungry after her exam. She wiped the tears with the back of her hand, sat down and ate the vadais ravenously. She then gulped down her tea. We all then sat down to listen to her story. “I was in the school hall, in the midst of my Arts paper, when suddenly we heard loud explosions. We jumped up , petrified and started screaming and running around in panic. Then Reverend Mother Francis Zavier, my favourite teacher, came rushing in , and in her calm voice told all of us “Girls, stop crying. Get down under the desks and stay there. Don’t worry. Start praying. God will look after you.”We soon settled down. We hid ourselves under the desks , and started reciting the Lords Prayer aloud. This helped. It was some time before the bombing stopped, followed by the all clear siren. We were then told to get back to our homes as quickly as possible. I left the school immediately, and as I was the only one from Butterworth, I had to find my way to Penang Pier all by myself. I was terrified. As I walked along Bishop Street , with my legs trembling, I found the road completely deserted. I was shocked to see the damage the bombs had done to the shops. There were dead bodies scattered around. I saw the Indian Muslim shop ‘M.S.Ali’(our father’s favourite shop)still burning. I prayed to God for help, and finally reached Penang Pier. There, to my horror, the normal ferry had left. All that was available was a large converted tongkang, that was tugged by a motor boat. The waves were high, and the tongkang had difficulty getting to the side of the pier. We were told to jump in, and I think it was mother’s prayers that helped me make the jump, first on to a ladder, and then desperately make the climb up to the tongkang. With the choppy waves, and this large tongang being pulled by a small motor boat, the trip back to Butterworth seemed to last for ever. When I finally reached Butterworth Pier, I had another shock- there were no buses running. I had no choice but to walk”. (From the Pier to our house at C5 Bagan Luar Road is a good 5 kilomteres). “ All the way I kept praying the bombers wouldn’t come back. It was a lonely and terrifying experience.”She then started to cry with relief, grateful the ordeal was over. Seeing her alive and well was a great relief to all of us. She was only 14 years old then! The bombing of Penang continued from the 11 th to the 13 th of Dec. My brother and his buddies Taller(by the way he was anything but tall), Tuan Peng, and Hassan stood counting the Japanese bombers, which first flew to Butterworth, and then turned towards Penang. He still remembers vividly counting 21 of them..The British pilots put up a brave fight, but their antiquated Buffalo Fighters were bulky and sluggish. The Japanese pilots derisively called them, ‘Beer Barrel’ fighters, and the Americans referred to them as ‘flying coffins.’ They were no match for the nippy fast Japanese Zero fighters. One Bufflalo Fighter was shot down and fell into a paddy field nearby. Next day my brother and his friends jumped on their cycles and rushed to see the plane. They had a great time with the plane. They even sat in the cockpit and took souvenirs from the plane. I think my brother must have been just 11, and always up to mischief with his 3 buddies.
The invasion of Malaysia began with the bombing of Singapore on 8 th December 1941.The Japanese landed in Kota Bahru, in the early morning of 9 th Dec 1941 and two hours later Admiral Yamamoto with his Japanese aircraft carriers and his fleet of Zero fighters carrying torpedo bombs, carried out the ‘Surprise attack’ , on the American Fleet in Pearl Harbour, preventing any help that Churchill had hoped this fleet could play in the war in South East Asia. The Japanese had also landed in north eastern Thailand, and after a short battle, took over Thailand. They then made their way down to Malaya, first capturing Jitra and Alor Star, as the British plan to make Jitra as their fall- back defence line had failed. It must be mentioned that the Siamese turned the table on the British plans, by signing a treaty with the Japanese, and were later rewarded with the Japanese passing over to them the ownership of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Trengannu. After the bombing of Penang and the loss of Kedah, Headquarters in Singapore instructed the British Army in Penang to evacuate all Europeans to Singapore- only Europeans! They left on 17 th December by train, and on the ‘Penang Ferries’ for Singapore, without offering the Japanese any real resistance. It has been said that the fall of Malaya began with the fall of Penang. The British left in a hurry, leaving the locals, who had served them with dedication, to the mercy of the Japanese. Instead they were loading the ships and train with their house old furniture, and even one, as the story goes, took his piano- and yet there was no space for the locals. This ‘diplomatic faux pas’ by the British commander may have turned the locals against the British, and their later acceptance of the Japanese. And soon after the British left, the Japanese arrived in Penang on the 19 th Dec. They then took over all the key installations and prime property for their use. Convent Light Street was Naval HQ, E&O Hotel HQ for Senior Officers and Wesley Church the Kempeitai HQ and Penang Club to house their senior military personnel). I still remember the arrival of the Japanese in Butterworth. Some came in their tanks, some were on bicycles, that they had confiscated from the Malays in the north, but the majority came marching in on foot. It was great fun to see these soldiers and tanks. I remember clapping my hands, and happily waving at them, and was thrilled when they waved back at me. But it soon dawned on us the actual consequences of what ‘occupation’ meant. It left us in a quagmire from which we had to dig our way out. Government offices were closed, and my father was left without a job. He had 6 children to feed. He was desperate. He and my eldest brother then started selling newspapers, riding around Butterworth on their Raleigh bicycles, which they had hidden from the Japanese. Each paper was sold for 1 cent with a profit of ½ a cent. From a senior clerk in a prestigious government office, to having to sell newspaper was a big come down for him. Before the war, his greatest passion was reading and participating in his Literary Circle, a group he and his friends formed. They used to meet regularly to put up plays and exchange thoughts on literature. After this experience of having to face stark hardship, he realised in the real world, a job and money was all that mattered. And it is sad he never went back to serious reading.(In passing he was a scholar in both English and Tamil-there was no one in Butterworth better versed in the Tamil Language) We stayed in this Kampong house in Kampong Bengali for a while. To me it was great fun. All 6 children had to share a large bed, kicking each other around for space. We had to share food and there was never enough. I used to run around to the Chinese Shop nearby to buy Eu Char Koi.(My mother used to pamper me by giving me one cent for this delicious pastry-I still insist that what I get in Sydney cannot not match the Eu Char Koi from this little shop in Kampong Bengali).
Page 1: The Japanese Occupation of Malaya-
Page 5 and 6: Japanese film at the Cathay theatre
Page 7 and 8: That evening, the family took a wal
Page 9 and 10: We children had to entertain oursel
Page 11 and 12: esidents from our government quarte
Page 13 and 14: Then one afternoon, while my friend
Page 15: 7.PaulH.Kratoska:War and Occupation

Japanese Occupation- Dato' Param.pdf - Malaysian Paediatric ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?