THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

Ibrahim Yaakub’s Secret Deal 171
using chairs and tables as firewood, and one was seen furiously smashing
gramophone records of foreign songs offensive to his ears! I was livid! I
protested through an interpreter, asking him to report the shameful
destruction of property belonging to innocent people to his superior. “Next
time, look for white-painted bungalows because British property is usually
white,” I told the interpreter. Near Parit town, using a kind of Japanese
ferry they had brought, we crossed the river where it was considerably
narrower. Japanese soldiers then bathed and frolicked in the nude in the
crystal clear water. We would have done the same. Had anyone heard of
soldiers going to war with sarongs for bathing purposes? In Parit, I
noticed two brick shop-houses, the only Malay property in the town, razed
to the ground by a bomb. Why were Malays the unluckiest people?
Advancing south towards Ipoh, we passed the town of Pusing, later
made famous by Sir Gerald Templer, who called it “The little town of
Piusing...” because Pusing dwellers were not co-operating with the British
to stem communism. I saw durian trees and coconut palms truncated at
the top as if a giant hand had amputated them. We arrived in Ipoh late at
night. When questioned by a Japanese sentry, a Japanese officer in my
vehicle replied, “Fujiwara Kikan Sako in KAME.” (Fujiwara = name of
the Major; Kikan = Unit; Sako in = Intelligence; KAME = Tortoise). The
guard responded, “Asoka!” Maybe, he meant “Oh, is that so?” Next, I
heard the word “Anone” preceding every question. This was my introduction
to Japanese.
In Ipoh, we stopped at the Anderson School along Jalan Anderson,
where we groped in the dark to take over one wing of the school as a
place to rest for the night. It became the F Kikan HQ during the period
we were in Ipoh. Pak Chik Ahmad, who had left Taiping in another
vehicle, was missing. After some investigation, I discovered he had been
‘pushed out’ of a moving vehicle. He had expressed reluctance while in
Taiping, but he was only pushed out by the Japanese at Lawan Kuda,
two miles out of Taiping. That was his second horrifying experience in
one day. Just like a Malay proverb, “when elephants meet in conflict, a
mouse-deer trapped between them is sure to perish.”
Ipoh 10
What was expected of the KMM became more apparent in Ipoh. KMM
had been ‘Japanised’ as KAME, the code name frequently broadcasted
by the Japanese propaganda radio prior to the invasion. Consequently, as
soon as KAME was decoded as KMM, the British Police embarked on a
mop-up operation of KMM members nationwide. In Ipoh, KMM members