THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

Ibrahim Yaakub’s Secret Deal 177
“Yoroshi” (good)! The Captain then whispered, “This is a simple and
practical test to gauge a man’s courage.” Maybe what he meant was that
if the private parts had shrunk, the person was a coward. He must have
found a handful in the case of Mohd Mustafa.
As for the flamboyant Pak Itam, after introducing me to Talib, who
helped to assemble Malay youth, I took him to see Major Fujiwara in case
he had something to say. After a short exchange of salutations, Fujiwara
gave Pak Itam an ‘F’ notice to paste on his house door. But Pak Itam
asked for another one, quietly explaining, “I have two wives.” When an
interpreter translated his words, Japanese officers in the room blurted
“Asoka!”, held their breath for one brief moment, before bursting into loud
guffaws. “What, an old man like you is still so strong?” one of them quipped.
A few days later, Japanese sentry guards in Ipoh were amused to see
Pak Itam riding a bicycle wearing a polo hat, a long-sleeved shirt with
an ‘F’ armband, a necktie, long boots and breeches. F Kikan officers also
looked in disbelief. He was dressed up to meet officers at the Japanese
HQ with certain objectives in mind. But he left the HQ looking terribly
distraught. In his Perak accent, he said sarcastically, “They think they are
the only ones who own long boots!” He then added, “I asked them about
the tin mines left by the British. They ridiculed me. You know what their
answer was? They said, ‘Do you think Japanese come thousands of miles
to give British mines to Malays?’ Can you imagine that?” Pak Itam
concluded his story in a subdued, but bewildered tone, “Mustapha, my
son, we have awakened a sleeping tiger!”
Military Training for Malay Youth
Under Lt Yonemura, Malay fifth column youth were given brief military
training and instructions on the use of small arms. Some were given
clothes, Belgian-made automatic pistols and funds for their move south.
Secret weapons included a small coal-like stone to blow up locomotive
boilers and a small stone for exploding trucks or pillboxes. They were
also given a small hand bomb in the form of a Libby’s canned fruit tin.
Instructions were given for sabotage work behind lines controlled by the
British or its allies such as the Indian, Gurkha, Australian and other troops.
They were also to paste ‘F’ signs on houses, as well as to advise folks
living near main roads to temporarily move away.
At the end of the training, I was called to give a speech to whip up
their morale. But on the quiet, I specifically told them to avoid involvement
in clashes between Japanese and Malay soldiers or volunteers. Also,
that the war we were facing was not our fight; it was a war between two