THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

Japanese Surrender 287
29
The Japanese Surrender (15 August 1945):
Independence Cheated by 48 Hours
On 6 August 1945, an American B-29 bomber nicknamed ‘Enola Gay’
and piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped its deathly 4,500 kg cargo.
The world’s first atomic bomb razed Hiroshima and annihilated 100,000
Japanese. Several days later, Nagasaki was reduced to ashes, decimating
more lives. Japan knelt in abject defeat. Before the dust of demolition
could settle, the Western powers were already packing up, readying themselves
to return to their former colonies.
In Malaya, whispers of Japanese imminent surrender gained strength,
as a forest fire would, when Haji Bahari bin Haji Sidek, appeared in the
general area after a long absence. Haji Bahari, a student in Mecca before
World War II broke out, had been recruited by the British guerrilla Force
136 based in India. The Malay Section of the British sponsored anti-
Japanese guerrilla unit, Force 136 was headed by Major Tengku Mahmood
Mahyideen, of the Pattani nobility.
Parachuted into the jungle of Grik, Haji Bahari returned to Batu
Kurau, two miles from my hill-farm, with news of the imminent surrender.
To prove he had returned from overseas, small bottles of perfume (minyak
atar) were distributed to curious kampung folks who visited him. “If Japan
would not bow, Allied ground troops and air forces would combat them,”
he asserted. By God’s Grace, this was not to be, or else innocent kampung
folks would have been trapped in the ensuing battle. Haji Bahari let it be
known that the British would reward him with a big post.
After a brief visit, Ibrahim Yaakub had left my farm on 13 August
1945, vowing, “Should something undesirable happen I would depart for
Indonesia and I would continue KMM’s struggle from there.” He had tried
to coax me into accompanying him to Indonesia, but I refused. I felt
responsible for KMM members who would now have to face the
accumulated wrath of the returning British. I felt answerable for members
whom we (KMM leaders) had taken this far!