THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

Japanese Surrender 289
but machetes never miss!” So, a kampung vigilante corps was set up to
defend lives and homes. Fearing the villagers might be ambushed while
praying in the mosque, I suggested they take turns to pray, making sure
some stayed outside on the lookout.
Not unexpectedly, among those at the meeting was an informer.
After the vigilante corps was set up, Haji Putih came to look for me with
grave concern in his eyes. He had gotten wind that I would be abducted
and killed. I moved my wife to a friend’s hut up on a remote slope. I
told her to stay in hiding with our four children, including Dinah, the
youngest, only two months old. I was afraid they would be harmed. In
that transition period between the Japanese surrender and the British
return, Chinese guerrillas were on a rampage. Anything and everything
could happen.
I hid in Haji Putih’s house that night. Before the crack of dawn, my
faithful friend Hamid 2 and I travelled on a bamboo raft for some distance
before crossing the Ara River. We then trudged through desolate Malay
kampungs, harvested rice fields, newly-tilled plots and jungle fringes
until we found the Pondok Tanjung-Taiping rail track. This circuitous
route was necessary as many roads were already blocked by the Bintang
Tiga guerrillas who had emerged in droves from their jungle hideouts.
Last Meeting with Umezu and Itagaki – 18 or 19 August 1945
After thanking Hamid and asking him to return to Batu 20, I walked almost
fifteen miles along the rail track. As soon as I hit Taiping, I stopped
at the Kampung Boyan home of KMM member Hanif Sulaiman, not only
to take a breather and a drink of water, but also to discuss how I could
escape arrest. Alas, he was unable to offer appropriate advice. From his
house, I walked to the Japanese Hodosho Office in the Taiping Nurses
Hostel (now an annex of the Taiping’s new General Hospital) to see the
Japanese Officers still there, including Prof. Itagaki and Major General
Umezu, 3 Malaya-Sumatra Japanese Military Administration Chief.
The Japanese were shocked to see me, as if they had seen a Malay
ghost, because Dr Burhanuddin had told them I had been killed by the
Bintang Tiga. They enquired about me and my future plans. I requested
for a pistol, but General Umezu said, “It is impossible as all weapons
had been serialised for surrender to the Allied Forces.” He then added,
“American very bad man, you know!” I was livid. “What! You are afraid
to give me one pistol! You all have lost the war and will be sent home to
Japan. But what about me? If I am not hanged, I may be shot by the
returning British. Not that I am afraid!”