KUALA PILAH HISTORY- 4 The war years part 2

Mr R Muttu Ramalingam JP, Advocate and Solicitor

Most of what I learnt of the war years were from my late Father Mr R Muttu-Ramalingam, the first lawyer to practice in Kuala Pilah. He started his practice in 1930 at rented premises at 196 Jalan Tung Yen - previously called Third Street. The front of the Shop-house was his chambers while the rear and upstairs was where we all lived. My Father's practice picked up with the growing development of Kuala Pilah district, the rapid planting of rubber trees and  growth of large plantations of rubber trees in the Bahau area and consequent trading, selling and buying of land. The tin mining trade that started the development of Kuala Pilah around Parit Tinggi had all but died by the time the booming rubber trade hit the world wide slump of 1933-7 and brought about economic recession even to Kuala Pilah. Recovering from the slump the winds of war started to sweep from Europe in 1939 towards the Far East. And on that fateful 8th of December 1941 the war at last hit home to Malaya .

The outbreak of the War is described in Part 1 of the War Years of Kuala Pilah History Blog by the author of this Blog

. No sooner had the Japanese established themselves in Kuala Pilah, nominaly at first and more firmly later they went on to identifiy and eliminate opposition. The massacres in Senaling and Parit Tinggi and tortures of prisoners in the Tuanku Muhammad School and KP District Offices buildings were targetted at suspected sympathisers of the Chinese war effort in Chinese mainland  against the Japanese and sympathisers of the British colonial administration that the Japanese had just defeated. Those who were active in fund raising for the Nationalist cause in China were targetted.The numbers killed and tortured ran into hundreds and fear reigned in the hearts of the local people. In efforts to stamp out any opposing views, all radios were seized, modified to recieve only Japanese station news and returned. The seal that was placed to prevent any other reception was not to be tampered with - at pain of severe punishment. An English language Shimbun newspaper was started to feed news from a Japanese angle. Time was Tokio Time and Year was Japanese year. Japanese classes were held in school to familiarise people with Nippon Go. Later Hindi was added to the school subjects in a largely Tamil speaking Indian  community to spread support to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's cause of Indian National army liberating India with Japanese help.

   No other recievers were allowed. All privately owned cars were seized even towing those not in a fit state to be driven - for use by the imperial Japanese administration. Vehicles for transport of goods, food and passengetrs to and from Seremban or Tampin or Bahau became scarce. a few old buses were ingeniously modified to run on wood fuel or charcoal as petroleum became very very scarce. Such necessities as sea fish became a a once a week luxuries as the charcoal burning lorries chugged in the rare fish from Port Dickson - presumably caught not bby motorised boats but sailing or rowing ones. Coal and wood burning trains ran but the long defunct Bahau KP railway line of the 1920s never opened

The scarcity of food imports led to the sudden growth of tapioca, sweet potatoes, maize, vegetable and bananas as staples People gre these where possible in their own houses or back yards and even tomatoes and leafy vegetables in pots, old tins and old packing crates in towns. locally grown  Millet became a substitute for rice till  then imported in large amounts from Siam (Thailand) as the war stopped regular sea transport. Ingenious "rice ' made from tapioca scrapings from metal scrapers and  steamed in pots were an erstaz rice and the rarely obtained real rice saved for the sick, the elderly or for special occaisons. Sugar stopped abruptly when the war broke out so brown palm sugar (gula Melaka) became a a substitute. Kerosene took over from electricity and a variety of oils from coconut to vegetable oils were used in lighting as well. clothing was scarce and stitched and darned to keep in reasonable shape with occassional supplies from Japan or eleswhere. Needless to say smuggled, stolen and looted goods in demand found their way into eager hands able to pay the right price in a thriving Black Market. Recycling was a necessity not a slogan and valuable items like bulbs  batteries and tyres found longer and longer lives by inventions unkown till then. Bicycle tyres were of solid rubber and not a few cycles ran on rims only !!

Meanwhile operations against enemies of the Japanese were gaining as the small bands of anti Japanese guerillas in the form of the Malayan Peoples Anti Japanese Army (MPAJA) started to harass the Japanese. The British had despite all the hype of Rule Britannia prepared for Stay behind parties of British and local troops and volunteers to create guerilla resistance to the possible loss of Malaya. These were activated when the Japanese took over. Spencer Chapman among them (The Jungle is Neutral) rallied Chinese Communists in an alliance and got aid through the connections in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The british using their wide connections in Asia banded together volunteers from India, China, Malaya and even Canada to form a British led Force 136 that opened up arms dumps, camps fed with wireless sets, gold bars and Bruitish straits currencies to buy or bribe their way to defeat the Japanese.

In the Kuala Pilah District small groups of Force 136 landed  in Kepis and other small villages  to carry on the fight. Several supply planes searching for drop zones were lost on these missions of resupply and one was recovered with its ill fated crew in 2011 and the brave souls were given a fitting tribute and formal funeral