KUALA PILAH HISTORY 5 - The war Years Part 3

Although the war years began with much trepidation and fear of all that was feared of an invading army suitably boosted by efficient propaganda by the retreating British  and no doubt clear evidence of indiscriminate   bombing  deaths, rape and reprisals against those who had supported the previous regime it stamped a mark as to who was in charge. The  population used to the long colonial rule of decades was not keen to embrace a new rule. To make matters worse the largely military rule that replaced the colonial civil service brooked no opposition. They had years before planted spies in the form of Japanese tradesmen, from barbers to photographers who in some cases actually held military rank in the Japanese army and through them knew who were the enemies of the Japanese in Malaya. They fed the invading minitary police wing of the Japanese Army the Kempetei with needed information who then  carried out the detention torture and in many cases extermination of those they saw as enemies. The fierce response to opposition was quite a shock to all used to a paternalistic previous government. Torture was carried out on buildings such as the old District offices  facing the present KP stadium  below,

 

 

 

and in the class rooms and presumably the Hostel of Tuanku Muhammad School Kuala Pilah and the  wooden temporary police station at the junction of  Jalan Tung Yen and Jalan Seremban. Years after the war ended rumours of bone chilling screams and moans and sound of chains being dragged  at night in these buildings circulated in Kuala Pilah .

A recent picture of TMS main building

 

 

                                              Old War time Police Station Jalan Tung Yen

After a year or less of the harsh occupation of Kuala Pilah although food and other goods for daily life were in short supply a semblance of normalcy began to take shape. A civil administration ran day to day administration. a wide variety of substitutes made up for staples. River fish (ikan sembilan ) replaced tengiri from the sea which was a rare luxury. Chicken was a real luxury, mutton and beef more so. Rice was for special occasions and tapioca, millet sweet potatoes made up for staples. Coffee was actually grown near the present Giat MARA and substance abuse rehabilitation centre off Seremban road overlooking the first and only KP Air strip of 1950s to come.

 

 

 

                               

   This is the 1950's KP Airstrip - to the right of this at a higher level on the hillside was the coffee garden that grew coffee

 

The coffee was harvested, dried and milled into a low grade coffee drunk while nibbling a small piece of palm sugar. School children were sent in trucks at least on weekends to work on a large farm  near Juasseh on the way to  Bahau to grow vegetables. for refreshments green pea porridge was given the very expensive sports equipment of modern schools and gymnasiums were unheard of . School  PT was Physical commitment to improve food supply ! Clothes were recycled darned and care fully treasured. Canvas shoes were suitably padded  periodically on their soles with strips of rubber sheets glued with rubber glue. Exercise books were carefully treasured. Japanese and Hindi schools. All English text books from before the war were accepted as long as pictures of colonial references were inked out or removed..

Perhaps the most important memory of KP people of the war was the highly inflated Banana notes that replaced the British currency. Some fearful of the new order  but yet feeling that the British would return buries their money in tins in secret places - only to find paper notes rotten and or termites eaten at the war's end. The Banana notes were similar to those used in neighbouring countries , had no water mark  and most of all almost no value. A banana cost 5 Banana Dollars whereas pre war it was probably 2 cents.

Civil servants, teachers and private business men went about their businesses and work - albeit in a modified way. To supplement incomes many had side businesses. A Sakura café was opened by a teacher, to cater for coffee shop needs and served tapioca cakes, local made Japanese cakes and served coffee without milk and sweetened by palm sugar.  Most grew their own vegetables  around their houses

 

Doubtless malnutrition was not rate and all sorts of substitutes were used to non availability of nutritious  proteins  eggs and good food. Hospitals had a tough time getting medicines whose supply from the colonial mother country had dried up when the war started. Some Japanese supplies started to trickle in later and substitutes for quinine were obtained from other nearby countries also occupied by the Japanese.

A view of the Kuala Pilah Valley with Bus Stand and Toddy Shop on the left

 

 

 

 

More to Follow !
Deva Mp

              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