Besides language barriers and ideological animosity during the Cold War, the wartime division of areas of responsibility between the British in Malaya and Singapore, and the United States and Australia in Sabah and Sarawak also resulted in different historical experiences of the Malaysian resistance in the Pacific War.

Historian Chen Jian and his fellow historians are now working on Sabah and Sarawak attempting to reconstruct a larger national narrative.

Q: A dignified monument was finally erected in Kuala Lumpur in 2003 by private funding to the honour and memory of the 18 CPM leaders and MPAJA commanders who sacrificed their lives in the Battle of Batu Caves on Sept 1, 1941. Why did it take such long time to do what is only reasonable, proper and appropriate by the standard of other countries treating their war dead and heroes?

A: The origin monument of the 18 Martyrs was erected in 1946 at the site of the Japanese Batu Cave Massacre which was known as the Sept 1st Incidence or the Batu Cave Incidence. It happened in Sept 1, 1942. It was erected by the Association of the Ex-Comrades of MPAJA after the Japanese surrendered.

The original site was lost to development in 1999. A group of volunteers then got together in proposing a new monument to be erected at new sites. It had taken some years for looking for suitable site and campaigning for funding for the project. Eventually, The Xiao-En Yuan Memorial Park in Nilai kindly donated a piece of land for the project. Thus, a new site was secured and the new monument had been erected and officially declared open in Dec 7, 2003.

It had taken a total of eight years mainly because of the difficulties in securing the suitable site. Besides the 18 Martyrs Monument that was erected, there is still the Monument of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Heroes to be erected in a later date upon securing sufficient fund. This monument is to be erected at the same site in Xiao-En Yuan Memorial Park in Nilai.

Non-combat support

Q: In your estimate, how many MPAJA guerillas sacrificed their lives in the hands of the occupation forces and authorities in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore? How many operations were conducted?

A: During the Japanese occupation period, besides those enrolled into the MPAJA's eight regiments scattered throughout the Malayan Peninsular who numbered in the region of ten thousand by 1945 just before the Japanese surrender, there were many more others engaged in the semi or total underground anti-Japanese un-armed forces. They are the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese League and other similar organisations namely: The Anti-Japanese Reserve Units, the Anti-Fascist League and the Women Association etc, carrying out anti-Japanese campaigns in various forms and methods. By the memories of those who survive, these numbered to another ten thousand odd throughout the cities and villages. They all provided non-combat support to the MPAJA proper. They published more than 30 anti-Japanese newspapers and tabloids in three different languages.

There is no official statistic as to how many guerrilla fighters sacrificed during the war but through the recollections, some eight hundreds were killed in the battles and some 1200 died of sickness and other casualties. In accordance with the Japanese record, it stated that there were a total of 2900 MPAJA guerrillas killed in encounters. These numbers are difficult to be verified.

As per the statistic done by the MPAJA veterans through recollection, there were more than 300 encounters between the Japanese armies and MPAJA in the 44 months of occupation. Those were mainly combats to break encirclements, ambushes and planned attacks. In the early days of resistance, due to the lack of weapons and ammunitions, insufficient experiences, MPAJA laid low and paid more attention to organisation and training. They were facing harassment from the Japanese armies and fighting battles to break encirclement. But from 1943 onward, as MPAJA began to gain momentum and was better equipped, there were more and more planned ambushes and assault combats against the Japanese armies.

Q: According to the official account of the Communist Party of Malaya, only 165 of their members and leaders, like Chen Tian, were sent for training in the Special Operations Executive's (SOE) 101 Special Training School (STS) in Singapore just before the fall of the city, but when the war ended, the number of armed personnel of MPAJA is estimated to number 6,000 to 9,000. Is this true? If yes, then what caused the phenomenal increase in the number of personnel in just 44 months, and in spite of casualties, Lai Te's betrayal as well as Japanese repression?

A: It was well documented that only 165 members of MCP were chosen to attend the SOE's 101 Special Training School in Katong, Singapore. While those special sabotage units were being trained, there were already members of MCP in various locations in Malaya who had picked up abandoned guns and ammunition of the retreating British and Indian troops.

They formed local guerrilla units on their own initiatives and those units were merged into the MPAJA proper at a later date. The atrocities by the Japanese army and the common hatred of the people toward the Japanese invaders were the key factors that contributed to the rapid growth of MPAJA forces. The driving force to it was the organisational power of MCP and its united fronts such as the Malayan Anti-Japanese League that united the people of various races. These united fronts were so effective that they were able to operate in the cities and villages under the nose of Japanese forces , including Kempeitai or Japanese troops' military police.

Force 136 contributions

Q: What roles did the South East Asian Command's Force 136 play exactly in the resistance? What was their contribution to the liberation in relation to MPAJA?

A: Force 136 was an SOE unit under the South East Asian Command. The key function of the unit was to cooperate with the local resisters in Malaya. There were already a handful of left-behind parties taken sanctuary in the Malayan jungle under the protection and support of MPAJA. Details were described in Spencer Chapman's memoirs The Jungle is Neutral . Subsequent landing at Dinding, Lumut of John Davis, Lim Bo Seng and others by submarines saw themselves well received by MPAJA. Soon an agreement was reached between South East Asian Command and CPM/MPAJA which is known as the Bidor Treaty.

According to the understanding, MPAJA was to provide logistical support and protection to Force 136 members while some of the Force 136 members set up their intelligent unit in occupied Malaya. Unfortunately, the unit was discovered by the Kempeitai only three weeks later when some of the Force 136 members were arrested. Lo Bo Seng was among them and eventually died of sickness in the prison (in Batu Gajah, Perak).

Force 136 members were mostly hiding till early 1945 when the South East Asian Command was successfully connected after the telegraphic machine had been repaired. Thereafter, soldiers, weapons and ammunitions as well as other supplies were available by airdrops beginning May 1945. A total of less than 400 members of Force 136 operated among the various MPAJA regiments performing guerrilla warfare training. However, before Force 136 could demonstrate their ability in the counter-offensives, the Japanese had already surrendered. Thus, Force 136 didn't contribute in serious efforts of fighting in the war of resistance, except that it provided the supplies among which some of the weapons were returned to the British when MPAJA disbanded under order after Japan surrendered.

Q: There is no doubt that the Allied Headquarters in Sri Lanka and India did airdrop personnel, weapons, medicines and radio sets to assist MPAJA after the tide changed in the Battle of Midway fought so gallantly and decisively by the Pacific forces of the United States of America in the second half of 1942. To what extent the supplies helped the Malayan resistance and MPAJA?

A: As mentioned above, the airdrops were only begun in May 1945. However, the weapons, ammunitions and other supplies did greatly enpower MPAJA in their armoury. In 1945, before the Japanese surrender, there were more encounters and MPAJA attacks against Japanese forces, especially police stations. However, an interesting point to note is that during the disbandment of MPAJA, a total of more than 5497 guns and associated weaponry were submitted to the BMA (British Military Administrtion). It was a number well surpassed the airdropped amount of around 2000 weaponry. Also, there were more than 5000 pieces of weaponry were hiden away, which were later recovered and used in the insurgency after the declaration of Emergency in 1948 in Malaya.

Recognised and honoured

Q: Obviously and rightly, many surviving Malayan (including Singaporean) partisans of the war and their offspring, wants to be recognized, honoured and given due credit. Should they not also consider doing the same to the thousands of American commanders, soldiers, intelligence operatives and civilians who also sacrificed their lives in the Pacific War, and whose valour and determination to fight back finally turned the tide in favour of the final liberation of Malaya and Singapore?

A: I think, to a great extend, the commanders, officers, soldiers, intelligence operatives as well as civilians of the British, American and other forces have always been well recognised and have been honoured many a time in various ceremonies and memorials. There are books and documentary records of them in abundance. The exceptions are those in the opposite camp in the ideological struggle. They have obviously been ignored and dishonoured. It is most unfair and it is time to document their contribution, restore their honour and to allocate them a proper place in

history.

Q: A school of thought opines that war history and stories only promote violence and revive past animosity but another school suggests that the more we know about them, the more prudent and peaceful we are. What is your own opinion?

A: War is a cruel existence. It is destructive and unjust wars that are most barbaric and inhuman.Through historical accounts, one can study the causes and origins of wars and learn from the bitter experiences and lessons so that mankind would not repeat the atrocities and could seek ways of repeating them.

As one Chinese proverb goes: "Think of adverse circumstances and dangers while enjoying prosperity and peace." It teaches us not to be overly relaxed and be always prepared for the worst. Judging from the political and military manoeuvring of those aggressors in the world today, one just could not be too sure of what lays ahead. Historians certainly have the duty in their narratives to remind people of the cruelty and destruction of the wars happened before.

Q: What works have been done by historians like you on the WWII resistance in Sabah and Sarawak which are now parts of Malaysia? How to incorporate the results of research into the larger narratives of the Pacific War and the invasion and occupation of Malaysia and Singapore?

A: So far, little effort was focused on the studies of the resistance in Sarawak and Sabah though these territories are parts of Malaysia. There were some memories and accounts on guerrilla warfare in Sarawak and Sabah but they are not widely circulated. Karl Hack, Kevin Blackburn and myself are just a few (historians) who have recently been putting some efforts in securing information and historical records as much as possible so as to put together a history of the resistance forces in these areas. All the results will eventually be part of the larger narratives of the wars in Malaysia and Singapore as well as for the Pacific area.

This is the final article of a three-part series.

Reconstructing M'sia's WWII history (Part 1)

Reconstructing M'sia's WWII history (Part 2)

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia. He is a former DAP member of Parliament for Kampar (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily (now Sin Chew Daily ). He read political science and economics at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.