In an effort to institutionalise and centralise the annual commemoration of the Japanese invasion and occupation of Penisular Malaysia, a group of elderly Chinese Malaysian businessmen, war veterans and historians have decided to start a fund-raising campaign to build a war museum and monument for the fallen.

The executive consultant of the group - which calls itself the Working Committee for the Promotion of Patriotism - Tan Kai Hee said the purpose of building the museum and monument is to pay tribute to all armed forces and partisans who fought on the side of the Grand Alliance in Peninsular Malaysia during the Pacific War of 1941-1945.

He added that the resistance to Japanese invasion and occupation in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore (then collectively called Malaya) was multiethnic as well as multinational as it involved Chinese, Indians, Malays, Australian and other British Commonwealth troops.

He called the resistance "a broad anti-fascist united front".

Valour and determination

According to Tan, many Chinese Malayans fought with "valour and determination" from the beginning of the invasion in December 1941 to the end of the Pacific War in August 1945 .

However, he also acknowledged that many British, Australian and Indian troops were equally courageous in the defence of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore.

"During the Cold War, Chinese here considered it politically sensitive to publicly talk about our role and suffering during the Pacific War because of the association of Chinese resistance with Communism, but it is now clear that Chinese resistance was aided and supported by the British and the Allied, and also that the resistance was actually quite multiethnic," he elaborated.

Tan also revealed that the group aims to raise RM1.5 million for the two projects and has so far collected RM 400,000.

To kick off the fund-raising campaign and commemorate the 62th anniversary of the beginning of the Japanese invasion, the group has planned a memorial service at 10.00am this Sunday (Dec 7) in Nilai Park - a Chinese cemetery at the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

On Dec 7, 1941, a few hours after the surprise and devastating attack of the US Pacific air and naval base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, Japan landed troops at Kota Baru in Kelantan, bombed Singapore and later marched across the Malayan-Thai border from Pattani and Songkla in Southern Thailand.

Meanwhile, the group has also invited a Singaporean historian and six surviving field commanders of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) to deliver lectures and oral history at the event.

MPAJA was the British-trained armed forces of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) during the Japanese invasion and occupation.

Tan said: "These activities are legal and open to all races and nationalities who cherish peace and respect the true history of our peoples and land, as well as our friends and allies".

For further details, the groups secretariat can be contacted at 03-21453643.