Forgotten Wars (96 page)

20.
S. K. Chettur,
Malayan adventure
(Mangalore, 1948), p. 22. For the figures see Michiko Nakahara, ‘Labour recruitment in Malaya under the Japanese occupation: the case of the Burma–Siam railway’, in Jomo K. S. (ed.),
Rethinking Malaysia
(Kuala Lumpur, 1997), pp. 215–45.

21.
J. Pickering, ‘Monthly report for December 1945, Refugees and Displaced Persons Branch, Peninsula Division’, BMA/ADM/2/28, ANM; ‘Monthly report for January 1946’, ibid.

22.
For example, Lau Siew Foo (Malayan Security Service) and J. C. Bary, ‘A brief review of Chinese affairs during the period of the Japanese occupation’, BMA/ADM/8/1, ANM.

23.
R. W. Holder,
Eleven months in Malaya: September 1945 to August 1946
(Kuala Lumpur, 2005), pp. 91–2. These images are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum; see, for example, Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper,
Forgotten armies: Britain’s Asian Empire and the war with Japan
(London, 2004), illustration no. 24.

24.
Jan Ruff-O’Herne,
50 years of silence
(Sydney, 1994), p. 131. For pioneering work on the Malayan case, Nakahara Michiko, ‘Comfort women in Malaysia’,
Critical Asian Studies
, 33, 4 (2001), pp. 581–9.

25.
Minutes of the inaugural meeting of the Singapore Social Welfare Council, 26 July 1946; H. R. Horne, ‘Girls’ training school’, 26 September 1946, BMA/CH/27/45, SNA.

26.
V. Purcell, minute, 25 March 1946, BMA/ADM/2/46, ANM.

27.
Harper,
The end of empire
, pp. 42–4, 97, 229–30.

28.
Nutrition Unit Visit to Mersing, BMA/HQ S.DIV/466/45; Matthews to Purcell, 22 September 1945, BMA/CH/7/45, SNA; Nutrition Unit, BMA, Malaya, ‘Final Report’, BMA/DEPT/1/13, ANM.

29.
Sudarajulu Laksmana Perumal interview, OHD, SNA.

30.
‘Monthly report on labour, December 1945’, BMA/DEPT/2/1, ANM.

31.
Pickering, ‘Monthly report for December 1945’; ‘Monthly report for January 1946’.

32.
R. E. Vine, ‘Memorandum on the medical aspects of the use of opium and allied drugs in Malaya’, 5 December 1944; War Office to ALFSEA, 18 April 1945, BMA/DEPT/1/14 Pt 1, ANM.

33.
Nanyang Siang Pau
[Singapore], 23 November 1945; Pook Luk, ‘Broad-casting station’,
Nanyang Siang Pau
, 27 November 1945. Citations from the Chinese, Malay and Tamil press come from the translations in a variety of ‘Chinese Press Summaries’ and ‘Vernacular Press Digests’ prepared by the colonial government and to be found in the Singapore National Archives, the
National Library of Singapore, the Arkib Negara Malaysia and the library of SOAS, London. The translations were selective and made in haste, but in some cases they form the only extant record of these journals.

34.
Chang Cheng Yean interview, OHD, SNA.

35.
Heng Chiang Ki interview, OHD, SNA.

36.
‘The Civilians’ to Victor Purcell, 9 December 1945, BMA/CH/7/45, SNA.

37.
Ralph Hone to F. S. V. Donnison, 25 March 1953, Hone Papers, RHO.

38.
Wilfred Blythe,
The impact of Chinese secret societies in Malaya: a historical study
(London, 1969), pp. 338–44.

39.
D. F. Grant diary, 17 June 1946, DF/370/45, ANM.

40.
J. P. Mead, ‘Renewed collection of forest revenue’, 19 October 1945, DF/90/45, ANM.

41.
Ang Keong Lan interview, OHD, SNA.

42.
Haggard and Haggard, ‘An account of the BMA of Upper Perak’.

43.
Peter Bates,
Japan and the British Commonwealth Occupation Force, 1946–52
(London, 1994), p. 105.

44.
Hone to F. S. V. Donnison, 1 May 1952, Hone Papers, RHO; H. T. Pagden, ‘Unrest in Malaya’, in letter to O. H. Morris of the Colonial Office, 12 October 1948, CO537/3757, TNA.

45.
Charles Gamba,
The origins of trade unionism in Malaya
(Singapore, 1960), pp. 46–7; Arshak Catihatoer Galstaun interview, OHD, SNA.

46.
Nanyang Siang Pau
, 20 November 1945.

47.
Victor Purcell to Maj. General G. N. Wood, 28 December 1945, WO203/5302, TNA.

48.
Kin Kwok Daily News
[Ipoh], 12 December 1945.

49.
Sin Chew Jit Poh
[Singapore], 19 November 1945.

50.
Dr Benjamin Chew interview, OHD, SNA.

51.
Victor Purcell to CCAO, 31 October 1945; H. S. Lee to Purcell, 29 October 1945, BMA/CH/31/45, SNA.

52.
James to Purcell, 13 November 1945, BMA/CH/31/45, SNA.

53.
Gay Wan Guay interview, OHD, SNA.

54.
Straits Times
[Singapore], 20 December 1945; HQ SACSEA, ‘Discipline: Singapore Island’, 12 January 1946, WO203/4362, TNA.

55.
Kung Pao
[Singapore], 18 April 1946.

56.
B. Dean,
The theatre at war
(London, 1956), p. 490.

57.
Brig, E. H. A. J. O’Donnell to Norman Collins, BBC, 21 September 1945; Minister of Food to First Lord of the Admiralty, 5 September 1945, WO32/11479, TNA.

58.
Holder,
Eleven months in Malaya
, pp. 55–66.

59.
Malaya Tribune
[Kuala Lumpur], 9 December 1945.

60.
For a rare historical study, Haryati Hasan, ‘Malay women and prostitution in Kota Bahru, Kelantan, 1950s–1970s’,
Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
, 78, 1 (2005), pp. 97–120.

61.
Memo: V. D.’ DA & QHG 14th Army, 15 October 1945; C. E. C. Davis, ‘Report on the VD situation in Singapore, 4 March 1946’; ‘Special meeting held at HQ SACSEA to consider methods to combat VD in SEAC, 7 December 1945’, BMA/DEPT/1/2, AMN.

62.
Acting Commissioner of Police, Malayan Union, ‘Suppression of brothels – reasons against’, n.d. [November 1946], SCA/28/46, SNA.

63.
Singapore City Committee Malayan Communist Party to Civil Affairs Department, 23 October 1945, BMA/CA/8/45, SNA.

64.
Min Sheng Pau
[Kuala Lumpur], 18 October, 11 December, 1945.

65.
New Democracy
, 27 October 1945.

66.
Maj. General G. N. Wood (25 Indian Division) to Victor Purcell, 24 December 1945; Purcell to Wood, 28 December 1945, WO203/5302, TNA.

67.
Min Sheng Pau
, 22 October 1945.

68.
New Democracy
, 22 January 1946.

69.
‘BMA Monthly Report for February 1946’, WO220/564, TNA; Mubin Sheppard,
Taman Budiman: memoirs of an unorthodox civil servant
(Kuala Lumpur, 1979), pp. 144–5; Datuk Mohd Yusoff Hj. Ahmad,
Decades of change (Malaysia – 1910s–1970s)
(Kuala Lumpur, 1983), p. 325.

70.
Gilmour,
With Freedom to Singapore
, pp. 133, 152, 155.

71.
Chin Kee Onn,
Malaya upside down
(Singapore, 1946), pp. 190–8.

72.
Wong Yunn Chii and Tan Kar Lin, ‘Emergence of a cosmopolitan space for culture and consumption: the New World Amusement Park – Singapore (1923–70) in the inter-war years’,
Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
, 5, 2 (2004), pp. 279–304.

73.
M. S. Daud, ‘Popularity of the “Bangsawan” is declining’,
Malaya Tribune
, 18 July 1948.

74.
Sin Chew Jit Poh
, 22 October 1945.

75.
New Democracy
, 4 October 1945.

76.
Modern Daily News
, 10 October 1945.

The ‘Eight Principles’ are:

(1) Support the Democratic Alliance of Soviet Russia, China, Britain and America. Support the new International Peace Organization.

(2) Materialize the Malayan Democratic polity. Establish organs of peoples’ wish for the whole of Malaya as well as the respective States by universal suffrage of the various nationalities and Anti-Japanese organizations of Malaya.

(3) Abolish the political structure formed by the domination of the Japanese Fascists in Malaya. Abolish all Japanese laws and decrees.

(4) Practise the absolute freedom of speech, publication, organization, public meeting and belief. Assure the legal position of all parties and organizations.

(5) Relinquish the old system of education and exercise democratic education with the respective national languages. Expand national culture.

(6) Improve the living conditions of the people; develop Industry, Agriculture and Commerce; relieve the unemployed and refugees; increase wages universally and practise the ‘8 hours’ work system’.

(7) Reduce the prices of goods to the level; stabilize the living conditions of the people; punish corrupt officials, profiteers and hoarders.

(8) Treat the Anti-Japanese armies kindly, and help the families of the fallen warriors. (Cheah Boon Kheng,
Red star over Malaya: resistance and social conflict during and after the Japanese occupation of Malaya, 1941–1946
(Singa-pore, 1983), appendix D, ‘Statement of the Selangor State Committee, The Communist Party of Malaya’, 27 August 1945, pp. 308–9.)

77.
Victor Purcell, ‘Malaya’s Political Climate IV: 10–30 November 1945’, WO203/5302, TNA.

78.
‘Number of cases receiving relief and amount of cash issued’, 11 October 1945, BMA/CA/48/45, SNA.

79.
Cheah Boon Kheng,
The masked comrades: a study of the Communist United Front in Malaya, 1945–48
(Singapore, 1979), pp. 24–5.

80.
Modern Daily News
[Penang], 25 December 1945.

81.
Sin Chew Jit Poh
, 6 October 1945.

82.
See the testimonies in Agnes Khoo,
Life as the river flows: women in the Malayan anti-colonial struggle
(Petaling Jaya, 2004).

83.
Tai Ngo, ‘To our sisters’,
Kin Kwok Daily News
[Ipoh], 3 November 1945.

84.
A. F. P. Hulsewe, ‘Survey of current Chinese periodicals in Malaya’,
Chinese Press Summary
, 60 [Jan. 1946], pp. 13–18.

85.
Victor Purcell, ‘Malaya’s Political Climate II: 1–19 October 1945’, WO203/5302, TNA.

86.
Ibid.

87.
Purcell,
Memoirs of a Malayan Official
, p. 353.

88.
Quoted in Gamba,
The origins of trade unionism in Malaya
, p. 19.

89.
Min Sheng Pau
, 26 October 1945.

90.
‘Report on Labour troubles in Singapore’, 27 October 1945; ‘Labour sitrep Singapore’, 27 October 1945, BMA/DEPT/2/15, ANM;
New Democracy
, 23 October 1945.

91.
Michael Stenson,
Industrial conflict in Malaya: prelude to the communist
revolt of 1948
(London, 1970); Leong Yee Fong,
Labour and trade unionism in colonial Malaya
(Penang, 1999). For Brazier, see Gamba,
The origins of trade unionism
, p. 101.

92.
Under the name Wee Mong Cheng, Ng Yeh Lu embarked on a successful business career; he became an office bearer in the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and between 1973 and 1980 Singapore’s ambassador to Japan and Korea, C. F. Yong,
The origins of Malayan Communism
(Singapore, 1997), pp. 190–2, 253. Also Yoji Akashi, ‘Lai Teck, Secretary General of the Malayan Communist Party, 1939–1947’,
Journal of the South Seas Society
, 49 (1994), pp. 57–103.

93.
Kin Kwok Daily News
[Ipoh], 27 November 1945.

94.
Victor Purcell, ‘Malaya’s Political Climate V: 1–20 December 1945’, WO203/5302, TNA.

95.
‘Appendix I: Lai Teck, Communist leader’, in CO537/3737, TNA.

96.
Mamoru Shinozaki,
Syonan – my story: the Japanese occupation of Singapore
(Singapore, 1979), pp. 101–2; Yoji Akashi, ‘The Anti-Japanese movement in Perak during the Japanese occupation, 1941–45’, in Paul H. Kratoska (ed.),
Malaya and Singapore during the Japanese occupation
(Singa-pore, 1995), p. 118.