Red Star Over Malaya: Resistance and Social Conflict During and After the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1941–46

2. The Social Impact of the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1942-5

18 | Red Star Over Malaya CHAPTER 2 The Social Impact of the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1942–5 The Japanese had turned Malaya upside down. The former social order was completely reversed. The “nobodies” of yesterday became the “big-shots” of the day. – Chin Kee Onn, Malaya Upside Down, 1946 The change of regime and the violence of war brought about by the Japanese occupation of Malaya altered the pattern of race relations and raised the political stakes. To the local population, politics in the broad sense became a life and death struggle. Much of the interaction of Japanese policy and local responses, especially the changing Malay and Chinese perceptions of one another during the Japanese occupation, determined the direction of Malaya’s post-war political development. The Japanese Invasion: Initial Reaction in Malaya The Japanese attack on Malaya began about four hours after their attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbour — on 8 December 1941. One division of the Twenty-fifth Army (whose commander in chief was Lt.-Gen. Yamashita) landed at Kota Bharu, on the northeast coastal state of Kelantan. Another division opened the beachhead at Songkla in southeast Thailand, north of Kota Bharu, and 18 The Social Impact of the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1942–5 | 19 immediately struck across towards its objective — Changlun in northern Kedah state. In a campaign lasting 68 days, the weight of the Japanese advance drove the British forces down the west coast of Malaya without meeting any effective check. On 12 December, Japanese troops entered Alor Star, the capital of Kedah; on 16 December, Penang; and on 28 December, Ipoh, the capital of Perak state. Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the Federated Malay States (FMS), fell on 11 January and Johor Bharu, the southernmost tip of the peninsula on 31 January. Singapore was finally captured on 15 February.1 By the end of March, the whole of the Netherlands East Indies was also in Japanese hands. Throughout 7 and 8 December, the British had begun rounding up the leaders and members of the Malay pro-Japanese organization, the Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM), after British intelligence had uncovered secret links between the KMM and Japanese military intelligence. Following the initial Japanese attack on 8 December, the British administration attempted to secure political support from the colony’s communal leaders. On 10 December they put pressure on the four Sultans of the FMS —Selangor, Perak, Pahang, and Negri Sembilan — to urge publicly that their subjects remain loyal to the British and resist the invading Japanese forces.2 Most important, the British initiated a belated rapprochement with their erstwhile local foe, the Chinese-dominated Malayan Communist Party (MCP). The two sides reached agreement ten days later on the training of communist guerrillas to fight behind enemy lines in the event of the Malayan Peninsula being overrun by the Japanese, a prospect that seemed imminent. On 23 December, to help the British obtain further local Chinese support, President Chiang Kai-shek in Nanking issued an appeal to all Chinese nationals in Malaya, especially members of his Kuomintang (KMT) party, to rally behind the British in resisting the Japanese. Apparently appreciating the value of cooperation now extended to the British authorities by both the MCP and the KMT, the Governor of Singapore, Sir Shenton Thomas, made a reciprocal gesture. He announced the lifting of the ban on the MCP, the KMT, and certain other Chinese associations.3 Both the MCP and the KMT joined with other Chinese antiJapanese organizations and Chinese community leaders, including Tan Kah Kee, in setting up the “Overseas Chinese Mobilization Council”. This body worked with J.D. Dalley of the Malayan Police, Special Branch, to recruit Chinese volunteers for Dalforce, an independent unit raised at the last minute and attached to the British 20 | Red Star Over Malaya army’s Third Indian Corps. Dalforce was in the frontline of British positions on Singapore island and later put up a fierce fight against the advancing Japanese. It was reported to have inflicted heavy casualties on the invading troops, something that would be neither forgotten nor forgiven by the Japanese.4 While these events were unfolding in Singapore, the British defences on the mainland were rapidly crumbling as state after state was overrun by Japanese troops. It was during the British retreat down the peninsula that the first reports filtered through the ranks of the British army that Malays were...