The Japanese invasion of Malaya, 1941

In December 1941, the darkest days in Penang's history unfolded. Days after the Japanese military had begun their invasion of Malaya through Kota Bharu, there was widespread mayhem and destruction in George Town when Japanese bombs were dropped amidst simultaneous heavy machine-gun fire on the local population. 

I guess we shall never know today what happened to Westlands School during the war - the people who could remember that period may be too old or no longer around - but in 1965 when my friends in this blog were in the final year of our primary school education there, it was only 20 years since the Japanese surrendered control of the land back to the British. Although we boys missed the trauma of the war years, our parents did not. They went through much suffering, and life in the 1950s and 1960s was still difficult enough for most of them. And while it impacted us as young boys, we ourselves didn't know better due to our own childhood ignorance. In our own ways though, we remained resourceful. Left to our devices, we fell back on traditional children's games to entertain ourselves.

These are the five stories I wrote elsewhere to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Japanese invasion of Malaya in 1941.

80th anniversary (1): Japanese invasion

Today, 08 December 2021, marks the 80th anniversary of a very significant event in Malaysia's history. At 00:30 (that is, 30 minutes past midnight) on the eighth of December 1941, Japan launched their offensive on the Malayan peninsula. This was the beginning of almost four full years of hellish dark days of the Japanese Occupation from 19 December 1941 till their surrender on 02 September 1945. Earlier, they had sailed from southern Indo-China and their fleet of warships dropped anchor 3km from the coast of Kota Bharu.  Read more here.

80th anniversary (2): The bombing of George Town

Previously, I had related how George Town had awoken on 08 December 1941 to the first sounds of Japanese enemy aircraft flying over the town. Three days later on the 11th of December 1941, terror rained down on the inhabitants of George Town. Terror in the shape of bullets and bombs. It was truly a rain of terror. Not yet a reign of terror, no, it had yet to begin, but literally, a rain of terror. Without warning, the Japanese aircraft dropped their bombs and trained their machineguns on the people who congregated in the Chinese quarter of the Beach Street area. Read more here.

80th anniversary (3): Silent evacuation

On the 13th of December 1941, the first of four quiet evacuations of the British from Penang soil took place. Although not apparent at that time, these evacuations also signalled that the British Empire itself could be unravelling in South-east Asia. Never mind that Britain came back to administer Malaya after Japan had surrendered in Penang on 02 September 1945, it was never to be the same again. The seeds of nationalism planted, a movement for Independence and self-governance began taking root. Read more here.

80th anniversary (4): White flag

Eighty years ago on the 16th of December 1941, the Japanese military invaded Malaya and bombed Penang. It is quite safe to say that many families in Penang, if not all, were affected by the atrocities. I know that mine were displaced. On my maternal side, my grandparents fled to the hills, the chau huan that I had mentioned in Part 2. My paternal grandparents probably did the same too and they never really recovered after the Occupation was over. My father continued with his education at Penang Free School after the War but because of the pressing economic circumstances, he had to quit within the year to find work and support the family (at that time, comprising his parents and a sister.) Such sacrifices were not uncommon as the local population tried everything to rebuild. Read more here.

80th anniversary (5): From the Japanese perspective

At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 19th of December 1941, the first Japanese troops landed on Penang island. This was a result of Penang surrendering after nine days of continuous bombardment by Japanese enemy aircraft and the quiet evacuation of the British military garrison and European civilians. With the island now totally defenceless, it fell upon the local civilians to fly the white flag to signify Penang's surrender to the Japanese military. In today's 80th anniversary story, the last of my five-part commemoration of the sad occasion, I shall reproduce two stories from The Syonan Shinbum newspaper. Read more here.

© Quah Seng Sun