The Japs were here before the war
Read about the pre-war
Japanese community in Singapore
Last month, Life! reported manager Monica Choon's 50 year search for her Japanese father, whom her mother had married during the Second World War. The story was published in Japan, and she has since found his family. CHIN SOO FANG reports
MS MONICA CHOON'S 50-year search for her Japanese father is finally over.
On Tuesday night, she found out who exactly he was and where he lived.
She discovered that she had three Japanese step-brothers and one step-sister, and they were willing to meet her.
But she also learnt that their father, Mr Kenji Murai, had died in 1972 at the age of 56.
"Fifty years!" the 52-year-old customer services manager of a travel firm exclaimed tearfully at her Dairy Farm apartment. "I have been looking for him for 50 years! It's fate!"
Her long search for her father was reported in Life! on Feb 25, in a story about how there had been Japanese in Singapore even before World War II.
Mr Murai married her mother, Madam Tham Chee Fong, in 1944 despite apprehensions of relatives and friends about the mixed marriage.
They had fallen in love after meeting at Madam Tham's cafe at the Happy World Amusement Park, which was popular with Singaporeans and Japanese.
The couple lived with her family in Guillemard Road, and Ms Choon was born a month before the war ended in 1945.
When the war ended, Mr Murai, who worked as a civilian aircraft maintenance technician at Kallang Airport, was sent back to Japan. He did not get a chance to say goodbye to his family.
Madam Tham never saw or heard from him again. She gave the baby the surname Choon, which was the Cantonese transliteration of Mr Murai's name. She died in 1981 at the age of 61. Her letters to his home address in Hokkaido were returned unopened.
The Life! story was picked up by Mr Kita Yoshinori, Singapore-based bureau chief for Hokkaido Shimbun Press. He wrote a report about Ms Choon for his newspaper and it was published on March 8.
A few days later, a man who identified himself as the brother of Mr Murai's second wife called the newspaper from Hokkaido, and unravelled the mystery of Mr Murai.
Mr Yoshinori was told about this, and he contacted Ms Choon. He arranged for her to speak to her step siblings over the telephone on Tuesday, with him acting as the translator.
"I went to the Bright Hill temple where my mother's ashes are kept just the other day," she said, crying. "I told her I have found her husband, my father."
Ms Choon, who is married to a senior executive based in Vietnam and has two daughters aged 26 and 13, started learning Japanese a few years ago.
"I thought it would come in handy when I find my blood relatives in Japan one day."
But on Tuesday night, when she finally got in touch with her Japanese roots, words failed her.
The call to Hokkaido was made at 8.05 pm. A 45-year-old man, who did not want his identity to be published, was on the other line.
He told her that he was the youngest son from Mr Murai's second marriage, made soon after he returned to Japan from Singapore. He also said he had an older sister, now 50. Sounding calm but warm through the speakerphone, he told Ms Choon he was happy to find out that he had a half sister in Singapore.
With Mr Yoshinori as the interpreter, and the Life! team and her daughters by her side, Ms Choon told the Japanese reporter:"You tell my brother that I am very happy too. It's like ... a fairy tale!"
Emotional...Monica Choon with her daugthers,
Valerie Low, 13, and Chong Yin Yin, 26,
and Mr Kita YoshinoriWrestling for the right words, she was at many times overwhelmed by emotions. Ms Choon spoke with Mr Murai and then his sister for about an hour.
She told Life! that her father had probably been "too embarrassed to come back since the Japanese lost the war".
And even though he is dead and she will never get a chance to know him, she was overwhelmed by the idea of having found out more about him.
Her last words to her brother was: "Write to me as Monica Murai. Today, I am no longer Monica Choon."
First published in The Straits Times, March 19, 1998
Copyright © 1998 Singapore Press Holdings. All Rights Reserved.
