Living in distrust and constant fear
By Mathew Pereira
A LIFE of unremitting fear. This was how Madam Wong Len Cheng, 71, described her experiences during the Japanese occupation of Singapore.
The most nightmarish event, which has haunted her for life, was the sight of a Japanese soldier bludgeoning her brother to death.
Equally traumatic was her losing four babies at birth because she was malnourished during the war years.
Speaking in Hokkien, China-born Madam Wong, who now runs a dessert stall in Chinatown hawker complex, said that every decision she made during the Occupation years hinged on this one consideration: "Would it help keep me alive?"
Even now, almost 50 years later, her eyes still well up with tears every time she recalls the days of pain and hardship when she was 21 years old.
Her Chinese physician husband, Mr Toh Kee Hong, 76, was then a 26-year-old truck driver with the British forces.
Here is her account of life under the flag of the Rising Sun:
The Japs are coming Filling the stomach Laundry and bath together Rice or money? Lifelong scars The Japanese are coming:
Just before the Japanese invasion force landed in Singapore, Madam Wong and her husband moved constantly from one part of the island to another, depending on the information her husband picked up from British soldiers on which areas the Japanese air force and artillery were expected to hit.They first stayed in Chinatown, then moved to Bukit Timah and then Jurong.
But they later shifted to Pasir Ris when Mr Toh heard that the Japanese were expected to come down the north-west coast of Singapore.
Living in an atmosphere of fear:
She said that she lived in constant fear. She witnessed her brother being bludgeoned by a Japanese soldier who had stolen his bicycle.Her brother had in turn taken someone else's bicycle but was caught. The soldier rained blows on him with a mallet.
"My brother vomitted blood for a few days and then died," she recalled sadly.
Another nightmarish memory of the Occupation was the severed heads which Japanese troops planted on Singapore bridges to scare the populace.
This, she said, was a constant reminder of what could happen to her. She remembered seeing at least three heads on bridges and, on one occasion, a headless body not too far away from her home.
The missing British:
"What British?," asked Madam Wong. "I never saw them around from the time the Japanese invasion was imminent."Filling the stomach:
During the Occupation, tapioca and sweet potatoes were about the only food they could get. Pork was expensive and there was always a long queue for it. The best food went to those who worked for the Japanese.Tapioca cost 5 cents per kati (about 600 g). Each person was entitled to 5 katis a week. The monthly rice entitlement was 12 katis for men and 8 katis for women.
Everyone was also entitled to 2 katis of noodles and two loaves of bread a week. The noodles, made from tapioca flour and palm oil, said Madam Wong, were the worst things she had ever eaten.
Buying food on the black market:
Madam Wong had to risk losing her head to buy food from the black market. That was the penalty imposed by the Japanese for anyone caught doing this.The starchy diet of tapioca made her weak. So, she had no choice but to creep out in the early hours of the morning to buy vegetables from roadside stalls, which were grown by the sellers themselves in their gardens and other small plots.
Sometimes, she would manage to buy some wild boar meat at such stalls for $4 a kati.
Neither the meat nor the vegetables were ever fresh. But she said that it was not too bad if one bought the food from the stalls before the sun started to rot the perishables.
Fresh fish was also never available - only salted and dried ikan bilis.
Distrust and fear:
As gatherings were illegal, neighbours seldom met or talked. Madam Wong's husband was her only companion.Another reason for the lack of contact with neighbours was the existence of "spies" who reported to the Japanese. Some people in her neighbourhood were picked up and never seen again, so the fear was not an irrational one.
"After the Japanese surrendered, two people believed to be spies were caught, tied to a tree and stabbed to death by the people in Chinatown," she said.
Laundry and bath together:
Washing of clothes and bathing were done in one go. It was convenient because the same piece of blackish soap served both bathing and laundry purposes. Every month, each family was given half a bar of the soap.No entertainment:
"We did not have a radio and there was never any entertainment," Madam Wong recalled. Gambling was not allowed.Congregating together was illegal and this made any form of gathering impossible. People were afraid to even talk to one another.
Madam Wong said that besides doing the necessary things to survive, Singaporeans then did little else but sleep.
"Sometimes we feared even having a light in the house, for fear it might attract a Japanese soldier to enter our home."
Keeping Nippon time:
Singapore's clocks were set to synchronise with that of Tokyo's, which brought time on the island an hour ahead."They controlled you," said Madam Wong. "If they told you it was midnight even when the sun was up in the sky, then it was midnight."
Few people had clocks or watches, because they were either pawned to buy food or confiscated by the Japanese, so a gong at the police station in North Bridge Road was struck by the hour as a public service.
Choosing rice over money:
During the war years, Madam Wong was determined that she and her husband would get at least one meal of rice a day. So she found herself a job as an odd-job labourer, not for the $1 a day she was paid but for the cigarette tinful of rice she received together with the money.This amount of rice came up to three bowls when cooked. Rice, she said, was better than money.
"It could fill your stomach and it could be used to buy other things in exchange."
She worked from 8 am to 5 pm, with an hour's break for lunch. The workers were generally left to themselves after the Japanese had assigned them their tasks in the morning.
Outwitting the Japanese:
Madam Wong said there were many occasions when she and her husband did things which gave them the pleasure of having outwitted the Japanese.One of the smartest moves was getting married. She did so shortly after the Japanese took Singapore. That entitled her to more rations like rice, tapioca and sweet potatoes.
As for her husband, he lied to the Japanese that he was a skilled worker with experience in boat building. He ended up working in a shipyard at Tanjong Rhu making wooden boats.
He could not even finish sawing a piece of wood in a day. But he was paid a skilled worker's wages of $4 a day. An added bonus was that shipyard workers could buy lunch at their worksite for only 10 cents.
The Great Escape:
Madam Wong recalled how her husband and his friends were once arrested by the Japanese and brought to Tanjong Pinang but escaped in a stolen boat, using a blanket for a sail and broken planks as oars.Her husband and his friends later landed on the east coast of Singapore and took a taxi back to Chinatown.
When they discovered that none of them had money to pay the taxi-driver, her husband removed his gold dentures and handed them to the cabby as payment. He even got $2 back in change.
Lifelong scars:
Madam Wong said that she would never travel to Japan for a holiday, even though her son had been telling her how beautiful the country is. She said: "You cannot expect a person to put aside the past."She does not allow anyone to waste food. Her son complains about her keeping food and finishing it over three to four days. Her reply is that she just cannot make herself throw food away.
Madam Wong added that she never felt safer before in her life than now.
She does not have to worry about anything. There is food, the streets are safe. She told this reporter: "You are young, you cannot appreciate this."
First published in The Straits Times, 20 December 1991
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