Fates of the Japanese Soldiers in Malaya after WW2

War has both its good and bad effects. Children who survived WW2 are mostly dead today. Some still survive to tell stories of the war.

There was a TV documentary of WW2 in Malaya and what happened to some of the Japanese soldiers who were in Malaya while waiting to go home to Japan. They grew and ate the humble sweet potato (ubi keledek). They had to plant ubi keledek as there was no food rationed for the Japanese soldiers following the war. Ubi keledek is different from ubi kayu (tapioca).

Ubi keledek (sweet potato)

Ubi kayu rebus (boiled tapioca/manioc/casava)

Merdeka was long awaited after other neighbouring nations celebrated their independence. Malaysia celebrated Merdeka on 31 August 1957, after much negotiation with the British.

A film of Malaya's struggle during the British re-occupation following the war, entitled Seruan Merdeka (Call of Freedom), was filmed on site in Kg Glam, Singapore. The film was directed and produced by Mr SMAH Chishty, a relative of an early Malay doctor in Singapore - Dr HS Moonshi.

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/history/events/
Malay Film of the Occupation - The Straits Times, 10 March 1947, Page 3

STORE 'SHOOTS' KEMPEI FILM - The Singapore Free Press, 7 March 1947, Page 5

The film Seruan Merdeka was advertised and shown at the Queens Theatre.

Page 3 Advertisements Column 3 - The Straits Times, 18 August 1947, Page 3

Not all Japanese soldiers wanted to return to Japan. Some chose to remain in Malaya.

In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers in Malaysia (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIq1skQbsMQ&feature=youtu.be

Why do you think some of the Japanese soldiers did not want to return to Japan after the war?

One Japanese soldier who chose to remain in Malaya was Yano Shigeru @ Mohd Ali, or better known as Pak Ali. He was a soldier before WW2 and was a soldier for 8 years. He was once a farmer in Malacca - the actual site was not mentioned. He was also a fisherman for 5 years. He followed the advice of a Malay fisherman and became a Muslim. He had worked at Malayawata Steel for 6 years. He married a woman from Malacca and had 10 children. They lived in Tanah Liat, Bukit Mertajam, on the mainland near Penang. He operated a bicycle shop. A handful of helpful Muslims assisted him.

Mohd Ali @ Yano Shigeru, a revert Japanese soldier in Malaysia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re43bpk924Q

From Facebook: Shaharudin Abu Hassan Affirmative. This is Pak Ali my neighbour in Tanah Liat, Bukit Mertajam back in the 60s. In the scene where the family is having their meal I could recognise one of his sons who we refer to as Md Dani. The eldest son is Daud and the eldest daughter is Maimunah. His wife is Mak Jarah (Zaharah?) from Melaka.

Malaya's struggle for freedom was recently presented in a film produced by Greenlight Pictures Sdn Bhd at the 20th Busan International Film Festival 2015 (BIFF 2015).
https://www.youtube.com/user/greenlightpic
https://www.facebook.com/greenlight.pictures
http://english.busan.go.kr/SubPage.do?pageid=sub050403

Malayawata Steel Mill was established in Malaya in 1961 as a Malayan-Japanese joint venture. It was built by the Japanese company Nippon Steel Corporation. Malayawata was renamed Ann Joo Steel Berhad on 8 December 2006. It now operates at two sites, one in Prai, Penang, and another in Shah Alam, Selangor.
http://www.steelorbis.com/steel-news/latest-news/malayawata_steel
http://www.annjoo.com.my/business-activities/manufacturing/ann-joo-steel-berhad/
http://www.chunyuconstruction.com/project8.htm
New Scientist - 16 Oct 1980 - Page 144 - Google Books Result

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19670804-1.2.98.aspx

Malaysia's economic status in the early 1960s
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40568026?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Greenlight Pictures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdaxZUYwa14

WWII and the child of Germany

Child of Germany = Adolf Hitler

Memories of World War II in Kelantan

Kelantan experienced the worst attack as it was the first place where the Japanese army landed in Malaya. You can read about this particular war in Kelantan from books written by the British Army generals which are available cheaply from Muzium Kelantan office in Kota Bahru. The Japanese Army landed at Pantai Sabak in the heavy monsoon rain, and their advancement inland was made difficult by the marshes and nipah palms which grew aplenty by the creeks that led to the vast South China Sea. Today, the initial landing site is miles from the shore and lies submerged from aggressive erosion by strong undercurrents which are typical at Pantai Sabak (no swimming is allowed at this beach).

My two daughters inscribed this in the wet sand

Malay kampung at Pantai Sabak. That's my Kelisa.

This cenotaph has names of fallen WWI and WWII British staff

Australian WWII Memorial in Kota Bharu

Japanese army landing boat, more have been found abandoned in rivers

Global Security and the Threats of World Wars

Global Security provides up-to-date US military news online. It is a useful website for studying casualties of past wars and to try and avoid such casualties in future wars (na'u zubillahi min zaalik). The other useful website is the CIA website that has health data and statistics of all the world's communities.

Doctors have served as military personnels in times of war and preparedness for war is something we don't teach at medical schools. For our students who wish to assist in war-torn regions of this globe, I would suggest that you read on the causes of past wars and try to understand how we can possibly avoid conflicts and any sort of war. Any war is likely to cause injury and death,. Death of innocent victims is not an excuse for medical staff to sit back, turn a blind eye, and not express themselves publicly. 

I will honestly say, that we actually don't need any war today. Wars are a thing of the past, avenues of the past, vents for those who never learned and never want to exit the Dark Ages nor leave their dirty actions altogether. Those who committed wars are hyenas and dingos, definitely not humans We are intelligent human beings and we have brains that make our actions humane. We should fully utilise our brains and be able to cap tension from arising, crack conflicts from striking and halt wars from happening. The only avenue to save this world from further rot is to listen to academics, the public at large and the poor masses (the bottom billion have-nots). Communication is a bilateral process; war is single strike.

World War I (WWI) commenced on 6 April 1917 and ended on 11 November 1918. It was localised to Europe. Hence, Malaya was not directly affected but there are evidences from narrations communicated to the author (even though antibiotics were still undiscovered), especially the field of professional medical training.

World War II (WWII) commenced on 7 December 1941 and ended abruptly on 14 August 1945 with the bombing of two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This war occurred globally and affected many countries worldwide. Malaya suffered terribly during WWII when it came under the Japanese Occupation. We can still hear many WWII stories from Malayan survivors of that horrific era. The WWII museums also depict the artifacts and happenings of this ugly indescribable war. But we should not forget, that the first antibiotic, penicillin, came into use almost at the close of WWII. 

Since antibiotics only became commonplace after WWII, one should expect stories about infant deaths, childhood deaths, teenage deaths and early deaths of young adults in our medical history, prior to 1945 . The medical situation improved after WWII. WWII was in fact a turning point for medicine. The many drugs we see today are postwar discoveries and have rather short trialling periods. Some drugs are not fully tested for long-term effects and their safety status remain unknown to doctors and patients.

Sources:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/index.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/early20cent-ops.htm