A Taiwanese Hakka in the Japanese army (4)

[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au>]

   A Taiwanese Hakka in the Japanese army (4)

  After the Japanese had occupied Malaya the British set up the Southeast 
Asian High Command in Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka). The British recruited
many young Malayans into the 136 forces which would be used to help the 
British to recapture Malaya. The mission of the 136 forces was, before 
the allied forces began reconquer Malaya, to contact the resistance 
forces there. They were to be paracuted back to Malaya as soon as their 
training was over.

   Colonel Chapman was with Chin Peng in MPAJA headqurters in Triang in 
Pahang. One night while the British Air Force from Ceylon flew over
Malaya on the bombing mission Colonel Chapman, using a hand operated 
wireless transmtiter, made contact with the British Air Force. After 
they had identified that it was Colonel Chapman the British Air Force 
made many sorties of dropping supplies to the MPAJA. Meanwhile plans were 
made by Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Supreme Allied Commander to invade 
Malaya. The MPAJA forces were to be deployed to destroy the Japanese 
communications before the Allied forces began landing in Malaya. More 
air drops of supplies were made to the MPAJA. Chin Peng requested the 136 
forces to assist the Kinta MPAJA. Therefore Kon Lai went with Comrade 
Zeng to an open space, the tailing of a abandoned tin mine to receive 
the supplies.  

   The Kinta branch of MPAJA gave the two British and the two 136 force 
officers a big warm welcome. These officers reorganized the MPAJA 
under the command of Comrade Zeng. They taught the MPAJA how to use 
the explosive and how to handle the new weapons they received. Kon Lai 
was assigned as the leader of the Sabotage Squad which took the 
responsility of destroying the communications in the Kinta district 
before the arrival of the allied troops.  
      
 On August 15, 1945 news came that Japan had surrendered. There were 
big VJ cerebrations every where in Malaya. Kon Lai was very excited 
because the time had finally come for him to go home where he left 
four years ago. He approached the two British officers and told them 
that he was a Japanese deserted soldiers. They were flabbergnasted to 
hear the story by Kon Lai. They asked Kon Lai if he still posessed his 
Japanese soldier's identity card. Unfortunately Kon Lai had 
destroyed it to prove that he was not a Japanese spy when he first 
entered the camp. It would be hard for him to convince the British 
Authority of his real identity.   

   In Malaya after the Japanese surrender the first troops to appear in  
the streets of the towns and villages were not the allied troops but the 
6,000 or more MPAJA guerillas. The British troops were still in the sea 
on the way to Malaya. The Japanese forces were ordered by the high 
command in Japan to recroup in big towns and cities and stay in the 
barracks awaiting for the arrival of the British so that they could 
surrender to them. The Japanese forces did not surrender to the MPAJA 
forces whom they did not recognized. The Communist guerillas ruled Malaya 
until the British troops reoccupied the whole of Malaya in September and 
immediately they set up a British Military Administration (BMA). 

  To show their forces Kon Lai and his comrades, with new uinforms, 
shining boots and the latest new weapons, thanks to the British, proudly 
marched out from the jungle with the drummers in front of them, through 
the cheering crowds lining the streets of Pusing, Siputeh and Papan  
and occupied the police stations of these three towns. Kon Lai went to 
Batu Gajah trying to contact the Japanese troops stationed there, hoping 
to be expatriated back to Taiwan, but they had already retreated to Kuala 
Lumpur which was about 200 kilometers away. It would be difficult for 
him to go there. There was no way that he could make contact to his former 
commander, besides he was a deserter and the Japanese might court-martial 
him if he showed up. Kon Lai was in dilemma. He had no choice but to 
stay with the MPAJA. 

  When the British Military Administration took over from the MPAJA they 
restored the colonial status quo. The MPAJA forces were officially 
disbanded and the British asked them to return the arms that they air 
dropped to them. Most of the arms were returned to the BMA with the 
compensation of $300 for a rifle and more for a sub-machine or a 
manchine gun. Many ex-MPAJA associations were formed through out Malaya. 
The MPAJA leadership and its organization remained underground. The 
arms supplied by the British were buried in the jungle in case of any 
hostile contingency from the British. Since Kon Lai had no home to return 
to and no where to live he had to work and live in the Pusing ex-MPAJA 
association which was a converted shop house next to my father's shop. 
He wrote letters home telling his family that he was still alive. He did 
not know what happen to his wife, Siew Lan and his two sons. 
He wanted to contact them, desperately,          

  Meanwhile in Taiwan, according to the Cairo Declaration of December 
1, 1943 Taiwan and Pescadores were to be returned to China after the 
defeat of Japan. Taiwan was finally restored to China when the Japanese 
surrender on August 15, 1945 and it was made a province.  Jiang Jia Shi 
(Chiang Kaishek) sent General Chen Yi to Taiwan as the governor of 
Taiwan.

  During the Japanese occupation the Formosans always considered 
themselves as Chinese. But the fact that they did not realized that 
the Japanese had raised their standard of living which was much higher 
than that in the mainland. The Japanese eliminated banditry, developed 
railways, constructed roads for safe travel and upheld the judiciary 
systems but without much social and political freedom. Formosans 
did not conceive that they were culturally more advance than their
consins in the motherland.

  When General Chen Yi leading the Chinese troops landed in Taiwan 
Formosans in holiday clothes flocked to the docks and railway stations  
to welcome the liberators. However, the Formosans' joy vanished overnight 
when they discovered that the Chinese troops were not liberators but 
conquerors who behaved like bandits. The Chinese troops took goods from 
the market stalls without paying for them. They robbed civilians on the 
streets. At night the Chinese troops went to the villages to rob. They 
killed the villagers in order to hide their robberies. Villagers and 
towns folks, who had not known of any robbery or baditry under the 
Japanese, organized their own local protective associations. 

  The Chinese officers confiscated all Japanese property which they 
sold in the black market and pocket the proceeds. Those they could 
not sell they shipped them to their homes on the mainland. When they 
had finished dealing with the Japanese property the officers now 
turned on the wealth of the Formosans. Whenever the Chinese officers 
took over a business or factory they always asked, " How much cash on 
hand?" "Any house or any motorcar?"

(To cut the story short) The beating to death of a woman cigarette 
seller named Lin Jiang Meng by the agents from the Liquor and Cigarette  
Bureaucracy on Febuary 28, 1947 in Taipei in front of a big crowd 
that started what we now call 228 incident. During the month of Febuary 
1947 Chinese troops had killed hundreds of unarmed Formosans. 
But Kon Lai did not know what was happening in his homeland.
............to be continued..............

CHUNG Yoon-Ngan.   chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au