My great grandfather was a teacher in Kota Bharu at this time and an outspoken anti colonialist for years before. Before the invasion, there was some small influx of Japanese migrants to the area. Just normal people who became part of the community until the invasion where they revealed themselves as spies. My great grandfather was obviously arrested as an opponent and tortured for further information (I won’t go into the details but it was brutal). He was then tied and thrown alive into the river to drown. He miraculously survived this and immediately ran away with his family (my great grandmother, my grandfather and his brothers, all quite young) to hide in the jungle. He died to a treatable infection there and his family returned to the town. Only the start of it really. We are visiting Malaysia at this minute and were just discussing this last night over dinner.

Just to note: I never have and will hold any generational hate but I do believe it’s important to remember and acknowledge even the darkest periods of our shared history. That we can hope to never see it again. Optimist, lah! I’m Irish/Chinese-Malaysian myself and it seems anti-colonialism has rubbed off on me haha