Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Assignment:
Life of a Chinese woman throughout the
years 1941-1945
Name:Rita Gupta
Matric No :020312D24
Day&Time:Monday 12.30-2.30pm
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LIFE OF A CHINESE WOMAN FROM THE YEARS 1941-1945
Chinese woman for this oral history project. This essay depicts the
throughout these years and the significant events that she vividly
a well-to-do family. Her father sold black silk and they could easily
port and trading centre. Singapore was the most important port in
SEA and the 7th largest port in the world and the booms in tin and
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rubber in Malaya and the discovery of oil in Borneo and Indonesia
enabled Singapore to
number of people who were rich, Oh Choo Neos family being one of
them.
she was still young. She was not the only one. Majority viewed the
most were illiterate. However one main issue did capture their
the 1930s, the British built a Naval Base in Singapore. The base was
(1) Jim Baker, Crossroads, A popular history of Malaysia and Singapore, 1999, Times
International, pg 204)
2 Occupation 1942 1945, 1996, Times
(2) Tan Beng Luan, Irene Quah, The Japanese
Edition
finished in 1938, and so Singapore was widely thought to be
impregnable.
East." The floating dock, 275 meters long, was the third largest in
the world and could hold 60,000 workers. The base also contained
enough fuel for the entire British navy for six months. The only thing
and the second one closer to her home. War had begun.
(3) http://www.1upinfo.com/country-guide-study/singapore/singapore25.html
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No one ever came back. The Japanese had resented the local
Chinese as Japan and China had been enemies for years. The
liked. 4
raping and the cruelest tortures. The women especially had to hide
Chinese men with the pretext of giving them jobs. However this
is that men were ordered to register themselves. This was called the
Sook Ching.5 Most people were picked up for questioning and loaded
into lorries and taken to killing grounds where they were machine-
trace.
Life became very hard for Madam Oh and her family then.
was introduced for rice and grains. The Japanese had seized all
stocks of rice, sugar, salt, flour and milk. They were put under the
hard as stone and noodles were like rubber. During the Japanese
looters they caught and display the heads for public viewing. Due to
fear, the streets were peaceful as they were no crimes taking place.
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her marriage in March 1945. She suffered from beriberi when she
historical
(6) Jim Baker, Crossroads,A popular history of Malaysia and Singapore, 1999, Times
International)
(7) Tan Beng Luan, Irene Quah, The Japanese Occupation 1942 1945, 1996, Times Edition
5
(8) Tan Beng Luan, Irene Quah, The Japanese Occupation 1942 1945, 1996, Times Edition
records. 9
not being trained in nursing. She had plenty of encounters with the
market. She tampered with the sales record after selling the goods
to the Japanese first. She recorded a higher sales figure than the
actual case, and then took the goods to the black-market to sell.
She could sell the goods at 10 times the original price. During that
everyone. It marked the end of suffering for many people. Just like
(9) Paul H Kratoska, The Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1998, C Hurst & Co
6
Conclusion
References
(2) Tan Beng Luan, Irene Quah, The Japanese Occupation 1942 1945,
1996, Times Edition
(5) Lim Pui Huen, Diana Wong, War and Memory In Malaysia & Singapore,
2000, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
(6) http://www.1upinfo.com/country-guide-study/singapore/singapore25.html
(Retrieved on 16th October 2003)
(7) Rita Gupta, Transcript for the Oral Interview Project, 2003
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APPENDIX
Before the Japanese Invasion, how old were you? What were
you and your family doing?
I was 17 or 18. I was a student. And I had just finished my O
Levels. Because the invasion happened during my O levels,
my results didnt come back until after the war. My father had
a shop selling black silk. My mother was a housewife.
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No lah, I was young. My family and I did not bother about it.
My father was Chinese-educated and my mother was illiterate.
We were not concerned.
But I saw and heard anti-activities taking place in the market.
There was one man who was slashed because he was involved
in some Japanese activities. Another fellow had his ears cut
off. But these cases were very, very rare. People also raised
funds to help the China victims. There was a choir team that
went round singing. I remember my brother-in-law donated his
wedding ring. At that time, I felt mild resistance towards the
Japanese.
At that point of time, did you think the Japanese would ever
invade and conquer Singapore? Why?
I dont know, I was so young. I remember the newspapers
always said that Singapore was impregnable. I still remember
the word impregnable. The British soldiers were all dancing
away, having a good time.
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What did you and your family do during the attack?
We stocked up food and built an air-raid shelter using sandbags. My house
was not on the ground. It was built on 6 feet poles so we placed sandbags
all around. Whenever, we hear the siren, we quickly ran there.
How did you know about the surrender of the British to the
Japanese? How did you and your family feel?
We got the news of the British surrender through word of
mouth. We didnt panic at first. But when we heard that the
Japanese had been pulling the Chinese out of their home, we
started to fear. Throughout the Occupation, we secretly hoped
for the British to come back and save us.
What was your memory of the first few days of the Japanese
Occupation?
There was no law and order in the first 10, 20 days. There was
chaos everywhere so we lived in fear not knowing what would
happen next. The Japanese went to the Chinese houses and drove
all the men folks out and asked them to go to the school field or
Padang. My Math teacher and some of my church friends were
taken away, never returned. Theyre all educated people.
We bought sugar, rice, and packed everything. We thought that the
Japanese would come and take us away but thank god nothing
happened. We were very lucky; they didnt come to our house to
check. It might be because we lived in a Malay area, or they just
picked out houses at random to check.
During the daytime, I heard they got people to catch chickens and
ducks and asked people to cook them. The Japanese then went into
their house and took what they liked.
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A lot changed. My auntie and her family came to stay with us after
the Geylang English school, which was near their place, exploded.
Dont know why it exploded.
You have to queue up for everything. Dont have any shop selling
things anymore. Rice, sugar was rationed so we had to queue. It
was very hard to get food. Bread was like stone and mee was tough
like rubber. Rice was scarce. Luckily, my boyfriend worked in a bread
department. He didnt need to queue up and could bring the bread
back to us. We grew tapioca ourselves too, as there was not enough
food. Meat was very expensive, so we rarely ate them. But we still
could get fish or chicken at times, as we could get them more easily.
There was no dried goods, like dried anchovies, in Singapore. Could
only find it in Johor.
Cloth is also very hard to get then. When the Japanese boss gave us
a piece of cloth, we were happy like what.
And we had charcoal taxi, and even for the trolley buses, we
had to queue. Anyway, I cycled to work as it saved money. I
cycled alone to work. I found the streets peaceful, you cannot
find any crimes. The Japanese did not tolerate stealing and
robbing. If caught by the Japanese, you die ah! They will bring
you to the kempetai at YMCA, they would torture and kill you!
Can you also tell us how did your personal life become different?
During those lawless days, we wore clothes with patterns something
like striped pyjamas, very shabby. And I cut my hair really short.
Most girls did that so Japanese would think we were boys.
I also hid my valuable. My mother and I buried them all in the
ground.
I already had a boyfriend at that time, now my husband lah. We
were courting for 5 or 6 years. I didnt want to get married at first.
But I thought the Japanese wouldnt disturb me if I were married. So
I married in March 1945 and British came back in August 1945. That
was towards the end of war but how was I supposed to know when it
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would end, right. I shouldnt have gotten married. I was only 21 or
22. Then I got pregnant. And I never think ah. There were no
medical facilities at that time, and I got pregnant.
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people selling food. There were also gambling openly in the market.
The gambling was like people placing bets and they get beautiful
girls to roll the dice. Thats how people pass their time. Through
gambling and eating.
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And was there any other encounter with Japanese? How were they
like?
Yes, I worked in the hospital. The Japanese, even those belonging to
the military, were all right. And those Japanese customers, whom I
served when I was a salesgirl, were very nice too. Basically, they
were nice people. They were said to be bad just because of the war.
I didnt have any other unpleasant encounter with the Japanese,
except for that rape incident.
Did you find that the Japanese treated the different races
differently?
The Japanese only find trouble with the Chinese. They know the
Chinese were against them, like the anti-Japanese volunteers. Thats
why they only drove the Chinese out for the registration, not the
Malays and Indians. In fact, the Malays and the Indians came and
loot. The Japanese didnt bother the other races. My neighbours
were all Malays. They thought we are also Malay. Thats why the
Japanese didnt come to my house to take my father and brother to
the registration. Like I told you just now, I ran to my Malay
neighbours house to hide from the Japanese. The Japanese wouldnt
disturb the Malays.
Surrender of Japanese:
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That day was like everyday. Everyone talked about the surrender. I
was relieved and happy that the British were finally returning. But
there were people who earned so much banana money that they
committed suicide when the Japanese surrender.
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