these past few months saw me documenting stories told by dad about days of old. about family, especially that of grand-dad, and other extended relations. all these will be dealt with in later entries, especially one that revolved around the time of the japanese invasion of malaya in 1941. the japanese “intended” to “free” malaya from the grasp of the “fish and chips imperialist” (to paraphrase a cartoon by lat), but the three and a half years of japanese rule took its toll on malaya and her people.

one tale from dad was the time when he went to school as an eight-year old at the sekolah melayu in parit buntar. whilst nippon-go was taught at school, this was done by malay teachers (no nippon-jin teachers were available in parit buntar, i guess). dad remembered fondly learning to right his name in katakana – ラジヤムザパル ｢ra ji ya mu za pa ru｣.

every morning at assembly, the pupils would gather in the yard in front of the nisshōki/hinomaru with their heads bowed down in respect. they would first sing the japanese national anthem, 君が代 ｢kimi ga yo｣, followed by 海行かば ｢umi yukaba｣. umi yukaba is a patriotic song made popular in second world war japan, and obviously was sung by pupils in malayan schools as part of the japanese education and indoctrination policy.

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