This Great and Terrible Undertaking

So recently, due to reasons that I have yet to comprehend, I find myself very excited and very interested in History. Particularly World War II history. Now don't expect me to dive into an intellectual discussion of World War II and so on and so forth. I have never been taught to a decently high level on WWII. The history modules of secondary school education in my country being woefully boring and focusing more on the Malaysian aspect of it, I never really learnt all that much beyond the point of, yes we were an occupied country, the Japanese occupation was bad, the Malayan Emergency was very bad. And that generally was it. We have a really redundant education system where the focus of said education is exam taking with all the guts and glory to those students who score impressive amounts of A's in their national exams and no focus at all on what to do next. But that's another story. This current, meandering, slightly irreverent (and maybe irrelevant) essay is on what I found interesting about World War II. The story, not the war itself. Because if history has ever taught us anything, and in the case of WWII specifically, it is that war, is BAD.


I'm not going to be saying anything profound really. I'll give you a fair warning of that. So if you're searching for something thought provoking, do so somewhere else. If you're reading this in the hopes of finding some help in writing a history paper, 1. I can't help you, I majored in Medicine. I know how much a dose of digoxin is safe (0.25 micrograms,) and how much can kill you (pretty much any number above said safe dose). and 2. A blog is never a reliable source, what the hell are you doing here?

So, WWII. In the great and terrible effort of being particularly honest, I only started being interested in it because I watched Band of Brothers. Not that there wasn't any previous signs of interest before, the chapter on the Japanese occupation and consequent Emergency being my favorite chapters to Secondary School History. I just never really cared to really look into it all that much. But after watching that series and rather fortunately, in the same few weeks, a new Crash Course video on WWII came up and I actually learnt something, I was, quite inexorably hooked. Which in turn, brought me to think about what did the (then) Tanah Malaya do during WWII? What have we got to say for in the great and terrible war that was WWII? And in that, pretty much lay my interest. Yes, you can all blame my curiosity on the age old fault of narcissism. But I learnt something anyway, so yeah.

So what did I learn? Well, I think, that one of the things that really blew my mind was when I realized that Tanah Malaya actually supported and benefited from the Japanese occupation. Living in a world where History is always written by the victor, this came as a surprise. Having been brought up with various influences from the west, I was always of the opinion that The Alliance was good and the Axis, was bad. But here, I find myself, finally realizing, that while maybe the Axis was bad (Third Reich and the East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere ideals come to mind). The common Malay at that time, was already frustrated with the British rule. So we opted for the Japanese, in the hopes that The Japanese army would rid us of these conquering forces (while in that act, accepting with ironically open arms a new conquering force). The Japanese being very smart people used the East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere propaganda to win the hearts and minds of locals. Or, as our local History Modules put them, those, "Asia Untuk Asia" bits. We sorta kinda helped them conquer us, you know. The "Tali Barut Jepun" stuff and all that.

But after being conquered by the Japanese, did we finally realize that being conquered? Yeah? Not much fun. Tanah Malaya was heavily oppressed during the Japanese occupation (so were other countries occupied by them, this does not, in any way make us special, I'm looking at you all out there). The bulk of the agricultural produce went to the Japanese army. All our medicine, likewise. So all the stories about only having cassava to eat, yeah. And disease spread like lice at a hostel, again, yeah. Not to mention that the regiment that occupied Malaya, was made up of mostly veterans from the Sino-Japanese war. These are the men from the Nanking Massacre. We were pretty much screwed. And the local Chinese population more so.

During the occupation, the Sultans lost ruling power, having been promised the same positions (and pay) of what they had enjoyed during the British administration and then betrayed, our local Monarchy was reduced to levels lower than the lowest serving official of the Japanese military administration. The Japanese, then selected a few Malays and sent them to "military schools" where they were instilled with the Japanese Spirit and discipline and very much taught how to be an administration. They were looking to install a local government made up of local people (because by then (1943), the Japanese were facing financial crisis and also kinda wanted to move the war forward a bit) who were loyal to the Empire. But the side effect was, apparently that this military training, finally gave birth to the concept of nationalism in the Malay nation (which, says something really profound here, but I'll get to that later). So here, the nation finally saw, that a. Being occupied was Not Good. b. What is this strange gut feeling? I know, Nationalism.

Then, something awesome happened, in 1945, Japan surrendered. (Okay, so not really awesome, especially for them, but you get my meaning). In September 1945, Malaya was free from Japanese occupation, and was back under British rule. But it really wasn't doing it for us anymore, being finally reborn with a sense of country, we wanted our own administration. And these men who were trained in Japanese Military Schools, became leaders of the revolution. I can't really say who, precisely, having not stumbled upon any accounts yet, but even our first prime minister respected these men as being visionary nationalists.

So what? What is the point of this slightly long though skimpy on information essay? The point, is that, while the Japanese (and in general, the Axis) was wrong, as Tanah Malaya, we finally stopped being so focused on the Me and start seeing things as a We. We finally stopped being just a group of people who just happened to live on the same land, and started to identify ourselves as a Nation. And it's kinda awesome.

Of course this brings about the question of our Monarchy, then split between states as their own nations. We already had a common identifier. Yeah, we did, but in the small and rather encumbered identification as a state, not a nation. We were loyal to our own Monarch. Not anyone else. And we had like more than 10 (13?) Monarchs (I'm quite sure I got that number wrong). Not looking so good on the united front, we were. After having had our Monarchy essentially dethroned, I think that the Malays finally took note of the flimsiness of it all? And these Nationalists became a new uniting front.

Dude, we actually at first, supported the Axis, got burned by them, and then benefited from it. Talk about trial by fire. And I am so sad, that Secondary School History does not take this angle. At all. It's all, dates, and this happened then. No whys. Because if this was how I learnt my history, I might have liked it more. Instead, I got a really scary teacher who burnt the dates into my mind by the power of fear.

And not to mention the British Administration was getting kinda iffy on our loyalty. What with the whole letting the Japanese in thing, yeah. Not so much. This can arguably be why they let us have our own administration. But I maybe kinda reaching here because there apparently was talk of letting Tanah Malaya have it's own government before the Japanese occupation. It's just that, after WWII, we finally really fought for it. On our terms.

There is, however one other thing that really intrigues me. During the occupation of Malaya by the Japanese, the forces that defended our lands (and consequently got creamed, like totally) were of the British and Indian armies. No mention at all of any local Malay forces. Of course, we had the Malay Regiment. But at the time, it wasn't really an army. It was a part of an 'experiment' by the British in an effort to creat a local defense modeled after the British Army. Not saying that the Malay Regiment did nothing. Most notable of their exploits being the stand at Bukit Candu. But that's it. That is it. Just the one. In fact, it appears that many during the war, deserted, or defected. It was only after WWII, during the Emergency that any official Malay army took action. And doesn't that seem kind off, interesting? Kinda awesome? We had an army after WWII. What are the connotations of this? I don't know, you tell me. The current opinion half-forming in my mind really is that we are selfish. The whole 'me instead of we' thing here. But maybe not. I'll study that some more.

I'm sure there are people who go around saying we are proud that we gained independence through various peace talks. No blood shed. But, have you ever thought, that with the state of our defenses (kind off a big fat zero there, at the time), if we had taken it to a fight, we'd be handed our asses. Real fast. Just a new angle to look at it with. But that's something for another day.

Also, and even I find myself realizing this only after the fact, that 8th December marked the start of the Japanese occupation in Malaya. And  few, if any, realize, it has been 71 years after that fact. And that, is kinda awesome as well.

Though of course, all of this is my self-taught speculation. Everyday, I learn new things from what I read. But I suppose, that's what makes it so interesting. I can make my own opinions.

So yeah. Have a good day.

We are not retreating -- we are advancing in another direction.

General Douglas MacArthur

Just some thoughts

akunona