Lim Chung Bee, a Malaysian in World War Two

Introduction

In this blog we will be studying about Lim Chung Bee’s, an ordinary Malaysian, and his experience during WW2. We are writing about this is because we have been studying about the big events of WW2 over the last term. Our teacher, Mr Wilkinson, decided to give us a task in which we were to find an individual story on one of the survivors during WW2. Whilst other people were able to find first hand oral history, the information we accumulated included a video recording of oral history Chung Bee on the website last survivors. It was recorded during 2016 and can be accessed through the link.

We have researched about Chung Bee because he is one of last survivors from WW2 and we also wanted the next generation to remember this person's history. We also researched on how WW2 affected Malaysia's lifestyle (Eg. Education),and how Malaysia was impacted by WW2.

His experiences

Chung Mee was a young man at the start of WW2. "I was a Malaysian and when I was 17 years old I was living in Taiping, during the time when Japanese invaded Malaysia their headquarters was in Taiping." At the time he was in the British armed forces. Indeed at the time of the invasion of Malaya, very few of the colony's troops were actually from the UK, instead most were from colonies and dominions such as India and Australia.

Japanese soldiers in the invasion of Malaysia

Malaysia, along with other areas of South East Asia, was invaded by the Japanese in late 1941 in order to gain access to vital war resources like oil and rubber, commodities needed to power tanks, aircraft and ships in Japan's Chinese campaign. The invasion took the British largely unawares and, despite having more troops the British troops were powerless to prevent the Japanese driving south towards Singapore.

"I was serving the British Royal Air Force as a soldier. I was captured by the Japanese because the Japanese bombed my ship when I was on my way to Australia. Then the Japanese sent me to Tokyo. While I was on my way to Tokyo I was on a 'hell ship', the Singapore Maru. I was transported with other POWs (Prisoner Of War) in a ship that had very poor conditions like smells of vomit and feces."

The Singapore Maru 1942, the ship used to transport POWs.

The treatment of POWS

The downfall of Malaya and Singapore was very quick and a huge numbers of allied troops were captured, either in Singapore, or like Chung Bee by being shipwrecked when attempting to escape Singapore via ship. Many of these troops were sent to work on the Death Railway in Burma. Chung Bee's transportation to Japan was less common.

"When I arrived at Tokyo I was working in a dam, I carried many heavy stones because the Japanese was building a dam in Tokyo. Then I went to the copper mine and worked up to 12 hours per day and mined 1,000 meters down. Everyday somebody will die there, they beat our backs,took off our trousers and I was suffering from starvation and torture, also POWs were only allowed to bathe in a pool of water that is shared with hundreds and thousands of other POWs which would give them lice!''

Lice, a common problem for POWs

The Dam Chung Bee helped to build

What were his feelings towards his captors?

"At the camp I became friends with one of the Japanese home guards". After speaking to his son for many years Chung Bee later said, “Japanese are normally very good people but when it comes to war they are very dirty". Although he has now forgiven the Japanese, the war still horrifies him,his son said he would hear his father calling for him at the middle of the night saying ”Why are there Japanese in the house?”.

Chung Bee prior to is capture

What was the impact on Malaysia?

Those left in Malaya were also impacted because they had to follow rules like bowing when seeing the soldiers,and they didn't have much freedom. The people couldn’t say bad things about the Japanese because there were garrisons that would arrest people if they say bad things about the Japanese. (Similar to Germany's SS)

The Japanese used strong slogans like “Asia untuk orang Asia” which means Asia is meant for Asians, and said they are actually saving Malaya because the British wanted to exploit Malaya’s resources, this led to some support for the Japanese among the population.

By:Angel & Zoe

Mr Wilkinson says... want to know how Britain was impacted by World War Two? Adrian and Lewis have created an excellent Google Doc. Click on the link below to view.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lvuvmqGTPFuyr0sguhZ2zs_pV2yuydqc3XOt_gYxBGk/edit?usp=sharing