Social
CHANGE:
The sources shows a change of the relations between people of different races. Before the Japanese Occupation, people from their own race hang out with each other. However, during the Occupation, the people got closer to one another. They worked together to survive in the war. Malays and Indians helped protect the Chinese, and they supplied one another with food to eat.
The sources shows a change of the relations between people of different races. Before the Japanese Occupation, people from their own race hang out with each other. However, during the Occupation, the people got closer to one another. They worked together to survive in the war. Malays and Indians helped protect the Chinese, and they supplied one another with food to eat.
Source A:
Coolies at mealtime by G.R. Lambert
Source: Singapore: A Biography by Mark R. Frost and Yu-Mei Balasingamchow
Source: Singapore: A Biography by Mark R. Frost and Yu-Mei Balasingamchow
Source B:
There are numerous accounts of Malays and Indians helping out their Chinese neighbours and friends. Nina binte Gab and her mother managed to save Beng, a young Chinese friend of Nina's when the Japanese went in search of young women in one of the offshore islands of Syonan. They rolled Beng up in mattress and sat down in front of it during the Japanese search of their house. At least the Japanese soldiers did not attempt to take away Nina or beat her mother. An old Chinese woman living nearby was given a beating when the soldiers found the house was empty of any young girls.
The success of Endau was partly because there were Malay kampongs around the settlement. One Malay man helped Gay Wan Guay to build his wooden house. As a school teacher from Singapore, he had no idea how attap houses were built. His wife, Chu Shuen Choo recounted the generosity of Malay neighbours in Endau. She said, "(W)hen I went to sell things in the Malay farms, they used to give me all sorts of keropok free of charge. The Malays there were very good. Every house I went to they gave me food to eat. And then we could buy things cheap from them like eggs and kangkong which they planted. ...They were very rich, the Malays there because they owned all the padi fields there." They were also generous and would often buy Chu's sarongs, lace and cloth without bargaining. Many oral history interviewees have noted that relations between strangers improved during the Occupation. Gay Guan Guay said, "Now in times of adversity, it's very strange, the relationship is better. You'll find a closeness and oneness which you cannot find nowadays. ...People were more helpful towards each other during the Japanese Occupation. Because in times of common difficulty and facing common problems, people tend to unite and face these problems, helping each other."
Source: The Syonan Years: Singapore Under The Japanese Rule 1942-1945 by Lee Geok Boi
There are numerous accounts of Malays and Indians helping out their Chinese neighbours and friends. Nina binte Gab and her mother managed to save Beng, a young Chinese friend of Nina's when the Japanese went in search of young women in one of the offshore islands of Syonan. They rolled Beng up in mattress and sat down in front of it during the Japanese search of their house. At least the Japanese soldiers did not attempt to take away Nina or beat her mother. An old Chinese woman living nearby was given a beating when the soldiers found the house was empty of any young girls.
The success of Endau was partly because there were Malay kampongs around the settlement. One Malay man helped Gay Wan Guay to build his wooden house. As a school teacher from Singapore, he had no idea how attap houses were built. His wife, Chu Shuen Choo recounted the generosity of Malay neighbours in Endau. She said, "(W)hen I went to sell things in the Malay farms, they used to give me all sorts of keropok free of charge. The Malays there were very good. Every house I went to they gave me food to eat. And then we could buy things cheap from them like eggs and kangkong which they planted. ...They were very rich, the Malays there because they owned all the padi fields there." They were also generous and would often buy Chu's sarongs, lace and cloth without bargaining. Many oral history interviewees have noted that relations between strangers improved during the Occupation. Gay Guan Guay said, "Now in times of adversity, it's very strange, the relationship is better. You'll find a closeness and oneness which you cannot find nowadays. ...People were more helpful towards each other during the Japanese Occupation. Because in times of common difficulty and facing common problems, people tend to unite and face these problems, helping each other."
Source: The Syonan Years: Singapore Under The Japanese Rule 1942-1945 by Lee Geok Boi