KUALA PILAH was not of strategic importance when the Second World War broke out on 8th December 1941 with the landing of Japanese forces on the beaches of Kota Bahru and further north at Singora in Siam. On the same day the Japanese had bombed Pearl harbour in Hawaii (7th December due to the time difference).
RUMOURS OF WAR
There had been an atmosphere of war for many months before in what was then British Malaya with the fear that a Japanese invasion was iminent. British forces made up of British army, air force and navy with large numbers of Indian and Australian troops had landed in Singapore and were trained in tropical warfare before being deployed up north along the peninsular of Malaya. They occupied airfields, ports and were set up in positions along the road and railways thought to be thev routes the invading Japanese might take in their strike on the impregnable Fortress of Singapore. Although huge artillery pieces were fixed in Singapore to defend the city and bases against a seaward invasion, the British has not overlooked the possibility of a long southward invasion from the north by a Japanese force. Air bases in Alor Setar, Kota Bahru, Ipoh, Gong Kedak, Taiping and Kuala Lumpur had been prepared although supplies of first rate fighters to combat the much publicised Zeros of the Japanese Imperial Air force , was in short supply as the British had been occupied with the war in their own country and Europe since 1939 with the German Italian Axis powers and could spare none of their best. In troops and ships too it was the second level forces that faced the Japanes threat. In an effort to boost the forfes in the far east two capital ships the Prince of Wales and Repulse were sent to bolster the Singapore Naval Base. Recently mobilised Australians and Indian troops were also sent to bolster the British forces in Singapore and Malaya. Locally there had been drills air raid precautions and recruitment of volunteers in civil defence.
THE WAR BREAKS OUT
When war did break out the news on BBC and local radio stations were heard by those who had valve short wave radio sets - there being no FM or least of all TV that only came in 1964. But the news spread like wild fire and suitably spiced with rumours of spies and saboteurs it made people of Kuala Pilah uneasy and uncertain of the future. Air raid precautions were put into practice with Black Outs and Brown outs practiced and enforced by ringing of gongs and shading of lights . The British civilians who lived in the DO's hill in KP were given important roles in preparing Kuala Pilah for war . But as the Japanese advanced rapidly down the peninsular despite what the news broadcasts said, some relations in bigger cities like Kuala Lumpur started to move to what they thought was a safer town of Kuala Pilah. Indian troops moved into Kuala Pilah but to remain hidden camped in the rubber estates around the town - some on the seremban road off hill road. They cooked their chappatis and keema (minced mutton packed in large kerosene sized tins) under the trees.Then suddenly the British and the troops left even Kuala Pilah around Christmas Day 1941 when Kuala Lumpur fell to the Japanese. All down the peninsular women and children of British government servants and plantation owners had been moving fast to the safety of Singapore and troops were falling back too, to avoid the onslaught of bicycle wheeling droves of the enemy .
THE WAR COMES TO KUALA PILAH
Suddenly the frightened folk of Kuala Pilah found that not only had the Brituish colonial government servants including the police and soldiers left but the police were without orms or power. They were without leaders. And then the looting began. The first targets were the British Tuans' houses in the DO's Hill on Hill road. Houses occupied by teachers, district officers doctors headmasters were opened and anything of value taken- from mattresses to pictures to fittings . A semblence of order was brought about by town leaders but the looting was largely overlooked. There were no clashes of significance among the multuiracial population of KP although petty crime increased with no police around. People resorted to early warning of breaking and entering by putting empty tins on doors to deter thieves by their noise when a forced entry threatened. Then the Japanese entered Seremban and for a week or more although they were in Seremban only a belated entry into KP announced that the New Order had arrived . Their first order of the day was that all who were found with looted property would be severely dealt with - which by then had been known to include severe beatings, forcibly being fed soap water and being jumped on one's belly or even hanging or decapitation. The order had the immeduiate effect of people rushing out to dump the looted British posessions into the large Valley between Hill road and Bahau Road ! The valley was filled with beds, chairs mattresses, suitcases childrens toys, English books and the like ! In the even the Japanese who came only in the day time from Seremban , chopped no heads but warned against breaking the law. They started a rudimentary police station at what is now the welfare office at the juntion of Seremban road and Jalan Tung Yen . It was led by a few former policemen and who were supervised by the new bosses the Japanese. Petty criminals and troublemakers not to mention those who were spreading pro-British rumours were deealt with by corporal punishment and a no-nonsense approach. The Japanese consolidated their conquest of Malaya and Singapore by 14 February 1942 (when the British Surrendered in the greatest defeat the British empire had faced) they turned to governing the country under the New Order.
EFFECT OF WAR ON KUALA PILAH
Although Kuala Pilah was not of stategic importance in terms of railway or port (like Seremban and Tampin which were bombed from the air at the start of the war )or highway and tin had long lost its attractiveness the Japanese especially the Military Police the Kempetai had a special interest in Kuala Pilah. In the footsteps of the pioneer of TUNG YEN (see Jalan Tung Yen in Kuala Pilah History Blog 2) whose Koumintang leadership had developed a huge following in Kuala Pilah district there had developed a large population of supporters for the anti Japanese war effort in China prior to the war. As the Japanese raced through China, hong Kong and now Malaya and Singapore they were determined to take revenge on the supporters of their Chinese enemies - in Malaya. An this exacted a huge toll in Parit Tinggi and Senaling and a few other places around Kuala Pilah. Once they occupied Kuala Pilah they rooted out "enemies" in Parit Tinggi in a massacare that became known as the Parit Tinggi Massacre. Over 600 people, men women and children were reported to have been killed and left to rot. It was after appeals that their kin were allowed to bury their dead.
Parit Tinggi is just 3 kilometers from Kuala Pilah Town Centre and today is a small industrial estate and belies its pioneering past as the tin mining centre that Tung Yen developed and which gave birth to modern KP at the turn of the 19th Century, the terrible massacre of 1942, followed by the hotbed of Communist insurgency of post war Emergency that attracted RAAF Lincoln bombers that shuddered the houses of Kuala Pilah in the early 1950s and a large MARA college nearby. to most people of KP it is more known for the very large Chinese cemetery and a smaller Hindu crematorium on the entrance to the village just off the Bahau Road.
More to Follow in KP HISTORY 4
the War Years the Food the Economy the Transport the Clothing....
M P Deva
