This is my story - 5

5-Working for the Japanese Government

The British realising that defeat was imminent, wrecked their equipment and vehicles, so that the enemy would not have the benefit of them. Hundreds of these broken trucks and other vehicles were left to rust and rot in a scrap yard at Tanjong Pagar. The Japanese employed young boys to break up the vehicles.

Let me digress a little before proceeding. When the Japanese conquered Singapore they insisted that the whole nation had to change our time to synchronise with Tokyo time. So we had to add one and a half hours to our time. Years later, the Malaysian Government added half and hour to West Malaysian time to synchronise with East Malaysian time. Singapore had to follow suit! Hence Tokyo is now one hour ahead of Singapore.

Every morning at about 8.00 a.m. (6.30 a.m. local time) a lorry would pick us up at Balestier Road to take us to our place of work. Mother would pack me my lunch box of tapioca with little rice plus a bit of salt fish or ikan bilis for my lunch.

On arrival at the workplace, we had to report for duty and given our tools – a hammer and a chisel or whatever was needed for the task. The foreman would assign work to us and we spent the day knocking down old vehicles, cut the parts into small pieces and someone would collect them to put them through the machines and turned them into blocks of scrap iron. These would then be sent to Japan. The first week, my hands were all blistered. I persevered as the family needed the money to survive.

By 11.00 a.m. (9.30 a.m) it was coffee break, (but there was no coffee or tea to drink) I was so hungry I would eat up my lunch! When actual lunch time came, a few lads and I would pluck the red ‘cherries’ as we called them to satisfy our hunger. The lorry would pick us up at about 7.30 p.m. (6.00 p.m.) to take us home. There were times when no lorry was available, so we had to walk bare footed home all the way from Tanjong Pagar to Lorong Limau. It was quite an achievement for an eleven year old lad! I developed the habit of walking long distances which stood me in good stead later on in life.

Life was tough and tiring working at this place. One day a group of us boys seeing no Japanese soldier around stopped work to have some fun. We decided to play games. We were definitely in the wrong. Suddenly a Japanese soldier appeared, rounded us up and threw us into a pit. We cringed in fear! He took a shovel, raised it and was about to rain blows on this group of helpless boys who dared stop work! Immediately I was aware of the presence of Jesus and cried out “Jesus, save me!” The shovel did not land on us. The soldier walked away shouting curses at us. Certainly the Lord heard my cry of desperation. The seed sown while I attended Sunday School was not lost.

One day a middle aged man came and offered me a sweet which I politely declined. I was taught by my mother never to accept things from strangers. He then asked me a lot of questions and told me he wanted to show me something very interesting. We walked along the path; suddenly he stopped and began touching me. Something in me told me he was up to no good and I ran away from him. At that time, I knew nothing about homosexuality or even sex. But now on hindsight, I know the Lord was with me. I could have been abused and scarred for life. I told no one, but from that day onwards, I kept out of the way of that man whom I sensed had evil intentions.

One day I was involved in a fight with another lad and I was severely beaten. He sat on me and kept punching me. I was no match for him. I was not used to fighting for at home should any neighbour dared bully me; I would call my elder brother. He was very strong and knew how to fight! He was always my protector. When I got home that evening mother asked me why I looked so dirty and there were scratches all over my body. I dared not admit to her that I had a fight with another boy. Fearing punishment, I lied that I had a fall!

Life was too demanding and I sought employment elsewhere. My aunt living in Owen Road indicated that her children were working in a rope factory nearby and there were vacancies. So after working for about a year or so at Tanjong Pagar, I found a job in a rope factory at Owen Road. This was much nearer home and within walking distance - about three miles. Besides the company provided cooked rice for lunch which was a real bonus. Each day my mother would just pack some ikan bilis or salt fish for me to eat with the rice. Two of my cousins were also employed in the same company. I worked there till the Japanese surrendered.

Throughout the Japanese occupation we had to queue up for everything – firewood, charcoal etc. I would wake up at 4.00 a.m to queue for whatever there was on the go. There was a limit to how much we could purchase per family. Every family was given a ration card. The shop keeper would carefully record on the card the amount of rice sold to us.

“Where is God when it hurts? He is in us – not in the things that hurt – helping to transform bad into good. We can safely say that God can bring good out of evil; we cannot say that God brings about the evil in the hopes of producing good.” (Philip Yancy)