Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Compose a Love Song after the War

Before leaving, my mother did everything possible to ask me to make an appointment with a Chinese woman, lest I marry an English wife in the future... My mother introduced me to three women with good backgrounds and good social status, but I was indifferent .They are of the right age, rich in wealth, and good-looking, but they don't attract my interest.I have Chi, and I'm content. On February 15, 1942, the "Straits Times" announced the suspension of publication after publishing the last large newspaper; on September 7, 1945, it resumed publication.There was a framed news item on the second edition that day that read:

"Tokyo time ends in Malaya Malaya will no longer use Japanese time...in the future it will use local time prior to February 15, 1942, which is seven and a half hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. " The resumption of using Singapore's natural time, plus the half-hour shifted forward to save electricity when the war broke out, made me feel better. Two days ago, the Indian 15th Army arrived at Tanjong Pagar and Kepa Port. lO0 correspondents landed first, representing newspapers and news agencies around the world.Then came the Indian troops, led by British officers and Indian officers; they were fully armed for any contingency.They dispersed to various places in Tanjong Pagar and Kebpa Harbor and the train station opposite Kebpa Harbor, and then drove to the city.The arteries were also guarded by Japanese soldiers to ensure smooth traffic from the port and Collyer's Wharf to the main roads.I saw the first Indian troops coming up Stamford Road in trucks, reminiscent of the Indian troops that fought in 1942.I remember how badly they did in the war, surrendering in neat ranks, and how thousands defected to join the Indian National Army, and I was disturbed.

A day or two later, when all the British troops landed and marched into the city, I felt more at ease.It was a day when people rejoiced and celebrated.They sensed that the nightmare of the Japanese occupation was finally over and that the good times were coming back.All kinds of good signs appeared.The soldiers gave out generously with cigarettes, in packs of Navy cigarettes; after the pre-war stock was sold out, no one could get them for three years.The soldiers also brought good beer, Johnnie Walker and Gordon's Straight Gin, all of which made their way to the market.We believe that there will be plenty of white rice, fruit, vegetables, meat and canned goods soon, though it will be a while before that happens.For the first few weeks there was jubilation and elation, welcoming the British back.

On Wednesday, September 12, 1945, it was heard that a surrender ceremony would be held.At around 10:30 in the morning, I walked to the Municipal Council Building and waited on the large pasture opposite.I did not wait in vain.I saw seven senior Japanese generals headed by General Seishiro Itagaki, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese army, walking from Harmony Street under the guidance of British military police wearing red caps and armbands.They are different from many Japanese military officers, they don't drag and drop, but are serious, expressionless, staring ahead.People whistled, hissed and laughed.The generals of the Japanese army came to sign the formal letter of surrender at the order of the emperor.Later, people saw that many officers admitted defeat, disarmed one after another, put down their samurai swords and lined up, and became prisoners of war.But the seven generals who walked up the steps of the City Council building represented an army that had not been defeated on the battlefield.They would have fought to the death, convincing the Singaporeans who hated them that they would never surrender, but would rather perish in the flames with everyone else.

Forty-five minutes later, Lord Mountbatten, Commander-in-Chief of the British Southeast Asia Command, made his appearance.He was wearing a white navy uniform, and he was accompanied by generals of the navy and army, and seven or eight officers representing the troops of the Allied Powers, including Indian officers, Chinese officers, and Dutch officers.He took off his military cap and gave three cheers to the soldiers who formed the cordon in front of the steps.old life never comes back By early 1946, it was quickly discovered that the peaceful, stable, free, and comfortable life of Singapore in the past was gone forever.Soldiers in uniform filled the city, and newly opened cafes, bars and dance halls were packed with soldiers.Pre-war colonial firms could not immediately reopen because the original British employees were either dead or recuperating from long detentions.Merchant ships did not come regularly, and there were not many domestic British goods.It appears that many years will be required before the pre-war situation in the circulation of goods is restored.Even the locals who used to work for the government can't go back to the office, and many people have been unemployed.The new situation is a mess.As in England, small traders flourished.Most of the day-to-day buying and selling still takes place on the black market.The black market became the free market.

There are countless jeeps and motorcycles on the streets, but no new cars and buses.The trams are outdated.The road is full of potholes.The phone was too old, the wiring was faulty, the voice was not clear, and could not be replaced; the power supply was inadequate.It will take time for everything to return to normal.In the miserable years of the Occupied Occupation, we have been nostalgic for the good old days and lived in expectation.Such expectations often start with nostalgia, are unrealistically high, and are bound to be dashed.Infrastructure is in disrepair, real estate is gone, people are getting sick, old, and dying.It was a disappointment that life had to go on at the present low level.

Then again, after the terror and high-handed rule of the Japanese military government, even though the British military government has many shortcomings, life is still much easier.British officials and civilians saw that the natives welcomed them back, and responded with equal enthusiasm and dedication.Many British officers and soldiers shared military rations, cigarettes and liquor with the natives they dealt with.Many locals can speak English, understand British culture, and understand the British political system; even uneducated people have a feeling of deja vu when they come into contact with the British colonial system.

The "Straits Peranakans" had long been part of colonial society, and were naturally delighted at the reappearance of colonial society.Although they have retained most of the Chinese culture, many of them no longer speak their original dialect and only speak Baba Malay.The early immigrants did not bring their families from China and married local women, who are descendants of these immigrants.Most of the Straits Peranakans are loyal to the British and send their children to British schools for education, hoping that their children will be professionals and government employees in the colonies where English is the administrative language.The most loyal joined the Straits Overseas Chinese Association, known as the "Royal Chinese", and the main person in charge of the association was knighted.

But "royal Chinese" only account for about one-tenth of the Chinese population, and the rest are Chinese who have recently arrived in Singapore and speak Chinese.They do not speak English but their own dialects, mainly Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka and Hainanese.Their children enter Chinese schools and learn Chinese.These people had little contact with the British authorities and lived their own lives. After the war, they were still the same as before the war, and they did not integrate into Singapore society. Their allegiance is to China, not Britain.After Japan invaded China, it was they who entered the Malayan forest to fight against the Japanese, and most of them became guerrillas of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army.The Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army is an armed organization of the Malayan Communist Party. They hope that in the future they will not only drive out the Japanese, but also drive out the British.Japan suddenly surrendered before the British counterattack, creating a power vacuum, and trouble began.

The People's Anti-Japanese Army occupied some small towns in the interior of Malaya and ordered the locals to build arches to welcome them and regard them as the real victors of the Anti-Japanese War.They took power locally.Good thing they didn't do it in Singapore, but it also created a mess.Dressed in assorted khaki uniforms and cloth caps modeled after China's Eighth Route Army, they swaggered in moments of victory and expropriated real estate.They set up people's courts to immediately deal with enemies and traitors of all ethnic groups.In one incident, 20 Chinese agents were arrested and stuffed into pig cages awaiting interrogation.

The anti-Japanese army extorted money from businessmen on the grounds that they had colluded with the enemy in the past.Many prominent figures were forced to make large donations to the People's Anti-Japanese Army in order to atone for their crimes.Young hooligans used the documents of the Anti-Japanese Army to openly blackmail people who had dealt with the Japanese in urban areas.The Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army was on the mend, and the secret society party members took the opportunity to claim that they had also participated in the anti-Japanese war. Under such circumstances, the British army could not restore law and order at all, and the situation was in chaos.Fortunately, due to inconvenient transportation, most of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army was limited to activities in Malaya.That's where they used to operate, so they have more influence there. Hidden Weapons of the Anti-Japanese Army The British military government announced that every member of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army would get 350 yuan for handing over their weapons.From December 1945 to January 1946, some 6,500 anti-Japanese troops, including hundreds in Singapore, surrendered their weapons. On January 6, 1946, the British held a ceremony outside the Municipal Council Building. A small group of anti-Japanese troops put on their uniforms and lined up to accept the inspection of Lord Mountbatten, who then affixed medals to the 16 leaders.Chen Peng was awarded the Burmese Star (1935/45) and the War Medal, and he clenched his fists in return.The newspaper described him at the time as the commander of the Communist guerrillas.Official acknowledgment of the Anti-Japanese Army's contribution to the defeat of Japan gave them the status to maximize their power.At the same time, they hid many weapons for future use. The Communist Party absorbed some English-educated people into the emerging united front.A group of so-called intellectuals - lawyers, teachers, graduates of Raffles College, students returning from Cambridge University - formed the Malayan Democratic League, headquartered in a few dilapidated rooms above the dance floor in Liberty Ballroom on North Bridge Road. in the room.They tricked old Philip Ho Alian into the chairmanship to make the LD look respectable.They needed him as a cover in order to use the Democratic League as a fringe group.Old Philip He Yalian was a lawyer and a friend of my family, and because I knew him, I occasionally went to the Democratic League.The intention of the establishment of the Democratic League seems to be quite legitimate.The United Kingdom has announced the organization of the Federation of Malaya, including the nine Malays states and the two Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca, excluding Singapore.That is to say, Singapore will continue to be a British colony.This is unacceptable.The Democratic League demanded the independence of Malaya and Singapore as a whole. Philip Hoalam assisted in drafting the constitution.Although I have seen the draft, I have not participated in it.The Communist Party believes that the idea of ​​constitutional reform is irrelevant, what they want is full power.The Democratic League is nothing more than a peripheral organization aimed at mobilizing English-educated people to help them achieve their goals. In 1948, the Communist Party took the form of armed struggle against Britain, and the Democratic League announced its dissolution. During the three and a half years of Japanese occupation, I witnessed many unfair and absurd things in the world.This period of education will be completed as soon as the war is over.If I got a real-life university diploma because of this, then what I saw and heard in the first year after the liberation of Singapore was my postgraduate course.The situation in this period was very different from what I remembered from the colonial period in the 1930s.The British civil servants who came out of the detention camps returned home to recuperate one after another, and the improvised government departments were in charge of temporary officials of the British military government. The British brigadier generals, colonels and majors in charge knew that they would only serve as long as they were demobilized.Once demobilized, all duties will be dismissed, and ordinary civilian life must be restored.Realizing this, many people use the power they have as much as possible.Their needs, alas, were no different from those of Japanese officers--some valuable trinkets that could be carried with them and brought back to England when the time came.So this kind of thing is very popular.After receiving benefits, they issued permits and provided rare supplies, giving locals a chance to make a fortune.But they are a little different from the Japanese army. They don't bully or oppress people. The Japanese were down, and many houses stood empty.We had to leave the mansions, and the shophouses on Victoria Street were not suitable, so my mother and I started looking for a new home.Oxley Road is a middle-class residential area that was once populated by Japanese civilians after the Europeans left in 1942.We found two identical houses at 38 and 40 Oxley Road, with some bulky furniture in them, but they were all empty.We decided to bid on No. 38.I went to the Enemy Property Management Office to find the director George Wu, who was a Chinese born in Java and a friend of my family.He readily granted us the pre-war rent for the house. The house at 38 Oxley Road was large and untidy, with five bedrooms in total and three more at the back, which had originally been servants' rooms.After we rented it, it filled up quickly.Han Ruisheng and his wife came back from Penang with their young daughter and became our tenants.Later, when I left for England to study law, it was very lively here.The other houses on the street were also full, because the war-damaged houses had not yet been repaired and the population had increased.People came back from Malaya and the Riau Islands south of Singapore.Many Chinese also fled from Indonesia like my cousin. Father returned to work for Shell Oil Company as Warehouse Supervisor in Pasir Panjang, Singapore.At this time I had to decide how to make a living.Going to the open market to do business, you still don’t have to worry about making money.But the types of goods are different, and the risks are greater. I am not good at buying and selling the goods that are in short supply to the soldiers.So I went to the British officers in charge of public works and asked them if there was any building work to do.After two or three efforts, we finally negotiated a deal with an Indian brigade who was in charge of the warehouse of the Japanese army on Alexandria Road.I negotiated with a tall, thin British major who needed workers to clear the Japanese goods in the warehouse and move the British goods into it.My friend Liu Youlin, who is originally from Shanghai, and I found 100 to 150 workers for him, and the wages were 2 yuan per person per day.The younger brother Jin Yao is in charge of finance and is also responsible for paying wages.At the end of each day, the military counts the workers, pays us, and we distribute them to the workers.There are also some construction jobs that are calculated separately.Warehouse work started in October 1945, and I was busy until May of the following year.The activities of the Singapore Federation of Trade Unions basically do not affect us.Except for the two-day strike on January 30 and 31, the workers cleared the warehouse every day and moved new goods into it. One evening in March 1946, Jin Yao received the money to distribute to the workers, but on his way home by bicycle, a serious accident happened.A Lorry driving past the Victoria Memorial somehow hit him and dragged him for quite a distance, nearly breaking his left arm and bruising his face.I rushed to the hospital to see him.Our family has always gotten along very well.When Jin Yao saw me, the first thing he asked was if the money was lost.I couldn't help but feel heartbroken.It was only a few hundred dollars, which showed how serious he was about his work.I try to comfort him as much as possible.Fortunately, the surgeon operated on him and everything went well.However, he was in pain for several months and couldn't walk around. study law in england While I was worried about Jin Yao's situation, I also thought about my unfinished studies and my growing affection for Zhi.I am not optimistic that I will be able to complete the diploma program at Raffles Institution soon.It will take at least a year for the college to resume classes, and it will take me another year to one and a half years to graduate, which means it will take two or three years to waste.I discussed with my mother that if we used her savings and jewelry, plus the money I earned from the black market and contractors, the family would be able to afford Jin Yao and me to go to England to study law.So I gave up the idea of ​​going back to Raffles College for the Queen's Scholarship, and planned to go to England as soon as possible. Between October and November 1945, I introduced Chi to the administrator of the Raffles Library (the predecessor of the National Library) and made her a temporary employee of the library.Her family moved to a stilt house on Devonsha Road, a mile from our house, and I often drove her home.Sometimes we would stop and sit and talk in a quiet corner of the Synagogue of St. Nor in Oxley Road.A branch of the Japanese Gendarmerie used to be located nearby. In November 1945, I had enough money and bought a second-hand car.It was a pre-war Morris with parts from the British Army.Business was better and I sold it a few months later for a profit and got a restored pre-war Ford V8.During the Japanese occupation period, this car was probably used by a Japanese general. On New Year's Eve, I took Zhi to a social gathering of young people at Zhenyu Garden on Amber Road.Zhenyuyuan is the house of Mrs. Li Junyuan by the sea.Mrs. Li Junyuan is an old-timer of the Straits Chinese. Her husband passed away and she is very rich.Before the social gathering was over, I took Chi's hand and walked to the garden facing the sea.I told her that I did not plan to go back to Raffles College, but would go directly to the UK to study law and come back after three years of being qualified as a lawyer, and asked her if she would wait.Chi asked me if I knew she was two and a half years older than me.I said I knew it, and thought it over carefully. I am young and mature, and most of my friends are older than me.Besides, I want a partner who is as mature as I am, not someone who is young and needs my care; and finding another woman who is as mature and has the same interests as me is very unlikely.Zhi promised to wait.We did not tell the parents of both parties.It is not an easy task to get them to agree to wait that long.This is how we get along: to face up to the personal problems we encounter, to find ways to solve them, neither to hide from them nor to ignore them.This courtship finally came to fruition.In the same year, 1946, I began to plan how to leave Singapore. In March I wrote to the Middle Temple Law Society, enclosing my Cambridge Advanced Diploma examination results.The Middle Temple Law Society is one of four organizations that train lawyers in London, UK.In less than a month, I received a reply saying that I would be admitted if I applied in person.At that time, ships began to arrive at Tanjong Pagar Port, carrying British troops back home for demobilization.I took the letter to the British major who had hired me, and asked him if there was any way he could put me on a troop carrier.The major put me in touch with the officer in charge of transporting the troops. During May 1946, I met with one of his subordinates.I was impressed because there were very few locals at the time who could speak English fluently, with no problems with grammar and usage, without a strong local accent.I explained my difficulties to him and told him that the war had interrupted my studies, which had taken me five years, and that I was now admitted to the Middle Temple Law Society.I produced a letter from the Middle Temple Society, stating that I had an urgent need to sail to England.The other party sympathized with my experience and promised to help me. In July I received a note advising that arrangements could be made for me to board a troop carrier which would take me to London in October 1946. During the two months of traveling and preparing to leave Singapore, my mother and I searched everywhere for sweaters that could withstand the British winter.We found most of the winter clothes we could use at the Frost Bridge Flea Market on Shuangxi Road.Before the war, the Shuangxi Road Flea Market was a place for buying and selling stolen goods. After the war, it became active again, specializing in the sale of items obtained from the British army, many of which were given by the British authorities to the demobilized British army.My mother bought a large wooden trunk with metal sleeves at the corners and packed a rug, a quilt, a coat, two tracksuits, two pairs of flannel trousers, and an RAF barathier overcoat. It's all stuffed in.The RAF overcoats were made to order from the best tailors in Harmour Street. Before leaving, my mother did everything possible to ask me to make an appointment with a Chinese woman so that I would not marry an English wife in the future.A few students brought their British wives back, and they often had very unpleasant quarrels, and their families were unhappy. In the end, their marriages broke up, or the young couple settled in England because they could not gain a foothold in British colonial society.In colonial society they were either treated with condescension or openly cold and alienated.My mother introduced me to three women with good background and good social status, but I was indifferent.They are of the right age, rich in wealth, and good-looking, but they don't attract my interest.I am content with Chi.Then I decided to tell my mother the truth.My mother was very shrewd, and once she found out that I had made up my mind that it was unlikely that I would bring back a strange English woman in the future, she stopped looking for anyone.Her attitude towards Chi became friendly and affectionate like a future mother-in-law. I once told my mother that Zhi, the daughter of Ke Shouzhi, had surpassed me in English and economics at Raffles College.She had seen Chi, too, at her house during the days when we were making glue.Zhi's father is a banker, working in OCBC Bank.He was born in Java, just like my father and grandmother.Chi's mother was a Straits Peranakan born in Singapore, like my mother.We have similar backgrounds, we speak the same language at home, we have the same traditions, and the food is the same. Zhi was educated at Methodie Girls' High School. At the age of 16, she passed the Cambridge Higher Diploma Examination and entered a special class at Raffles Institution. She was going to win the Queen's Scholarship, but unfortunately she didn't win.She later told me that she was waiting for Prince Charming.The prince who appeared in front of her was me, but I came not on a white horse, but on a bicycle with hard tires. In 1940 she entered Raffles Institution.We meet at dinner parties and picnics.At that time, I kept a certain distance from her, because I had some difficulties in adapting to it in the first year of school; besides, I was not eager to approach girls, and I didn't want to find a partner.We occasionally met socially and in lecture halls, and were friendly but not intimate. From 1943 to 1944, we met again under different circumstances.After three and a half years of Japanese occupation, I matured physically and mentally, and began to see her with different eyes.Zhi Guan does housework in the apartment, learns Chinese, reads books whenever he can, and can participate in the business of making glue at any time. She grew up in a big family with eight brothers and sisters. She was fully cared for in a conservative family in her childhood and lived a happy life.The family is not bad, there is a car to go to school, to Raffles Institution and other places.Her family placed a high value on good manners.Once, after we moved to Devonsha Road, I drove her home from the library on my motorcycle and put her on the back seat.Her mother was astonished and worried when she saw this, and gave her a hard reprimand: What will people think? Who will marry you? Soon, her family moved back to Pasir Panjang, which is far away from the city.At that time, thanks to my car, I could continue to pursue her by driving. We spent a lot of time together before leaving for England in September 1946.Before leaving, I asked my cousin Lynn Harold, who lives in our house, to take a series of photos of us together over the course of a day or two.We were young and in love with each other, eager to record this beautiful moment in our lives as a memento of my three years away from home in England.We don't know when we will meet again after parting.Like her, I hope she can go back to Raffles College, win the Queen's Scholarship to study law, and join me in England.She is determined to follow me, I can feel it.I was also determined to live up to her. On September 16, 1946, the day of my 23rd birthday, I waved her goodbye from the deck of the Cunard liner "Great Britain".Tears welled up in her eyes, and I couldn't help but cry too.My parents, younger siblings and some friends, as well as Han Ruisheng, saw me off at the pier and wished me a smooth journey.