War in Pulau Ubin: How Ahmad Kassim lived through the Japanese Occupation

The story of how a long-time Pulau Ubin resident fled from Johor Bahru and survived the war is one of many featured at the National Museum of Singapore’s upcoming big show on the Fall of Singapore.
Mayo Martin Channel NewsAsia 4 Sep 17;

SINGAPORE: These days, long-time Pulau Ubin resident Ahmad Kassim often sees visitors riding bicycles past his bungalow. Sometimes, they would even stop by for cool refreshments at his drinks stall.

But back in the 1940s, it wasn’t the leisurely sight of day-trippers that greeted him and his family. Instead, there would be Japanese soldiers walking about, all decked out in their uniforms, carrying fearsome swords and bayonets.

It was the time of the Japanese Occupation, and as a 10-year-old child, Ahmad recalled seeing them as they headed to and from their headquarters at Chek Jawa.

“It became quite commonplace, and it was normal, just another day for us,” he said, in Malay.

A 12-HOUR JOURNEY

But the 82-year-old’s experiences growing up was far from what could be considered normal.

In 1942, his family had to flee from their home in a rubber plantation in Johor Bahru after his father was stabbed by invading soldiers – over a Rolex watch.

“One day, the Japanese came, three to four lorries of them, and they took everything in our house. They even demanded for a Rolex timepiece, which we obviously did not have,” he said.

Unsatisfied with the family’s explanation, the soldiers stabbed Ahmad’s father with a bayonet.

Luckily, the wound was not serious. But the family of nine knew it was time to go. With nothing but the clothes on their backs, they took a 12-hour journey from the town of Masai, crossing rivers and going through forests, before taking a sampan to Pulau Ubin.

Ahmad’s fascinating story will be one of many featured at the National Museum of Singapore’s upcoming exhibition titled Witness To War: Remembering 1942.

The show, which commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Fall of Singapore, will run for six months beginning Sep 23.

It will feature some rare wartime artefacts as well as stories of survivors, including the children of war hero Lim Bo Seng.

WORKING UNDER THE JAPANESE

But while many tales revolved around those who lived on the mainland, the war didn’t spare those in the outlying islands, too, such as Pulau Ubin.

For Ahmad, who was too young to fully grasp the situation, it had meant a life of eating tapioca and dried fish, and working under the Japanese.

For eight hours a day, he would be planting grass at certain areas, for which he received a kilo of rice and a handful of “banana money”. His father, who harboured resentment at the Japanese, would be forced to cut down wood, that would be turned into charcoal.

Life was tougher for the Chinese residents on the island; they were forced to do hard labour – cutting down trees to build the wooden jetty where the current concrete one now stands.

One of Ahmad’s distinct memories during that time was seeing five or six Japanese war planes on the island. “They were always there and I never knew how they came to be there,” he said.

While he never left the island during the entire Japanese Occupation – he even described the ambiance as relatively peaceful – he would hear of horrific events that took place on the mainland, such as the Sook Ching Massacre at Changi Beach.

He recalled how one man had miraculously survived by feigning death right before the shooting, and managed to run away to Pulau Ubin.

END OF THE WAR

Because they were far away from the city centre, residents on the island were not aware of any official announcement that the war had ended in 1945.

Instead, it was a slow realisation, after noticing that the Japanese troops simply weren’t around anymore. There was also talk of how the soldiers had matter-of-factly just thrown their weapons into the sea.

With the war over, Ahmad and his family decided to stay put – in fact, the house where he and his wife still live in was the same one his father had built during the war, give and take a few renovations.

Today, his children live elsewhere but they continue to visit the elderly couple. Ahmad himself, who at one point was a police volunteer in the island during the 1950s, has since become one of Pulau Ubin’s most respected elderly residents who would regale students or Outward Bound Singapore groups with stories about life on the island.

Long-time Pulau Ubin resident Ahmad Kassim sells drinks to visitors passing by. (Photo: Mayo Martin)
And while he feels that the younger generation would have a hard time understanding what he went through during the war, Ahmad says he’s more than willing share his tales.

“There are still youths who are interested to hear my story,” he said.
Source: CNA/mm



Pulau Ubin ‘is the place that saved us’: WWII survivor Ahmad Kassim
The 82-year-old still lives in the house that his father built, more than 70 years on
WONG CASANDRA Today Online 9 Sep 17;

SINGAPORE — Ahmad Kassim was only seven when Japanese troops invaded his home near Masai, Johor, shortly after noon. His eldest brother, who was then 20, understood the severity of the situation and got the family to flee.

Twelve hours later, Ahmad and his family arrived at Noordin Beach on Pulau Ubin with just the clothes on their back. Ahmad has lived on the island since and plans to live out the rest of his life there because for him, the island “is the place that saved us”.

Ahmad is one of the 16 seniors whose first-hand accounts and stories are featured in the upcoming Witness to War: Remembering 1942 exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore.

Now 82, Ahmad recalled the day he saw several lorries carrying Japanese soldiers approach their house — which was the only one — on a rubber plantation where his father worked as a labourer.

(Photo: National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board)

The youngest in a family of four brothers and three sisters, Ahmad said it was only when he saw the troops taking away “everything, including chickens and everyday supplies”, that he noted that something was amiss.

Then, Ahmad said in Malay: “The soldiers asked my father if he had a Rolex watch. He said, ‘I am a lowly-paid worker, how can I afford a Rolex watch?’”

Dissatisfied with his father’s response, the soldiers wounded him with a bayonet in front of his shocked children.

Luckily, he was not grievously hurt, and the family fled the area. Trekking through forests and crossing rivers in sampans, the family of nine landed at Noordin Beach on Pulau Ubin twelve hours later.

STARTING FROM SCRATCH

For the first few years, the family lived in a Chinese neighbour’s house before moving to a bungalow that his father, with the help of other villagers on the island, built.

Back then during the Japanese Occupation, soldiers were commonly seen walking along the main road outside the family’s bungalow at Tanjong Chek Jawa, as they made their way to and from their quarters, with bayonets and swords in hand.

Despite their looming presence, “not all Japanese were bad”, and they appeared to have doted on children, said Ahmad. The different ethnic groups on the island — the Javanese and Malay communities — were also treated well, with the exception of the Chinese population whom “the Japanese hated” and bullied into hard labour.

When Ahmad was 10, he worked for the Japanese, taking on simple odd jobs like planting grass on an airfield.

Ahmad remembered there were “five to six warplanes” resting on that particular airfield, but mysteriously, “I had never seen them take off or land,” he said.

For eight hours of work, he earned five banana notes and one kilogramme of rice, which was resold to the Chinese to buy tapioca — a staple diet that also consisted of dried fish.

While life on Pulau Ubin was tough, Ahmad, who stayed on the island throughout the Japanese Occupation, described it as generally peaceful and free of bloodshed.

‘NO FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT’

Because they were not living in the city centre, Ahmad and his family only realised the war was over in 1945 when they stopped seeing troops patrolling on the island.

People living near the shore, however, witnessed the soldiers throwing their weapons into the “deepest part of the sea” before disappearing.

A HOME ‘THAT SAVED US’

Till this day, the weathered and tanned father of three — who by his own admission is the “oldest” on the island — still lives with his wife, in her 70s, in the same bungalow his father built.

While some parts were expanded and updated, the place remains largely the same. These days, Ahmad ekes a living selling refreshments to passersby and tourists. He gets by with earnings of about S$20 per day on weekdays, and a “comfortable amount” on weekends.

His leisurely existence is also punctuated with inquisitive students, such as those from Outward Bound Singapore, who often pepper him with questions about life on the island during the Japanese Occupation.

For Ahmad, the war gave him a life and home on Pulau Ubin.

“I got married on the island; people were dancing during my wedding here and all my children were born here.

“My children (who have relocated to the main island) have also asked me, ‘What is there in Pulau Ubin? There is nothing here.’ But for me, this is the house that my father built and this is where I want to remain for the rest of my life. There isn’t anywhere else for me. This is the place that saved us,” said Ahmad.

The Witness to War: Remembering 1942 exhibition will run from Sept 23 to March 25 at the National Museum of Singapore.