Julitta Lim Shau Hua, PhD, Pussy's in the Well: Japanese Occupation of Sarawak 1941-1945.

Julitta Lim Shau Hua, PhD, Pussy's in the Well: Japanese Occupation of Sarawak 1941-1945. Julitta Lim Shau Hua, PhD, Pussy's in the Well: JapaneseOccupation of Sarawak 1941-1945, Kuching: SUPP SUPP SupportSUPP SupplementSUPP Supplementary (geometry)SUPP suppositorySUPP Sarawak United People's Party (Malaysia)Headquarters, 2005, 489pp, ISBN ISBNabbr.International Standard Book NumberISBNInternational Standard Book NumberISBNn abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m983-41998-2-1. Here is a book that will warm the hearts of those who can neverforgive the Japanese for what their armies of occupation perpetrated inSoutheast Asia during World War 1I. What came to be known as masa jepunin Sarawak was a grim time for the European prisoners of war prisoners of war,in international law, persons captured by a belligerent while fighting in the military. International law includes rules on the treatment of prisoners of war but extends protection only to combatants. atKuching's Batu Lintang camp Batu Lintang camp (also known as Lintang Barracks and Kuching POW camp) at Kuching, Sarawak on the island of Borneo was a Japanese internment camp during the Second World War. It was unusual in that it housed both Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and civilian internees. , most notably the British other rankswhose experience has been described by Ernest Darch. Nor is it easy toforget the horrific massacre of Sarawak officers and their wives andchildren by a Japanese naval party at Long Nawang in Dutch Borneo inAugust 1942. However, life for those "outside the wire" was byno means unbearable except for the handful of Chinese patriots who hadearlier been gathering funds to support Chiang Kai Shek against theJapanese in China. Probably a score or more Kuching and Sibu Chinesewere tortured to death by the dreaded kempeitai and many more lived indaily fear of reprisals REPRISALS, war. The forcibly taking a thing by one nation which belonged to another, in return or satisfaction for a injury committed by the latter on the former. Vatt. B., 2, ch. 18, s. 342; 1 Bl. Com. ch. 7. 2. . Obliged to repay what was called the sookching, or 'blood debt,' in hard cash to help finance theJapanese war effort, the Sarawak Chinese were always under suspicion oftreason. Nevertheless, through avoidance or tactful submission andadaptation to changed economic circumstances, they survived the war inreasonable condition. Spared the wholesale massacres of Malaya andSingapore and the closer-to-home horrors of Api Api (Jesselton) in NorthBorneo and Pontianak and Sinkawang in Dutch West Borneo where localrebellions brought savage retaliation from the Japanese, they wiselypursued the ancient strategy of bending to the wind. Japanese policytowards the Malays and the Dayaks was relatively benign, the formerbeing co-opted wherever possible into government service and the latterbeing left pretty much to their own devices apart from the confiscation confiscationIn law, the act of seizing property without compensation and submitting it to the public treasury. Illegal items such as narcotics or firearms, or profits from the sale of illegal items, may be confiscated by the police. Additionally, government action (e.g. of their shotguns and the compulsory acquisition of their padi.Initially impressed by the military exploits of the Japanese, theupriver Dayaks were to turn on them ferociously once the fortunes of warbegan to change. Apart from the Europeans and the Eurasians, the wartimeexperience of Sarawak's peoples was relatively benign. It is difficult to see what Julitta Lim wishes to achieve with herbook at this point in time. The narrative of the Japanese invasion andoccupation and of the Allied liberation and of the actual experience ofthe war both inside and outside "the wire" has been wellcovered elsewhere by Ooi Keat Gin and others, if young Sarawak Chineseare curious to know what things were like for their grandparents duringthe war, there are the first-hand accounts provided by Lau Tzy Cheng(1955) and Liu Yong Tzu (1969). Lim's main contribution is toreproduce lists of names of POWs and survivors (oddly enough, ErnestDarch has been missed), documents of the time and photographs. Indeed,the book has the feeling about it of a memorial or record rather than awork of history in the accepted sense of reflecting a critical approach.While the book contains useful information, the lack of a list ofcontents and index makes it difficult to find. To be sure, there is a certain poignancy in invoking once again thestory when the European survivors of Batu Lintang now amount to littlemore than thirty and the number of Sarawakians who lived through WorldWar II is being reduced every day. Photographs provide the book'smain strength, many of them published for the first time. Many otherscredited "Sarawak Museum" have in fact appeared before inother publications, including my own, and have subsequently beenrephotographed by the Museum or perhaps at Lim's instigation INSTIGATION. The act by which one incites another to do something, as to injure a third person, or to commit some crime or misdemeanor, to commence a suit or to prosecute a criminal. Vide Accomplice. frombooks held by the Museum library. While it is true that they now formpart of the Museum's photographic collection, it is disingenuous tolabel them all "Sarawak Museum," thereby failing toacknowledge their proper provenance when they are derived from privateor other institutional collections. Only the Australian War Memorial The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of all its armed forces and supporting organizations who have died or participated in the wars of the Commonwealth of Australia. The memorial includes an extensive national military museum. (occasionally) and a handful of private donors receive proper credit. Much of the book's content has been taken from pre-war ChiefSecretary and Camp Master J.B. Archer's Lintang Camp, a compilationof documents published in May 1946 before the formal cession The act of relinquishing one's right.A surrender, relinquishment, or assignment of territory by one state or government to another.The territory of a foreign government gained by the transfer of sovereignty. CESSION, contracts. of Sarawakto the British Crown, an event in which Archer was to play a key role.Less well-known was his unforgiving and relentless policy ofrepatriating practically all of Sarawak's pre-war Japanesepopulation at the end of the war. Fortunately, not every prisoner whosurvived Batu Lintang was moved by the same spirit of vindictivevengefulness, but Julitta Lim seems at times to be intent on revivingit. Published by the Sarawak United People's Party The Sarawak United People's Party (Parti Rakyat Bersatu Sarawak) is a political party in Malaysia. The party is one of the constituent members of the ruling National Front (Barisan Nasional). , the book'sdetectable Chinese chauvinist chau��vin��ism?n.1. Militant devotion to and glorification of one's country; fanatical patriotism.2. Prejudiced belief in the superiority of one's own gender, group, or kind: "the chauvinism . . . flavor is a far cry from the forgiving andgenerous attitude adopted by one of the Party's principal founders,the late Tan Sri Ong Kee Hui Ong Kee Hui was a Chinese Malaysian politician and leader of the Sarawak United People's Party. . Although this is not a scholarly book, Julitta Lim is anxious tolend it scholarly authority by highlighting the fact that she has aPh.D. from Washington International University Washington International University is an unaccredited institute of higher education based in Pennsylvania. It describes itself as a "university without borders", serving clients from around the world via distance education. and proudly reproducing aphotograph of herself in academic regalia. There is no indication,however, of a doctoral dissertation or thesis which might have earnedher this high qualification. A search of the Internet reveals that thegrand-sounding Washington International University (there is noconnection with the nation's capital) is an obscure mail-orderdegree college which is not accredited accreditedrecognition by an appropriate authority that the performance of a particular institution has satisfied a prestated set of criteria.accredited herdscattle herds which have achieved a low level of reactors to, e.g. with any U.S. Department ofEducation agency or even affiliated with the United States DistanceLearning Association (USDLA USDLA United States Distance Learning AssociationUSDLA United States Defense Logistics Agency ). It sits in the company of such augustinstitutions as: Melville College, Guyana (Flight Training); LifetimeCareers School, Archbald, Pa.; and National University Virtual HighSchool National University Virtual High School (NUVHS) is a private, nonprofit online high school and an affiliate of the National University System. NUVHS offers 60 semester courses in an instructor-led format. , La Jolla, Cal. Situated in the oddly-named town of King ofPrussia King of Prussia,industrialized suburban area (1990 pop. 18,406), Montgomery co., SE Pa. It has glass and steel fabricating, food processing, printing and publishing, and varied manufacturing (textiles, liquified petroleum gas, water-treatment and electrical , Philadelphia, Washington International University possesses anextremely modest faculty of some seven staff members. These evidentlyversatile and hardworking folk oversee a range of correspondence degreecourses, most of them apparently over one year regardless of whetherthey are at undergraduate or postgraduate level. An "AcceleratedDegree Program" resulting in a Ph.D. in Arts costs a veryreasonable US$4,200.00 and its requirements are no more than high schoolcompletion, six years' unspecified "work experience," andwritten work that can be seen to be equivalent to a M.A. The mainpre-requisite for admission, however, appears to be a check forUS$150.00 as a first installment. Normally, in British, Australian andNew Zealand New Zealand(zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. universities, a Ph.D. is awarded on the basis of a majororiginal research dissertation of at least 80,000 words. In the UnitedStates and Canada, substantial coursework is required as well as a majorresearch thesis. The process is normally expected to take about fouryears of fulltime study and very often takes longer. Under thesecircumstances, Julitta Lim's Ph.D. might be seen to have been anabsolute bargain, but it is unlikely to be worth much more than thepaper it is printed on. The "graduates" of Frank Bell's"Undercover University" at Batu Lintang prison camp wereprobably better qualified than those of Washington InternationalUniversity. (Bob Reece, Murdoch University, Western Australia)