Home is Not Here by Gungwu Wang

Author:Gungwu Wang [Wang, Gungwu]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789813250567
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Tanjong Tualang

While they found no signs of war there, they came across people they knew. There was the owner of the timber company who was the chairman of the local Chinese School Board, and also Mr Zeng Zhiqiang , whose family was already there. To be able to stay with good friends made things more convenient, so we decided to move there. Unexpectedly, when we had been there for only a few hours, Japanese planes bombed the owner’s house nearby and killed two people, one of his grandsons and one servant maid. This made us all the more fearful. But if we wanted to move again, there was no transport and nowhere safe to go. We could only stay on and await death or whatever fate decreed. Every night, we heard endlessly the sounds of cannons causing all of us to live in dread. This was because we were close to the Kampar district, a major strategic place that was being fought over.

About the end of the month, the whole state of Perak had fallen. The Japanese troops came to the timber camp in Tanjong Tualang. In great haste, women and children were sent into hiding in the jungle behind the camp. At the camp, Mr Wu and your father had to deal with the Japanese. Fortunately, they were not violent and asked only for male clothing. They took one of my bags with a string of old coins but took out the clothes and left them behind. So our losses were not much. But everyone was tense and anxious and decided that the place was no longer safe, and that we must go deeper into the jungle. At three in the morning that night, the whole group set out, altogether twenty-six adults and children. Mr Wu and your father stayed behind at the camp with several of you boys.

Those who headed to the jungle walked until daybreak before we reached our destination. This was primary jungle with wild animals in the vicinity. There was nothing there but scores of large logs, so we had to make do using the logs as our beds and chairs. There was no shelter, so we hurriedly collected leaves from coconut trees to tie together and used them as roof coverings. Before we were ready, heavy rain fell and there was nowhere we could hide. We were all like wet chickens. That night, we slept in the open. All around, fires were lit to keep the animals away. We also engaged several of the timber workers to stand guard against possible robbers.

Thus were we like having wolves in front and tigers behind. Through the night I looked at the moon shining in the sky above us and could not sleep. A hundred mixed feelings gathered in my mind as I wondered when we could be safe again. Worrying the whole day, I almost fell ill. Fortunately, I had made several new women friends, all schoolteachers. And there were several other female members of the Zeng family.

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