Malaysian WWII Oral Histories Project

The Malaysian WWII Oral Histories Project is a shared community storytelling journey across various locations in Malaysia and the US, utilizing print and digital/virtual reality (VR) technologies to showcase oral history narratives of WWII Japanese occupation survivors in Malaysia. The storytelling experience focuses on public history/memory, family, and loss.

A NoTE FROM THE PROJECT LEADER (CHeryl L. Nicholas)

I first learned about World War II in Malaya at the feet of my grandfather and father, whose tales about soldiers, sirens, bombs, and beheadings scared me, even as they fascinated me. Through their stories I discovered different layers of their lives, made possible by the histories and events that shaped them. Those layers, imbued by war and devastation, helped them see the world very differently from the way I saw that same world. They did not take their lives for granted and they were always thankful for peaceful times. Through their stories I found a connection to them, to other members of my family long gone, and to others who shared similar experiences with their older family members.

My grandfather and father’s stories were a conduit to a troubled, complex, and fascinating past. It was a ‘past’ that was not quite available in the same way in my history books. They were ordinary people. Stories like theirs were not usually published in books or collected as part of the historical record. Public history was set aside for war heroes and colonizer perspectives.

Stories from my grandfather and father, and people like them, were mainly shared between family and friends. But as the storytellers grow old and pass on, so do their stories. Many years later, as an academic, I have come to realize the potency of such storytelling, not just as family stories or historical data, but also as cultural stories, and as ways we preserve our memories of who we are, and how we shape what we become. Stories of ordinary people, such as shared in these pages and through this project, along with other formal and informal histories, have helped shape the fabric of Malaysia.

S. Nicholas (second from left) with his family in 1945

This project is inspired by my grandfather and father, whose lives were forever marked by their experiences of war. They were ordinary people, not famous war heroes, soldiers, or POWs. They were survivors of the Japanese occupation of Malaya, a poignant time in Malaysia’s history. I will hold their stories forever in my heart.

BACKGROUND & SIGNIFICANCE

In “Recording Our ASEAN Heritage,” a 1992 colloquium, sponsored by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a call was made for regional projects on oral histories with a focus on the Japanese occupation of WW II. This three-and-a-half-year period of Japanese-occupied Malaya (1941-1945) is argued to represent a grim and significant transition in Malaysian history in general, and in the lives of Malaysians in particular (Kratoska, 1997). Since the 1992 colloquium, there has been some attention given to Malaysian historical narratives from WW II (for instance, Lim & Wong, 2000 and Huen, et. al., 1998); however, most of the research has been to supplement historical texts. There has been little scholarship that focuses solely on personal accounts by survivors of World War II in Malaysia as anthologies, where the stories themselves are central to the project (e.g., Lim & Wong, 2000 and Huen, et. al., 1998). Most stories about the war are Western-centric accountings and memoirs of British or Australian prisoners of war (POWs), civil workers, or military personnel (e.g., Chapman, 2003; McCormack, 2005), or stories about Malaysian war heroes and spies (e.g., Sahid, 1995; Spearman, 1954). There has been little focus on stories from ordinary Malaysians who survived WWII, with R.Age media’s “Last Survivors” series and National Archives of Singapore (NAS)’s Japanese Occupation Project, as notable exceptions. This project attempts to contribute to this small yet growing corpus of work, while providing a plurality of Malaysian voices to the extant stories and memories of WWII in Malaysia.

RESEARCH

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS

In-depth oral history video interviews with 25 survivors were conducted in Malaysia from 2013-2018. The participants were of different genders and ethnicities (Malay, Indian, Chinese and Eurasian). They were mainly from the Larut-Matang, Perak and Georgetown, Penang areas and were recruited for the interviews using snowball/networking techniques. At the time of the interviews, participants were 80- to 95-years of age. Twenty of these interviews were used in this project.

Interview with Tok Ngah
Abd. Aziz bin Ahmad and interview notes.
S. Nicholas shows granddaughter Japanese money.


Interview with Tok Ngah	Abd. Aziz bin Ahmad and interview notes.	S. Nicholas shows granddaughter Japanese money.

EXHIBITIONS, PRESENTATIONS, PUBLICATIONS

The Malaysian WWII Oral Histories Project is being presented to audiences in Malaysia and the US in a variety of formats, from digital/VR experiences to more traditional deliveries, such as print-based and speaking engagements.

If interested in hosting this project in any capacity, please contact: Cheryl L. Nicholas (cnic@psu.edu)

This project was made possible with the help of: Ministry of National Unity, Malaysia ~ Director General, Department of Museums Malaysia ~ Christabel Galistan ~ Patricia Koong ~ Matang Museum, Perak ~ Suka-Suka Lake Retreat, Lenggong, Perak ~ Historical Gallery, Pusing-Papan New Village, Perak ~ Public Library, Taiping, Perak ~ Haji Ahmad Karim, Village Head ~ Johari Shafie, Founder of the Penang War Museum ~ Taiping Municipal Gallery & Taiping Library

& the WWII survivors and their families

Funding support:
Student Engagement Network (SEN) Grant, Penn State University
Institute for Computational & Data Sciences Grant, Penn State University
Grout & Kauffman Endowment for the Arts, Penn State Berks

References