“LOOK! I never knew they were built so close to the road,” exclaims my friend the moment my car glides to a halt by the Kepala Batas main road. “I always thought that these defensive structures were built a little further away to capitalise on the cover provided by the wayside undergrowth,” he adds while ambling hastily forward.
My friend, Ernie Oei Choon Guan, hails from Singapore and is a self-professed World War Two military buff. We met some years back through our mutual interest in the events that led to the Japanese Occupation of Malaya. Ever since then, Ernie has always expressed his interest to visit this part of Malaysia and see for himself remnants from the Malayan Campaign which happened exactly 76 years ago.
Standing at the grassy verge and away from the incessant traffic, Ernie mentally measures the height difference between the road and the raised concrete structure. “The road back in December 1941 must have been much lower. Today, the loopholes on this pillbox are nearly level with the road. They should be at least a couple of feet higher in order to give the soldiers inside a better field of fire,” he comments expertly while pointing to several square gaps in the sturdy fortification.
Looking up and gesturing at the road leading north towards Thailand, Ernie adds: “Only 50 miles separate Alor Star from the border. Although Kota Bahru is more famous for being hit earlier than Pearl Harbour, the force that attacked the capital of Kelantan was relatively smaller compared to the one that came through here from Thailand.” It seems that the Japanese commanders focussed their main thrust along Malaya’s western coastline knowing that it would be better fortified.
ARRIVAL OF THE JAPANESE IMPERIAL ARMY
Taking our place under the shade of a nearby tree, Ernie reels off the sequence of events that led to the arrival of the Japanese Imperial Army in Malaya. “The invading forces were actually far smaller than the total number of Allied troops in Malaya at that time. As a result, General Tomoyuki Yamashita had to use a number of ruses to hoodwink the British and, luckily for him, they worked like a charm.”
Yamashita first got to know about his orders to invade Malaya and capture the British naval base in Singapore when he was hastily summoned back from Manchuria in early November 1941. Given full command of the elite 25th Japanese Army, the general quickly realised his key role in the coming war. Japan badly needed to capture Malaya because it had half of the world’s tin and a third of its natural rubber!
Initially, the decision to attack was made based on intelligence gathered by Japanese officers who had been secretly despatched to Thailand and Malaya, disguised as commercial travellers. At the head of this clandestine espionage was Major Nakasoni. He would wander purposefully along the lonely beaches to determine suitable landing sites by measuring water depth, tide patterns and soil strength to support tank landings.
Nakasoni’s work was supremely important. Amphibious landings were rare prior to World War Two and the Japanese would be the first to attempt this on a large scale. Finally after much deliberation, Nakasoni came up with three suitable ports — Singgora and Pattani in Thailand and Kota Bharu.
“However, the special landing by sea coupled with rapid movement through dense jungles and roadless territories called for smaller and more streamlined troop numbers. Because of this, Yamashita only had at his disposal a maximum invasion force of 36,000 men for his final assault on Singapore,” continues Ernie.
To make matters worse, adds Ernie with a small chuckle, Yamashita had spent all his time in Europe and the Asian mainland, and had never been in a jungle in his entire life! “His only reassurance of success was that most of his soldiers were from his island home of Shikoku, a well known place for the best Japanese troops!”
Like all military personnel privy to the information about the impending attack, Yamashita had to keep everything close to his chest. The general didn’t even say anything to his wife during their final farewell at the Japanese Officers’ Club behind the Emperor’s Palace in Tokyo.
“It was a rainy November afternoon when she silently helped him with his shoes before he left for the airport to take a plane destined for Formosa (today Taiwan),” says Ernie.
We both share a light moment when Ernie tells of how Yamashita, Japan’s top field commander entrusted with the subjugation of Britain’s jewel in the East, spent only a few cents at a Formosan market to buy a simple straw mat to sleep on throughout his campaign!
ENTER YAMASHITA
The illustrious field commander flew to Saigon the next day for a string of planning conferences. A week later he headed to Hainan Island where he watched his 20,000 troops board transport vessels. The soldiers had heavy backpacks and wore light tropical uniforms complete with canvas jungle boots.
“I’m quite sure the soldiers manning this pillbox at that time would have lost their morale if they saw what was happening in Hainan,” says Ernie while pointing at the dark void inside the hexagonal concrete structure in front of us.
Yamashita boarded his specially armoured lead ship, the Tyujo Maru, and remained in his cabin until the evening of Nov 30 when a terse coded message arrived: X day Dec 8. Proceed with plan.
Yamashita’s convoy finally left Hainan at 7am on Dec 4. As the 20 transports sailed towards war, the general began poring over basic maps of Malaya, no different from the ones found in a school atlas. None had airfields marked on them and Yamashita had to mark the locations himself based on the intelligence gathered by Nakasoni.
“What were the British doing all this time?” I ask, intrigued. A brief pause and Ernie replies: “In 1937, Arthur Percival, a staff officer in Singapore had predicted the exact form of Japanese invasion that was to take place four years later! The British War Office was so impressed that they elevated Percival to the rank of lieutenant general and gave him command of the British Army in Malaya in May 1941. Soon after, the British came up with Operation Matador, a plan to neutralise Yamashita even before he crossed the Thai border into Malaya.”
My friend then draws my attention to a nearby information board showing all the known pillbox positions lining the main road from the border all the way down to the Sungai Petani airfield, some 65 kilometres further south. “These pillboxes were part of Operation Matador. Unfortunately, the British took too long to execute this well thought out plan. The war would’ve ended differently if Percival had acted more decisively,” explains Ernie.
ONWARD MARCH
In an effort to detect approaching enemy vessels, the Royal Air Force (RAF) sent out long range reconnaissance planes to watch over the South China Sea. On Dec 6, the Lockheed Hudson pilots spotted Yamashita’s convoy near the Indochina coast. Realising their precarious situation and the danger of losing their element of surprise, the Japanese flotilla quickly changed course and headed instead for the Gulf of Thailand. Yamashita’s ruse worked and the invaders resumed their initial course as soon as the British planes left.
Looking visibly amused, Ernie remarks: “The British were on the verge of activating Matador when the flotilla was sighted by the Hudsons but then orders to stand down were given when the Japanese ships changed course. The British in Singapore actually thought that Yamashita was attacking Thailand and there was no cause for alarm!”
The imaginary attack on Malaya’s northern neighbour was shattered the next morning when British planes spotted four Japanese vessels just 100 kilometres off Singgora! The High Command in Singapore scrambled to put Matador into effect but it was already too little, too late. A telephone call minutes later confirmed that Kota Bharu was already under heavy shelling.
Meanwhile, Yamashita was also facing problems of his own. A radio message informed him that the Thai authorities were refusing him free passage and Yamashita was ordered to fight his way ashore. The sea by then was very rough, with waves of up to 1.8m, when the Japanese ships began dropping anchor.
To Yamashita’s relief, his men didn’t meet with any resistance until they reached further inland. There they met sporadic Thai gun fire which stopped after several minutes. Orders had finally arrived from Bangkok allowing the Japanese to pass through without hindrance.
During dinner later that evening, Yamashita received news about the simultaneous attacks on Pearl Harbour, Hong Kong, Kota Bharu and the Philippines. With the element of surprise achieved, squadrons of Japanese Zero fighters fanned out from their Indochina bases early in the morning of Dec 8. By 4.30 am, air raid sirens blared for the first time in Singapore as the RAF airfields in Tengah and Seletar burned. Fortunately, the city escaped unscathed.
Later that morning as Yamashita’s men began marching south, the British in Singapore issued a statement declaring confidence in their strong and efficient defences! “Can you believe it? The invaders had already bared their fangs and yet the British were still in their own land of make- belief!” exclaims Ernie, exasperatedly.
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THE FEARSOME TIGER OF MALAYA
Pointing to the old Alor Star Aerodrome across the road from where we’re standing, Ernie tells me that within 24 hours after hitting Singapore, the Japanese bombers trained their sights on the airfield here and Penang. “They wanted to intimidate the local population into submission while Yamashita kept up the momentum by rushing his forces south.”
Instructions to move were so strict that the surviving Japanese soldiers didn’t have time to bury their fallen comrades after the fierce Kota Bharu battle. But they did adhere to Japanese custom, cutting off a finger from each corpse and burying that in a symbolic gesture.
News of the sinking of the two great British battleships, the Repulse and the Prince of Wales, further bolstered the morale of Yamashita and his men. Like a destructive swarm, they brushed aside all ill-organised and hastily-collected British defensive formations that tried to thwart their advance. “They were unstoppable. The soldiers continued riding their bicycles on rims when faced with tire punctures.
The din produced from this made the cyclists appear like an approaching force of tanks!” recalls Ernie, describing the confusion that ensued as the Japanese drew nearer to Alor Star.
“Things became easier the moment Yamashita reached the Kedah capital. Apart from having a place to land his planes safely and scavenge for useable vehicles left behind by the retreating British forces, Yamashita wanted to use the railway to transport his troops southwards faster,” explains Ernie.
As we decide to make our way to the railway station, I try to visualise the man known as the Tiger of Malaya; the one responsible for the suffering of so many Malayans during the occupation years. Never again will I pass by this part of Kepala Batas and not call to mind the fateful day when General Tomoyuki Yamashita set foot here!