KUALA LUMPUR: As Malaysia was getting ready to celebrate 63 years of independence recently, war veteran Ujang Mormin who is on the road to become a centenarian next year recalled his time fighting the Japanese during World War II.
Ujang, 99, who hails from Kampung Kundur, Rembau, Negeri Sembilan, recalled in bits and pieces how he fought alongside the legendary war hero Lt Adnan Saidi during the Battle of Pasir Panjang, when the Japanese forces begun infiltrating Singapore.
The frail Ujang or 'Tok Ujang' as he is affectionately called is living out his twilight years at the Tuanku Mizan Military Hospital where he is cared for by the doctors and nurses there. He used to drive until the age of 95, but due to failing memory and a feeble body the hospital is now his home as he has no living relatives.
Ujang served as an Army Private with the First Battalion of the Royal Malay Regiment (1 RAMD), after joining the British Army in 1939, going through basic training until the year 1941 and the same year deployed to the Gap Ridge in Singapore.
The Gap Ridge was the last standing British military fort as the British retreated and the Japanese forces pushed through Malaya from the north in 1942 and Ujang who was 21 years old then was one of the handful of men from the 1 RAMD who survived the Battle of Pasir Panjang.
When asked to narrate more on the Battle of Pasir Panjang, Ujang with his feeble voice said days went by as his regiment fought against the Japanese advance. He recalled crawling through trenches and jumping into dugouts. However, with dwindling food and water supply, and the news of Lt Adnan having been killed, Ujang and his comrades retreated into the jungle.
"The English officer told us it was over and ordered us to gather any weapons that we had and pile them by a tree. He said we were free to go our separate ways or follow him to surrender to the Japanese.
"Of course none of us wanted to follow him, we'd rather just find our way back home. Me and seven others looked for civilian clothes to change into because all we had on our backs were our uniforms which made us a target for the Japanese," he told reporters in an interview at the Tuanku Mizan Military Hospital.
In the dark of the night, the men found a house left behind by its occupants which they took refuge in and changed into the clothes found at the place. A few Malay families living nearby who came to know of their presence there provided them with food and water during their stay.
As days passed, the men parted ways one by one and fortunately for Ujang he met a Malay family at Jalan Serangoon who took him in during the height of the Japanese occupation in Malaya.
After two months in hiding, Ujang returned home to his village in Rembau after the family gave him some money and a written testament claiming that he was a relative of the family in Singapore.
Ujang managed to sneak on board a freight train and arrived at Rembau two days later, where he paid some money to a local to smuggle him into his village by car and to avoid the Japanese army patrols.
"As I arrived in Kampung Kundur, I was so surprised to see many relatives and friends coming to greet me home, it was like a party, as I saw my parents' faces I immediately hugged them and just cried, it is something I will always remember," he said with teary eyes.
After returning home, Ujang married his fiancee a local girl from his village called Che Nah Bahauddin who has now passed away and had two daughters who also have passed away, and a son whose whereabouts remain unknown until today. His family life seems to be a mystery even for the armed forces which is still trying to locate his living relatives or descendants.
As the war reached its end in 1945, he reported back for duty at the British Military Headquarters in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, and returned to the First Battalion of the Royal Malay Regiment, until the end of his service in February 1947, after which he served as a prison warden until his retirement.
Though he cannot remember much these days, thankfully much of the information from Mormin has been recorded earlier by the Armed Forces' that shared it with the writer.
Ujang's valour did not go unnoticed. He is one of the most decorated soldiers in the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF), he earned numerous medals, including The Pacific Star, and the Pingat Jasa Malaysia. -- BERNAMA