Hua Hong Stories : Japanese Money

During the Japanese Occupation, while many Chinese were living in fearI some actually were able to make quite a tidy sum of money trading with the Malays, the Japanese and Ibans. The currency was what the local people called banana money.

My grandfather owned a rice and ice mill called Hua Hong Ice and Rice Mill. The Japanese soldiers often came to do inspection for the government of the day did not want any smuggling of rice. According to oral stories, those who had rice to mill must be a small tax which the Japanese would collect. Those who were courageous enough would paddle their boat in the night and came to the mill secretly to mill just a small bit of rice. It was risky business according a cousin. But in those days the Japanese search lights were not that powerful so every one was quite safe.

Many women also made cakes to sell to who ever in the market if they were courageous enough. So these women also collected quite a bit of the banana money. According to an aunt in fact one business woman who sold cigarettes and cakes was very fond of the the Japanese money and she actually
carefully put together her money and even had them ironed!!






the Japanese money was in lovely green, white and yellow colours. After the war, when the money was declared worthless, many men actually threw them away into the river!!

A few years after the war, there was a story of a woman who actually discovered a bag of Japanese money buried in her family land but for reasons best known to herself then, she kept the money. However after a few days, she became very scared and found that she could not talk. A kindly sister in law took her to a Chinese sinseh who gave  her some powder to calm her down惊粉丸. the powder at that time was called, "Scared Heart Powder". After she got better she told her story and every thing was well again.