Sibu Tales : Tung Hua Primary School as a Japanese School

During the Second World war, many students were encouraged to attend school, either as day scholars or boarders in Sibu. Their parents who did not want their children to have interrupted education were quite willing to send them to school, while those who were afraid, made their children stay in the farms and worked in various capacities. Girls who were of marriageable age were forced into marriage, some as young as 14 or 15.

The Tung Hua Primary School , along Queensway,was opened up by the Japanese. A few of the original school teachers remained on the staff, like Mr and Mrs Tiang Kwong Poi (who later taught in Methodist School)..

One school teacher trained in China, related to my mother did not want to continue teaching, but instead worked as a bus conductress. She was very courageous as she continued to wear her loose cotton cheongsam. She was not afraid to be employed by the Japanese. But on the other hand she did not want to learn the Japanese language and to teach it. After the war, she went back to teaching in the village, and remained single all her life.

All the teachers were trained to teach basic Japanese. I know two of my distant uncles learned Japanese and taught it in the village schools. My youngest maternal aunt went to school to learn Japanese  as she was still in primary school, not on a regular basis. My mother being older, went to study for a year, on and off and finally, because my grandfather was very ill, she had to stop studying in order to plant padi. However even though she had an interrupted education she managed to pass her Junior Middle Three exams and became a primary school teacher after the war, in the primary school built by my maternal grandfather.

In Sibu town, my two paternal aunts and uncle, then school going age became boarders (because Yuk Ing School closed with Mrs. Hoover in Australia)in Tung Hua School. My paternal Grandfather insisted on their going to school, which was good because later they were able to go to Singapore to study for having the "school attendance record".

1941

A maternal uncle told us that Tung Hua school had a skeletal staff and all the lady teachers continued to wear cheongsams which was like the official wear for teachers and well educated ladies, while the men wore simple white shirt and European styled trousers. He came back from China just before the war because he was rather ill and as a result during the Japanese Occupation, he stayed at home and "read books". My maternal Grand Uncle, Lau Kah Tii continued to bring scholars to the Lau Mansion, where they have private tuition to the young grand children. They were a lucky lot!

The teachers in Tung Hua Primary school were strict and taught some Chinese according to the then syllabus. But the Japanese language and culture filled up most of their lessons which were taught by specially trained local teachers like Mr. Tiang Kwong Poi.

During the week, the boarders would be in the school full time. They cooked their own meals. My aunts remembered they had to collect their own fire wood. One of them being only 13 or so at that time, found collecting firewood difficult because she had to go to the rubber garden to pick up the dry twigs, both big and small. She had to go quite far into the rubber garden and it was more than frightening because she was afraid of meeting Japanese soldiers.

The Characters for Cheongsam

My older aunt would wash clothes and cook, just a small pot of rice and may be a soup. Probably it was this difficult times which discouraged her from continuing to Secondary School after the war. She was the only aunt who did not complete secondary school and married early. My grandfather also blessed her with a big dowry of 10 acres of rubber garden.

Photo is grabbed from blogger Alan Cy Kok's blog to illustrate a teacher wearing loose cheongsam in the 1950's era. It was not easy to ride a bus wearing a cheong sam.

The siblings would go home to Hua Hung Ice Factory on Friday afternoon to eat better and return to school on Sunday.

On Sundays they would take the Japanese owned bus from Sibu town. They remembered the bus driver very well. They would ring the bell for the bus to stop. If they rang the bell a bit too late or a bit too early, the driver ( a burly and hot tempered Mr. Wong, from Sg Merah) would scold them and stop the bus abruptly making all the students fall from their seats, causing their food supplies to land on the floor of the bus. Each week the same scenario would take place. So the students hated Mr. Wong, the bus driver.

My aunt said that it was not difficult to study Japanese because within a few weeks the students were singing Japanese songs and reciting some sentences for the Japanese military supervisor to hear when he came. They also studied basic Japanese culture and literature.

School was very intermittent and the two years passed very quickly. But they did receive a school attendance certificate for them to continue their education after the war.

Life was simple, though a bit tough, but the small band of primary school kids were united and shared the life well. Luckily when the Allied bombs were dropped they were already told by the teachers to go home and not come to school. Their education was interrupted but their lives were saved.

Tung Hua School was partially bombed.

(Note : A cousin of my father used to tell us that at the end of the Japanese Occupation, she could hear the bombs exploding in Sibu. She also saw the smoke rising up from burning of Japanese uniforms and other materials across the river from Sg. Bidut. The Japanese soldiers were obviously in a hurry and they were shouting very loudly. At that age she felt that it was such a pity that clothes were burnt while so many Foochows were in fact having difficulties in covering their bodies!!

Luckily the Allies did not bomb Sg. Bidut. They aimed at the bigger buildings for they felt that the Japanese soldiers were all in them. She also said that luckily the Masland Church was not bombed.)