War Time Essentials : Salt, Sugar and oil

Dec 1941- Sept 1945 all commercial trading was put to a halt by the Occupation government. Business was conducted by the Japanese with a few Chinese, and Malay personnel approved by the invaders.

While the Occupation Army and the Japanese in Sibu had their own army and civilian supplies, salt, oil and sugar , the most essential items were not brought into Sibu by merchant ships. As there was no free trade at all and under circumstances, able bodied civilians without any connection with the Japanese had to look for their own salt, sugar and oil. 

My father's sisters learned to make coconut oil for cooking.My fourth and fifth aunts being the older girls made oil by cooking grated coconut slowly in a kuali to process fresh coconut oil. My father and his brothers would look for old coconuts along the river banks. And sometimes they paddled further down the Rajang River looking for more old coconuts. Nevertheless, they made enough coconut oil throughout the Japanese Occupation and were never short of cooking oil for the family.

Nipah Salt (Attak Sien) Photo by Nathaniel Woon

Besides coconut oil, lard was made every festival when  a pig was slaughtered by the family. Because of fear of the Japanese soldiers taking away piglets for their own food, my grandfather was only keen to have three or four  piglets per batch. He reckoned piglets made too much noise. It was the hope of each Foochow household, if they had the resources, to slaughter at least a chicken or duck or a pig to celebrate each festival of the year. 

During those difficult days, my aunts remembered that they did not celebrate their own birthdays but only the elders did.

Sugar was more difficult to make because the siblings had to look for nipah palms in order to tap the nipah flower sap. A tube was  inserted into a young nipah flower stem to enable the sap to flow into a bottle which was hanged from it. In this way enough sap (called Nira) was collected for several hours. Then the sap was boiled slowly for many hours in order to make nipah or Attap Sugar. Today the same process is still used in many kampongs to make organic nipah palm sugar.

Salt was easier to make. My grandfather would bring the family motor launch to the sea coast to harvest salt water which would be boiled in the boat. The residue formed at the bottom of the kuali was sea salt. Again, the family was never short of salt. From time to time, my grandfather gave away salt to relatives.

Salt from sea water was easier to make than salt from nipah palms. My father never made nipah salt.

In retrospect my father did once say he could have bought some nipah palm swamp land but he really did not have that kind of cash to buy land at that time. And after all, decisions were made by my grandfather. 

He told us that when the BMA and later the British colonial government took over, life was easier and sugar, salt and oil came back to the shops in Sibu. Sugar was a few cents per kati, salt was 2 cents for 3 katis, and oil was 2 dollars a tin, from Matang Oil (Kuching factory). When the Foochows started rearing pigs in larger scale, he really enjoyed having his vegetables cooked with lard.

Today every one has an easy life and many younger people do not have to worry where the essential goods come from.

My father and his siblings were made of sterner stuff.