War Time : Growing Rice

 

The Pandemic makes me think of the Japanese Occupation stories quite often. 

Here is one story from Meradong and about a distant Uncle Sia.

Uncle Sia and his family had been brought out from Fujian with my Ngie Gung's help who had paid for the fares for his small family, including his sister who was then 10 years old.

During the last two years of the Japanese Occupation, food was getting scarce but most Foochow families were very resilient and they would find all means and ways to find food sources. Mum said that food was scarce but no one actually starved.

Those with land were able to cultivate rice if they had able bodied sons or very healthy daughters. My mother was a good rice grower even if she was only a teenager. She was proud of her record harvest of 38 dans aka piculs when she totalled up at the end of the Occupation.

Uncle, Sia,  lived in Meradong after tapping rubber for my grandfather for a few years. During the Japanese Occupation he was able to recruit two young men to plant padi at the right time after clearing some of the land "borrowed" from a towkay. He thus managed to have a some kind of mini cooperative going. Two young girls (siblings) were sheltered by him and in exchange they washed clothes and cooked for the "family". 

The young ladies were not going to waste their time or remain idle!!

They were alert and brought with them a batch of ducklings and chickens to rear. They were enterprising enough to believe that after the padi was harvested they would bring home to their family a brood of ducks ready for the table.

The undulating land was just so feasible and in no time the animals were keeping the two young ladies company.

In six months the rice was ready to be harvested.  They quickly harvested the rice before any "enemies" came to rob them of the fruits of their labour. The girls got cages made for the animals. It was a very bountiful harvest for the young people. Their two rustic huts were well hidden from sight, and they made sure that their paths were not made obvious.

Very much later, my mother said that one of the girls helped by Uncle Sia was always going around sharing her Japanese time stories with Church people. She related the story of her escapade into the rural Binatang during the hard times. She was in her 70's when she shared her war time experiences with my friends and I remember her story. Very significantly she said that no one would starve to death if one was willing to work hard on the land. She encouraged youths to take up farming. 

By then my Uncle Sia was already long gone although my mother remembered for a long time how he had given some rice to my ailing grandfather. He had wrapped the milled rice in a cloth tube around his waist and walked barefooted all the way from Meradong to give my Ngie Gung (maternal grandfather) one of his last few meals of porridge of his life. My mother was forever grateful. 

Mum said, "It took him one whole day to walk from Meradong to Nang Chong! Today a motor cycle would only take about 45 minutes or less."

Uncle Sia and his wife were very benevolent. Although not well educated themselves they taught the two girls some Bible knowledge, Chinese literature so that they would not be left behind by the war.

The farm supported the two girls and two boys for another year. Their rice cultivation and domestic work in the farm paid off again. Although they were darkened by the sun they were happy they were able to bring back white rice for their families, besides having some informal education.