My mother Lau Hung Chuo

 

Well known proflific Chinese writer Yong Gien Huong of Sibu wrote a book, "Their 3 Years and 8 Months" depicting oral stories of women who suffered and lived through the Japanese Occupation.

It was written in Chinese and funded by the Sarawak Chinese Cultural Association. I was proud to be a part of the publication in some small ways.

My mother's story covered her growing of rice for 3 years, her great harvests as a single young lady planting disguised as a boy. She was able to put rice on the table for her father, brothers and sisters while she and her young sister also subsisted partially on sweet potatoes and sasgo. She feared the arrival of the Japanese soldiers who came and took away precious chickens and ducks. She had to hide her pigs in a pigsty away from the river banks and away from the eyes of the Japanese soldiers.

While making sure that they had food on the table she also saw how her ffather, my grandfather, suffered from a herniated intestine and slowly succumbed to the great pain and died in 1944 just months before the Japanese surrender. He was unable to receive any surgery due of the difficulties of those days. It must have been a very painful slow death for him.

Born in 1926 my mother was the breadwinner so to speak for the family during the Japanese Period. She was 15 years old but she was according to her as strong as an ox and working like a man. She was never scared of hardwork. She looked after  3 younger siblings, her own father, and the family of her oldest brother, Pang Ping.

My grandmother was stranded in China from 1938 to 1945 with my second Uncle and 3rd Aunt.

My second Aunt, was married and living in Sarikei, while my eldest aunt was in Sarikei. Both were married and having family and children during those difficult days.