In the process of decolonialisation, the Cold War, and nation building, there is the quest for autonomous history in Southeast Asia. The construction and reconstruction of nationalist history — local, national and regional — has become dominant in the writings on local identity, nationalist movements, resistance, rebellions and uprisings. As the third largest island in the world, Borneo is unique, not only in terms of colonial history, but also as an area of scholarly inquiry for anthropology, development, and environmental study. Divided into the Dutch Kalimantan and the British Borneo of Brunei, Sarawak, Labuan, and North Borneo in the past, Borneo's uniqueness lies both in its physical wildness, vastness and diversity as well as for its significance in contemporary political and sociocultural dynamics especially in relation to other regions of Malaysia and Indonesia. In particular, the period of the Japanese Occupation during the Second World War has been under-documented. The book under review, which is a solid ethnographic study of the Kinabalu Guerrillas and the 1943 Jesselton Uprising in Sabah, is therefore a timely and welcome scholarly contribution.
The Kinabalu Guerrillas and the 1943 Jesselton Uprising have been described as part of a wider anti-Japanese movement in the region. Interestingly but not coincidentally, the Kinabalu Guerrillas has its origins in the Overseas Chinese Salvation Association in Sabah, which was launched by Kuching-born Albert Kwok, who had been involved in the local Chinese anti-Japanese movement. The Association was formed in June 1942, a year after Kwok arrived in Jesselton and six months after the Japanese had occupied parts of Borneo. It was soon transformed on Christmas night that year into a guerrilla movement with the aim of overthrowing Japanese rule in Sabah through military means.
The core leaders were mostly Chinese youths and many of its members were Christians. The Chinese circle was subsequently joined by other locals such as the Dusun of Kinarut and Membakut, and members of the North Borneo Armed Constabulary consisting of some Sikhs. While the centre of the uprising was Jesselton, the movement had links to similar groups in Kinarut, Kota Belud, Tenom, Kudat, and even the Sulu in the Philippines. Fuelled by rumours of Japanese plans to conscript Chinese youths and mobilised by Kwok's leadership, the Jesselton Uprising broke out on 9 October 1943. The operation had initial success. The Jesselton guerrillas killed more than 50 Japanese troops and 11 Japanese civilians and captured 8 other Japanese army personnel. However, the victory was short-lived and lasted only a day. The guerrillas soon found themselves pushed by Japanese forces into a dire military situation. The help which they expected from the American-Filipino forces never came.
Unlike the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army in Peninsular Malaya, the Kinabalu Guerrillas had neither a connection with the Malayan Communist Party nor the Allied Forces. It was one of the few anti-Japanese movements in Southeast Asia to be launched entirely by a multi-ethnic group of civilians. This distinguished it from most other anti-Japanese movements in Southeast Asia during the war. The uprising itself was brief, but Japanese retribution later was terrible and tragic — more than 1,000 people in Jesselton were executed. The headquarters of the Japanese 37th Army was transferred from Kuching to Jesselton, which later led to Jesselton suffering very destructive bombing by the returning Allied Forces.
The local Chinese community called the uprising ‘a double-ten event’. It was planned initially entirely as a Chinese venture, yet it eventually turned out as a multi-ethnic movement under the umbrella of three flags — the Chinese Republic, the Union Jack and the Sabah Jack. A commemoration has been organised annually as a state event and the Petagas War Memorial is the only war memorial in Malaysia in terms of its multi-ethnic initiative and collaboration. The writing and rewriting of its history hence has become, nationally as well as locally, significant, both for the Federation of Malaysia and for the state of Sabah, and the wider memory of the Second World War.
The Kinabalu Guerrillas and the 1943 Uprising were, for Jesselton and Sabah, a turning point in history. Stories about both have been recounted by the British colonial administrator John Maxwell Hall; a founding member of the guerrillas, Chia Yuk Tet; the son of the last Resident for the West Coast, Richard F. Evans; and other academics such as Lee Shui Ching and Hara Fujio. Danny Wong's book is, however, the most comprehensive and authoritative.
Wong has made extensive use of new archival sources — the newly-released documents of the Services Reconnaissance Detachment (SRD) in the National Archives at Kew, the Australian War Memorial and National Archives of Australia, the Japanese war crimes trials records, the personal accounts of Chong Kui Fah and the guerrillas’ treasurer, Wong Yun Tshin, and Japanese sources, especially the memoir of Oho Masuo. Masuo was then the chief of police for Sabah's west coast. Indeed, the book under review is Wong's best researched and written. Danny Wong's own background — as a local-born Sabahan, as a member of a new-generation of historians at the University of Malaya specialising in the history of Sabah, as a grandson of the medical officer for the Kinabalu Guerrillas (the late Wong Boo Choon), and as son-in-law of the late Liew Shu Kong, the former Kapitan Cina for Signal Hill and a member of the guerillas’ vanguard — places him in a unique position to write about the events.
In addition to the Introduction, the book has nine chapters comprising of three parts. Part 1 provides the setting of pre-World War Two Sabah, life and policies under the Japanese Occupation, and discontent against Japanese rule (chaps. 1–3). Part 2 presents the ethnographic background of the guerrillas, the one-day uprising, Japanese reprisals, and the aftermath, including Japanese efforts at reconciliation, discussions of a second uprising and connections with the Allied Forces (chaps. 4–7). Part 3 discusses the war memorials and collective memory of the Kinabalu Guerrillas in local and national history, and its lasting legacy.
The last three chapters deserve a special mention as they incorporate rich new archival sources of the SRD and the war crimes trials. There are also 66 plates in the appendix of striking pictures of several of the personalities in the story.
Nevertheless, there are two important questions that Wong had not sufficiently addressed in this book. These are, firstly, the possible links that the Jesselton Uprising might have had with the Allied Forces and secondly, the uprising's connections to China. For the former, Wong contends that there were no links between the leaders of the uprising and the Allied forces. However, the narrative suggests that there were connections with the Allied military mission then operating in Sabah, either before or after the uprising (chap. 7). On the second question, Wong refers to the years that Kwok spent in China before returning to Sabah, and that the experience had influenced him to set up the guerrilla movement. Yet, Wong provides no further discussion on the possible China connections.
Nevertheless, this is the most comprehensive and detailed account of the Kinabalu Guerrillas and the Jesselton Uprising to date. The book is a welcome addition to the field of scholarship on Southeast Asian history, Malaysian history, Southeast Asian Chinese, Borneo Studies, and the Japanese Occupation.
