Japanese war survivors still harbour bitter memories

KOTA BELUD: Although the era of Japanese colonialism is long gone, it has left scars in the hearts of many, in particular for Kondopin Duraman, 90, who lost his beloved mother at the tender age of 13.

Sharing the bitter story with Bernama recently, Kondopin still could not erase from his memory the sight of the blood flowing from his mother’s nose and mouth as she was beaten and dragged by the Japanese army before being taken away from Kampung Tambatoun here.

He said at that time he could only witness his mother being mistreated and could not do anything as the nozzle of the rifle was pointed at his face as a warning not to obstruct their actions.

“‘Please let go of my mother... Mak please don’t leave me,’ those were my final words to my mother before she was taken away with my father and four of our family members including the village head,” he said.

Kondopin said after his family members were arrested only three of them were allowed to return to the village but his mother was executed together with two other family members for protecting a district police chief who led an attack on the Japanese headquarters in Kota Belud.

According to Kondopin, the police chief was instructed to attack the Japanese headquarters as they thought that the Japanese had surrendered in other areas but that did not happen.

The incident is also still fresh in the memory of a member of Kondopin family, Singkui Tinggi, 85, who was the village head for almost 20 years.

Singkui said they helped to protect the police chief with his wife and daughter by hiding them at the foot of Mount Kinabalu located about four hours from Kampung Tambatoun.

“However after almost a year, the Japanese managed to locate the hideout, which led them to attack the village and arrested the villagers involved, but the police chief managed to escape,” he said while trying to suppress his sadness.

Finally in 1942, at around 6 am the villagers were surprised by a bomb explosion which was dropped from several Britishowned aircraft at Kampung Kaung which housed the Japanese headquarters.

“It was two days later that we came to know the Japanese army had been defeated,” he said.