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In the early hours of December 8, 1941, the residents of Kota Bharu awoke to the thunderous sound of gunfire, as bright flashes lit up the sky.
The Japanese had arrived, landing on the beaches of Kelantan and eventually breaking through the British defenses and forcing a retreat.
Before long, the invading forces would push the British into Singapore before seizing the island’s fortress.
Many generations have passed since the Japanese invasion of Malaysia, and memories of those violent times have long since faded.
While war is obviously taught in schools, many are unaware that their places of origin may have witnessed significant action during the war.
So which cities in Malaysia were the scene of bloody encounters?
Here are some places in Malaysia that were a completely different place during that traumatic time.
1. Jitra, Kedah
A relatively quiet city back then, Jitra remains quite idyllic even today despite the march of progress and modernization.
However, historically, Jitra would be the site of one of the first major battles fought in the Malay campaign.
The British forces had chosen to hold out there, but were unable to prepare defenses in time even as the invasion began.
Monsoon rains would hamper British efforts, flooding the defensive trenches and causing visibility to drop, allowing the Japanese to ambush Gurkha and Punjab troops stationed there.
Japanese Colonel Masanobu Tsuji later boasted that the British believed they could retain Jitra for three months; but the Japanese took it in fifteen hours.
2. George Town, Penang
Penang, like Singapore, was a narrow settlement and was expected to be a stronghold island to resist the Japanese.
The British built a fortress in the southeastern part of the island, the site of today’s Penang War Museum.
However, things went awry when Japanese warplanes attacked Bayan Lepas airfields, defeating the Royal Air Force with relative ease before attacking the ships in port.
George Town lacked anti-aircraft defenses and soon, the Japanese began to bombard the city with terrorist bombs, destroy houses, and shoot civilians who had begun to see the air fighting.
In a demoralizing act, the British decided to leave the city, leaving the local population to fend for themselves while European citizens were transported to Singapore.
After capturing the island, the Japanese would send a mocking radio message to Singapore, “Hello Singapore, this is Penang. What do you think of our bombing?
3. Kampar, Perak
Today, Kampar is better known as a tin mining town that has since been transformed into an educational center thanks to a university and college there.
However, in 1941, Kampar was the scene of a rare British victory, where the defenders successfully delayed the Japanese advance as ordered.
Despite being greatly outnumbered, 1,300 British, Sikh, and Indian troops fought an attack force of 9,000 Japanese soldiers.
The hills around Kampar were an excellent defensive position, and the flat mining lands allowed British artillery to continue firing at the Japanese troops.
The Gurkhas and Sikhs fought bravely, the former repelled the Japanese banzai attacks with their kukris and the latter leading a bayonet charge under heavy fire.
4. Kuala Lumpur, WP Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur, a tin mining city that became a commercial and administrative center, unsurprisingly, ended up in the sights of the Japanese as they moved south.
Kuala Lumpur residents were informed that war had come to their doorstep when on December 22, Japanese bombs began raining down on the city.
By January 11, 1942, the Japanese tanks were already on the outskirts of the city and the British, realizing that there was no hope of holding Kuala Lumpur, fled.
Once again, European residents were evacuated south and panic ensued among the population left behind, with large-scale looting that occurred when law and order collapsed.
Despite less resistance, the Japanese soon seized Sultan Abdul Samad’s building, the train station, and the Pudu jail, which soon after was turned into a prisoner of war camp.
5. Muar, Johor
Muar is currently one of the best tourist destinations in Johor, being a royal city that is home to delicious redsk and otak-otak.
However, during the war, Muar would be the site of the last great battle in Malaya before the Japanese turned their attention to Singapore.
During the battle, Australian troops at Gemas managed to ambush the Japanese and inflict heavy casualties on them.
However, at Muar, the Indian garrison was mutilated and left without a leader when an airstrike hit British headquarters and killed most of the officers there.
Despite their eventual victory and the British withdrawal, the Japanese were furious at the bloodbath at Gemas and sought revenge.
In Parit Sulong, the Japanese massacred their prisoners of war, shot them down with machine guns, burned them alive and beheaded them.
Only a handful of Allied soldiers escaped, aided by the local population, who would later testify against the men responsible for the atrocity.
