Mother and Memorial Days Roll Into One
Mother’s Day has
come and gone; so has Memorial Day.
It may sound paradoxical, but I got so busy enjoying the easy long
weekend and planning for an arts and cultural trip to the East Coast, it was
hard to settle down and put my ideas together to write about the two important
days of remembrance. Since my
Mother passed away on Mother’s Day 16 years ago, and her birthday usually falls
close to Memorial Day weekend in May, it gives me an idea to combine writing about
the two occasions together!
There’s another
unplanned incidence that was added into this Memorial Day equation: Earlier
this month, there has been also a Coup d'État in my birth country of Thailand, and the country has been under curfew
with some earlier rumor that Internet communication and social media might be cut
off for people in that country. This
brings back a lot of emotions in the memories of the past Coups, the aftermath
of political turmoil, and the people that were directly affected by them or
were key players; some were family members and friends that I knew
personally. Wars and political
struggles happened sometime because of a few power hungry leaders. Some of the wars arose from
misunderstandings that could have been resolved by diplomatic means, but for
pride and prejudice, the two sides did not seek peaceful means to resolve the
differences. I’m not into politics
at all, but sometime politics came to you uninvited. People that you never dreamed to be associated with became
your lifelong friends; there’s no permanent enemy, so long as you are still
living, there’s hope for reconciliation and friendship. People can change, they can be
classified to belong in a certain group, but deep inside they are humans that
need enlightenment to guide them to a better way, an excellent way of love and
mercy.
At the time of war and political turmoil, it was as if I was watching a
movie, observing and recalling the emotions that were built up inside when I
saw what were going on then.
Memorial Days bring back such emotions.
Mother During World War II
When World War II broke out, the Japanese Imperial Army that occupied
Penang, a border town of Malaysia, south of Thailand, put my Mother and her two
young daughters, aged 6 and 4 in a camp with other Chinese teachers and nearby
families. She was a young widow then. The camp was actually the
school in which she taught Chinese language and possibly arts before the War. They were living in a small hut with a
crudely built bamboo bed above the earthly ground of clay. Most likely they were built by other captives; not sure if
there were males left in the camp.
I heard that the Imperial Army at the time had killed many Chinese men,
including an uncle of mine who was studying in Malaysia. For this reason, there is among older generation
of Chinese a sentiment of animosity against the Japanese. For the Thai government, since Thailand
had never been a western colony, it did not have the same relationship with the
West like Malaysia and the Indo China countries. Malaysia was once a British colony so were Burma and India,
while countries in Indo-China like Lao and Vietnam were French colonies.
The leader and Prime Minister at the time was Field Marshall Plag (Pau) Pibulsongkram, opted to join the Axis alliance of Japan, Germany, and Italy
against the Allied forces. Thai
citizens received better treatment from the Axis force than other nations in the Southeast Asian region. The Field Marshall's policy then was leaning more toward discrimination against Chinese sections of the Thai population, “the Jew of the
East”, so to speak. Teaching
Chinese in schools in Thailand was limited at the time; that might explain why
my Mother was teaching in Malaysia for lack of job back in Thailand.
So there she was, alone with her two girls, since my Mother was a
Chinese Thai who taught in a Chinese school, she was subject to confinement in
the camp of the Imperial Army of Japan.
The people in the camp had to grow their own food. My Mother had to do the gardening for
herself and her small children.
She told us that the soil in the school was not so good for growing
vegetable, so she had to work harder to make the crops and vegetable grow. Somehow she survived the hardship, I
believe through Devine Providence.
An anecdote also about her experience at the camp included this cute
story: There was a hen that came from nowhere to her hut, and stayed under the
bed. Every day, she would lay two eggs
for the family, so my Mother and her two children had eggs, a source of protein
to eat every day.
From what I heard, apart from the chores of gardening, people at the
camp underwent education from the soldiers. My Mother told me that she became good friends with the
Japanese soldiers, who probably had family at home in Japan. They probably missed their own families,
and a friendly widow with two young kids most likely reminded them of their
families. She told us when we were
young kids about this story of her survival in the Japanese camp, and that she sang a lot of Japanese songs that she learned from the camp. One song in particular was a marching song that repeated the
word “Haruke”. I research on the
Internet and found out that it is a song that imitates army of ants marching
and forming a line together to go somewhere. Ma had such a joyful spirit that kept her alive
despite all the hardship in life that she went through. Her ordeals during the aftermath of the
War included losing her oldest child and her own mother who were drown when the
ship capsized during their trip back to Bangkok after the War. She herself and my older sister would
have died also at the time because she could not swim. She prayed to the God that she heard
about before to help her and her kids; the God that she did not know at the
time. She was able to float in the
water and save herself and at least one child, even though the older one was
swept away in the wild torrent. I
love her joyful and fighting spirit that kept her going until she left this
earth at the age of 88 on a Mother’s Day.
I’m glad that we included her in many of our adventures before she
passed away.
Chinese Painting From My Mother
World War II and the Thai Freedom Fighter (Sayree Thai)
During the War, while Thai government sided with Japan and Germany,
there were students overseas in Britain and America that joined the Allied and
Freedom Fighters. My former boss
and mentor, Dr. Puey Ungpakorn was one of the Freedom Fighters that secretly
flew in with the British and American aircrafts, and parachuted down usually in
rural areas. They would have jumped into the jungle or paddy fields and mingled with the villagers ready to strike back on a certain day similar to what we heard about the story of D-Day invasion of the Allied forces in Normandy of France.
After the War, because the bravery of people like Dr. Puey and other
Freedom Fighters, Thailand government did not have to pay for war reparation for
siding with the defeated countries of Japan and Germany.
After the War, many of these Freedom Fighters became active leaders
including political leader of Democratic Party of Thailand like Kuang Apaiwong,
who later became Prime Minister of Thailand. Dr, Puey on the other hand, was Governor of Bank of
Thailand, and later Rector of Thammasat University, Asian Nobel Award like Magsaysay
Award as I had mentioned in earlier post.
I hope that Thailand will have time to restore law and order soon, with
ethical leaders like those that came before like Dr. Puey Ungpakorn to usher
the country into a path of true Democracy.
Remembering Those Served in An Unwanted War
There were no wars that were as controversial as Vietnam War, and that
was the War that I came to know.
It was a War that tore the country apart. In the beginning, it was an ideological war to fight against
the spread of Communism, and young people were conscripted to serve. At the time of the earlier Vietnam War,
I spent a year as Exchange student as I mentioned before in earlier posts. I knew a few young men that expressed
their desire to serve the country to fight against the evil of Communism.
After a year as exchange student, I went back to Thailand to continue
my last year of Thai high school.
I remembered myself wearing a green outfit that I brought back from
America, watching busses loaded with American soldiers wearing green uniforms heading for U-Tapao in
the Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard, or Korat base in the Northeastern region. They were fresh faces like John, my
ideological American Fields Service (AFS) friend. I stood
there wondering if he was one of those on the busses that transported the
soldiers to the military bases and off onto the jungle where they were fighting
the guerilla war; I wondered if he made it back home in the end.
As I learned from news and history, many of these young men were missing in action;
some were known to perish during the War and never came back. There were so many protests when the
War dragged on. Those soldiers
were not quite appreciated like the soldiers in earlier wars such as World War
I and II, and the Korean War. But
this was the War that some of my friends were fighting, so I just want to
remember them for their spirit of sacrifice, and just hope and pray that there is
no more war of this nature again.
Thankful For the Memorial Day Weekend
We don’t like wars, but when it happened because of the aggression of a
country, when military forces are necessary to fend off the forces of evil and
injustice, I’m thankful that there are men and women that are willing to
sacrifice their lives for the cause.
I’m thankful for the Day of Remembrance, a day that we can reflect on
the people that did not think about themselves but for others. I’m thankful for extra time to spend
and relax with friends, and remember family members that labor and sacrifice
for the good of others away from home during peace time while it is still day. May God bless them, and may God bless and
heal America and Thailand.
