Mother, Memorial Day, and Wars that I Know-5/28/14

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.