WW2 hero's family hopes others will also be remembered, honoured
KOTA KINABALU: Lothar Wong Manjaji's family hopes that others will also be able to honour family members who died fighting the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII in Sabah.
Granddaughter Josephine L Manjaji said her family had been prompted to locate historical data to prove the late Lothar's sacrifices after uncovering the War Crime Trial proceedings through interviews with Universiti Malaya China Studies Institute director Prof Dr Danny Wong Tze Ken.
This prompted Lothar's grandson, Kuala Lumpur-based lawyer Trevor Padasian, to look for the 1946 book still kept at the National Archives in United Kingdom today.
The documents uncovered the unlawful killings of eight 19 to 49year-old civilians, Simon Thien, Bung Ah Tee@Stephen Pan Tet Liong, Chong Pin Sin, Lim Hock Beng, Mohinder Singh as well as Lothar Wong Manjaji, Vitalianus Joseph Lim@Ubing and Paul Lee Fook Onn, whose bodies remain missing till today.
The Manjajis put up an advertisement in the newspapers seeking the other seven family members to make contact last year.
After the first meeting in March 2017, representatives of the families went to meet Kota Kinabalu Mayor Datuk Yeo Boon Hai and esteemed others approved the installation of a new war memorial plaque that was done at Petagas War Memorial Park here yesterday.
"The good thing is that we are being acknowledged by the government about the sacrifices that the eight men had made. They were unlawfully killed by the Kempetei of the Japanese Imperial Army," said Josephine, who now resides in Australia, at the commemoration memory yesterday.
"Trevor looked up the Geneva and the Hague Convention and we discovered that it was not an execution but unlawful killing of the eight men.
"It is really wonderful, sad in a way as their father, great grandfathers have all died but the families have all made contact with each other and we are here to say thank you and give the eight men the right respect of a commemoration," she added.
Trevor said the eight men were stripped of their rights to a lawyer and trial, and not even buried in accordance with the rights set down by the international war convention.
"They should be buried with indications and all the families should be informed through the government. All of that was not done, so it is unlawful killing, unjust," he said.
"Now, in a way, is a start to justice being done. So we pray in grateful remembrance of the beloved brave men," he added.
"As a result of what we have done, we hope that other families can come forward to say that their father, or great grandfather is still missing. What do we do about them? We can't find them, we would like them to be honoured as well," chimed in Josephine.
"There are other people. We are lucky in a way that we have the war crime trial proceedings to show the authorities as evidence that they were actually on the Kempetei's Blacklist.
“So yes hopefully the authorities will acknowledge the other families requests for their fathers or grandfathers to be acknowledged on a plaque," she added.
Josephine said the Manjaji's themselves still have many unanswered questions.
"Three are still missing, bodies. We don't know where they are and in a way our hearts are still broken but having this here is some sort of a closure for our emotional pain," she said, referring to the plaque that symbolizes the Sabah government's acknowledgement to their loved one's sacrifice.
According to Josephine, Lothar and Vitalianus, both of whom were influential persons in the district, were arrested by the NishijimaTai Unit based at Penampang for “actively instructing the local people to attack the Japanese communication from the rear in the event of an Allied landing”.
They were also “suspected of making parangs and spears in preparation for an uprising and also of engaging in activities to prevent the Japanese from hiring coolies.”
She said an eyewitness reported how the veins of the men's arms were slashed before they were beheaded between 8pm and 10pm on June 13, 1945. Their bodies have never been found.
Chong, Simon and Bung were unlawfully killed “with a sword” on the evening of June 12, 1945 by Sergeant Mukai Heihachi.
They were “native residents, chief of the village and were very influential" and, according to family reports, the three men had been invited by the Japanese military for a fake end-of-war celebratory truce between former enemies and were plied with alcohol before their beheading.
Much later their headless skeletons were recovered, identified by recognizable possessions and then buried in a common grave in Tuaran.
Paul, who was also influential and described by the Japanese military as “chief of the Agricultural Association of the District”, was tortured before being put to death with a sword on June 16, 1945 by Warrant Officer Yoshino Iku.
His body has not been found. All four men were accused of “not supplying the Japanese Army with foodstuffs”, of planning “to attack the Japanese in their rear in the event of an Allied landing” and being “in contact with the bandits in Kinarut and to attack the Japanese Units one after another which came from Ranau to Tamparuli.”
Josephine added that "chief rebellion" Lim, a wireless operator at Jesselton Post Office, used the wireless sets to catch intelligence that was against the Japanese army and carried out an agitation to the native residents”.
He was helped by Mohinder, a 19-year-old male nurse at the Jesselton Government Hospital, at Menggatal, who also checked for enemy planes with his binoculars.
They were both shot at with “three rounds” each by Sergeant Major Uchiyama Chokichi possibly in early July of 1945.
A witness reported how they were unceremoniously buried together in a shallow trench.
Both bodies were later exhumed, identified by personal possessions and taken away by their families. Singh was brought to Tanjung Aru for cremation in accordance with Sikh rites.
According to the trial documents, during Stage 3 of the Japanese Army's Defence Corps Battle Plan (of May 1945), Kempeitei Captain Harada Kensei issued three orders of “Senjo” or “eradication” of “8 Civilians” identified as “detrimental elements” on the Kempeitei “Blacklist” for participating in anti-Japanese “subversive activities”.
Between June 12 and early July 1945, eight local men (between the ages of 19 and 49) were apprehended, denied military trials, tortured and unlawfully killed.
For these acts, the Kempeitai Captain was charged with three war crimes by the Allied Land Forces Military Court for War Crimes.
The killing of the eight men was contrary to the Geneva War Convention (1929), Article 61 which states that “no prisoner of war shall be sentenced without being given the opportunity to defend himself” and Article 62 which states that “the prisoner of war shall have the right to be assisted by a qualified advocate of his own choice” and the Hague Convention (1907) Rule 30 which states that a spy taken in the act cannot be punished without a previous trial.”
Captain Harada Kensei's defence was that he had to obey the “execution” orders from his superiors LieutenantGeneral Baba Masaro and Colonel Machiguchi Taka, and in accordance with Stage 3 of the Battle Plans Operations API Kempeitei where, “peace and order had to be maintained by eradicating blacklisted detrimental elements which were found in the district.”
The term “execution” should not have been used by Kempeitei Captain Harada. He had unequivocally admitted, together with Colonel Machiguchi, that they had not given the eight civilians any opportunity to defend themselves in a trial before they were unlawfully killed. Nor did they ensure that the eight civilians were honourably buried in graves that bore the “necessary indications” and which were “treated with respect and suitably maintained” in accordance with Article 76 of the Geneva War Convention (1929). Given these flagrant breaches of international war conventions, the eight civilians were not given a fair trial and suffered a heinous miscarriage of justice.
After a three-day trial on July 8, 9 and 11 in 1946, Harada then aged 35, was found guilty and hanged in Changi Prison, on September 11 of the same year.
Baba was also later charged with command responsibility for the Sandakan Death Marches, and was executed by hanging on August 7, 1947. – Shalina R.