We've tried to ensure the information displayed here is as accurate as possible. Should there be any inaccuracies, we would be grateful if you could let us know at info@ipohworld.org . All images and content are copyright.

(Please click on the thumbnail for a bigger image.)

Japanese Nationals Expelled From Malaya Boarding The Ship Huso Maru

Thumbnail :

Subject :Japanese Nationals Expelled from Malaya Boarding the Ship Huso Maru
Published By : None 
Location : Singapore
Estimated Year : 1941
Media Type : Photograph
Source : Kartar Singh, Kuala Lumpur
Remark :

The Japanese community in Ipoh dates back to at least 1893, when a Japanese pony bus service was started between Ipoh and Batu Gajah. Japanese brothels were established in Kinta around the same time.

By 1899 Ipoh had at least one Japanese dentist and a photographers studio. In 1921 it is recorded that Ipoh then had 4 Japanese dentists, three sundry shops, four photo studios, one tailor, five barbers, two laundry shops and six hotels. Indeed the estimate of Japanese residents in Kinta Valley that year had risen to 150 to 180 of which 50 were Karayuki-san (prostitutes). And the numbers of Japanese in Malaya continued to increase.

One unusual group in Ipoh lived in a cave just North of the town in Tambun. They were well known to the police and the community consisted of at least two elderly women and one monk, although there may well have been more.

On 24 November 1941 six hundred Japanese nationals were deported and left Singapore in the hospital ship Huso Maru, an official evacuation ship sent by the Japanese Government. Internal conditions in Japan were known to be so bad that many of the deportees attempted to take with them canned food and other goods. This even included the better-off consular officials. One evacuee tried to smuggle out some thousands of yen and 26 diamonds in the split bamboo of his rattan cane basket, but Customs officers were too smart for him. The photograph shows some of the deportees boarding the ship after clearing Customs.

When the Japanese invaded Malaya on 8 December 1941, all remaining known Japanese men in Malaya were arrested by the government and interned in local prisons. Then on 14 December Japanese women in Malaya were also arrested - in Ipoh about 50 of them and these were lodged in three Japanese owned hotels in the town, under police guard. The following morning, two of the hotels were bombed by Japanese aircraft and several of the women were killed. Those left alive were transported to Batu Gajah prison. What happened to them thereafter is not known. No doubt they were soon released by the Japanese invaders.

To read about Okiku, Former Japanese Prostitute in Ipoh, click here.

To see a photograph of a Group of Japanese Riding Elephants to a Picnic in Kinta in 1916, click here.

To read an eye-witness account of the Japanese attack on Ipoh, click here.

Filename : 20091101-003