The Importance of History

My friends and fellow (loyal) readers of this blog must have known by now that I am a history buff. 

I could talk about a certain subject in history with much passion that it actually brought tears to my eyes (almost!), and that shows that I am so passionate about history. In fact, more than I am passionate about drugs and treatments, LOL. 

So, my family and I had the opportunity to visit Penang War Museum in Batu Maung, Pulau Pinang, during the Chinese New Year Holiday.

It was previously a fort built by the British, before the Japanese (forcibly) took over and committed all sorts of atrocities within the fort vicinity, and in the whole Island of Penang, generally.

It is also being hailed as one of the most haunted places in Asia. There had been several documentaries highlighting this fact as of course, the lives of the people who once lived here had been taken so cruelly and mercilessly by the bestial Japanese Army.

I admit that I did feel a bit of a chill when stepping into certain secluded places, i.e where the armies once resided in. But I just prayed a lot, hoping nothing would follow me back home. Guess what, a heavily pregnant Malay lady was also there with her family. How fearless of her! But if I were her, I wouldn't take such chances. Venturing into notoriously haunted places such as this Penang War Museum is definitely not the Top 10 things for a pregnant woman to do. And I don't even know what are those Top 10 things, just making it up, LOL.

People were decapitated here. 

House of Pain exhibition

Anyway, amidst all kinds of atrocities that happened during the Japanese Occupation, one of those war crimes- the one that feels so close to my heart is the one about 'Comfort Women'. So-called comfort women who was forced to bring so-called comfort to the Japanese soldiers, by means of providing sexual pleasure from the daybreak to when the night falls. I read somewhere that the comfort stations were opened from 9-10 am until 9 pm. 

When I returned home after visiting the War Museum, I began googling about the plight of the comfort women in the countries that were occupied by the Japanese during World War II. I reread certain parts from one of my favourite history books 'The Rape of Nanking' by Iris Chang, and I watched a 2007 documentary titled 'Nanking' on youtube to better understand the situation. 

Apparently, the term 'Comfort Women' is originated from the Nanking Massacre, where as many as 20,000 (minimum number) women were raped and killed without mercy when the Japanese Imperial Army successfully seized Nanking City by defeating the Chinese Kuomintang Army. It was called 6 weeks of horror, and provoked all sorts of reactions worldwide. The then Japanese emperor, Emperor Hirohito was concerned about the image of Japan *snort in disbelief* and ordered for the setting ups of 'Comfort stations' to prevent this event from happening again. Women were offered to become comfort women. Some voluntarily- the prostitutes who were treated and paid well, while some, were forcibly taken from their family. 

During the Japanese Occupation, several cheap, budget hotels were converted into brothels. One woman would be tied to the bed and was forced to serve (I hate the word serve, Serving is supposed to have the positive, voluntary, obligatory connotations; serving your parents, your country, the people of Malaysia). up to 20 soldiers per day. If they resisted, they would be beaten by the soldiers. Many died because of venereal diseases. Many committed suicide soon after the World War 2 ended. 

I saw this perverse picture depicting the Japanese soldiers lining up for their turns to rape, and some peeking through the window to see what is happening inside the room (the rape act). It made me shudder in repulse and sadness. 

You can read more about comfort women from the internet. As per the title of this blog post, I would like to talk about what I feel and learned from this event. George Santayana said, those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. This is a very powerful quote. 

At school, we learned about history of the country and the world from the subject 'History'. But that was it. We learned that the occupation of our country by foreign powers happened from the year 1511,  the year Malaccan Sultanate fell into the hands of the Portuguese. We learned that the Japanese invaded Malaya from the year 1942 until the year 1945- where the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought an end to the torturous 3 years of Japanese Occupation. 

But what had we really learned from it? What did we get, other than an A1 for the Sejarah subject in SPM? Did we learn history just for the sake of memorizing all those facts and figures so that we could answer the exam questions?

I do admit that I loved the subject History at school. I still love it now. I never got less than a B for Sejarah throughout my secondary school years, and I got an A1 for this subject for my SPM. But as I looked back to when I was a student, formally learning about the history of our country, I realized that what I did was just memorizing those textbook lines and regurgitating each word and sentence onto the exam sheets. I do think that with the exam-oriented system our country is employing, the facts that we had learned from the teacher did not fully permeate our heart, thus instilling the spirit of patriotism into us, the (then) young generations of Malaysia. Okay, so, one of the 'Faktor Kejatuhan Kesultanan Melayu Melaka' is because of 'something about Bendahara Tun Mutahir was killed because the Sultan liked Tun Fatimah, leading to the appointment of a new, yet old Bendahara Tun Perpatih, if I'm not mistaken', so is this going to come up in the exam? Simply said, we failed to appreciate what we had learned. 

What should we actually learn from it? 

I did not just read about the Japanese Occupation, I also read about the plight of the Cambodians during the Khmer Rouge regime. I visited the museums in Siem Reap and was told of the events happening to the country back then. I read the book 'First They Killed My Father' as well. Now I feel like booking a ticket to Phnom Penh and Nanjing so that I could go to the Killing Fields and Nanking Massacre Museum. 

Reading about the past events that happened in our country and other countries make me feel grateful for what I have now. I have my freedom to do whatever I want, I still have my parents and family with me. I have everything. I could not imagine undergoing the same situations like what our past generations had gone through. I think I would have a breakdown within hours. 

During the Nanking Massacre, the pictures and videos of what happened in Nanking were presented to the Great Powers back then (and now), which includes the USA. And yet, no action had been taken. The world was silent. The same goes with what was happening in Malaya and other Asian countries. The world knew, and yet no one helped us. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened as a result of retaliation from USA, whereby the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbour a few years before. Imagine if Pearl Harbour didn't get bombed.Get what I mean? 

Don't ever depend of foreign powers to help us. They won't interfere, unless they see that there are benefits for them. They won't help without free. 

The sad thing is, events such as rape and killings still happened in other countries like in Iraq, Syria and Palestine. Many countries condemned these acts and yet, no one really take actions. "Perhaps it's better for us to mind our own business and not interfere in the matters of others," they might think. 

And these countries had many things in common. The number one factor that leads to the suffering of its people- political turmoil and instability. Look what happened in Egypt a few years ago? And a few other Middle Eastern countries? I'm glad the same thing does not happen to Turkey (an unsuccessful coup at Thaksim Square) and in Malaysia (a smooth transition of power). Thus, it is imperative for each country to maintain the political stability and peace, and to be united as one, so that no foreign powers could interfere in the affairs of our country. As the saying goes, 'United We Stand, Divide We Fall'.

As for our country, look at what is happening now. Though not highlighted, crimes are rampant. We heard of stories whereby girls were gang-raped and killed It's sad to think that back then, it was the Japanese soldiers who destroyed the lives of our girls but now, it's our own people who did that! Plus, many young people had become drug addicts, thieves, robbers, murderers. What is happening to us now? Why can't we protect each other? Why can't the guys learn to respect the women, and to protect and defend the women and children? It's because they had never lived through the sufferings like what our ancestors had experienced. They become so relaxed. Everything is provided for them. They only have to pay RM1 to seek treatment at the hospitals and clinics. The government is going to take care of everything anyway. Who cares about the past history of our country? 

*sigh*

 Let's just pray that our country will keep on prospering and maintain the peace it has always achieved since the day we achieved our independence on 31st August 1957. 

And oh, on another note, my facebook account is still deactivated but I decided to reactivate my instagram account because there are so many things I could learn from there (like minimalism, zero waste, history, etc) and what I could conclude is that it's entirely up to you to take the positive things or the negative ones from the social media. It's your choice. It's not the social media faults for making you feel inadequate. It's just you. 

With that,thank you for reading!

Plus, 'Snippets of Turkey' blog post is coming up, insya Allah!