Memorial monument (pictured Fearless).A memorial monument next to ChinatownStep out of the Chinatown in Alor Setar, Kedah, and across the road is the Kedah Tourism Office. Next to the tourist office stands a memorial monument, which was erected by the Japanese Consulate in Penang in 2019. This memorial memorial memorial memorial to three Japanese soldiers who were killed during the Japanese invasion of Malaya in 1941 when they defused a bomb tied to a nearby bridge by British troops.
After the monument was inaugurated, it caused opposition in the Chinese community, which condemned the three Japanese soldiers for calling them "heroes". The memorial monument I saw today has been removed from the trilingual caption next to it, and there are no worship objects around.
On December 8, 1941, the Japanese army landed in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, and occupied Malaya in just 55 days, driving out the British who had colonized Malaya at that time. After the occupation, the propaganda strategy of the Japanese Empire was to defeat the British colonists together with the Malayans, to promise the people the independence of Malaya after the war, and to call for joining the Japanese army to defend their own country and jointly build a "new Malay".
The Japanese wanted to tell the locals that they were liberators, not invaders.
The Japanese attack Kuala Lumpur.
At the Kedah State Museum in Alor Setar, I saw several posters of the Japanese army. On the poster, not only in Malay, but also in Chinese, it reads: "Defend Malay with our hands!"."Go as a volunteer!."”
Japanese army propaganda poster (photo Dreadnought).
Japanese army propaganda poster (photo Dreadnought).
Japanese army propaganda poster (photo Dreadnought).
The "liberators" of the MalaysUnlike China, which constantly promotes the Japanese as aggressors, the image of the Japanese in Southeast Asia is very different. The only country in Southeast Asia that has not been colonizedThailandFormed an alliance with Japan and became a member of the "Axis powers".
In the British colony of Burma, General Aung San worked with the Japanese to seek Burma's independence. In Indonesia, which was colonized by the Dutch, Sukarno was also an ally of the Japanese, hoping to use the power of Japan to free themselves from Dutch rule. If you look at the cooperation with the Japanese alone, these national heroes are not exactly the sameWang Jingwei
In Japanese-occupied Malaya, there was no leader like Aung San and Sukarno who collaborated with the Japanese. Although Malaya was a British colony before the Japanese occupation, it was divided into Singapore, Penang, and MalaccaStraits Settlements(Negeri-Negeri Selat), made up of Selangor, Negeri Sembilana, Perak and PahangFederation of Malays(Negeri-Negeri Melayu Bersekutu), which is made up of the four sultanates of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and JohorMalay Subject(Negeri-Negeri Melayu Tidak Bersekutu), East MalaysiaSabahwithSarawakIt is not directly connected to the Malay Peninsula. These colonies were administratively independent of each other. 
The Malay Peninsula under British colonization (Figure Bukhrin).
Under Japanese occupation, the Malay Peninsula was placed under a unified administrative system for the first time. The Japanese promoted Britain as the oppressor of imperialism, and they came to Malaya to save people from colonialism and realize the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere".
The hereditary rulers of Malaya chose to cooperate with the Japanese, after all, both the British and the Japanese guaranteed their rights. The Japanese deposed the British, allowing more Malays to enter the management system. While the Malays had been economically and politically disadvantaged during the British colonial period, the social status of the Malays had improved significantly during the Japanese colonial period.
The Japanese also told the Malays that Malaya was a Malay country and promised to give Malaya independence. For most Malays, the Japanese may really be the "liberators". However, in 1943, Japan putKedah, Perlis, Kelantan and TerengganuThese four Malay states were ceded to the ally Thailand.
Newspaper propaganda of the Japanese army (photo Dreadnought).The invaders of the ChineseDuring the British colonial period, a large number of Chinese migrated to Malaya to settle down, engaged in tin mining, rubber planting and other businesses, and harvested wealth from it, received better education, and were economically dominant, and their social status was much higher than that of the Malays. At the same time, the Chinese in Malaya still think that they are Chinese, and Nanyang is just a place to work hard, and eventually they have to return to their hometowns and return to their roots.
During China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Chinese in Malaya launched a boycott of Japanese goods and donated money to help China fight Japan. The most famous of these are:Tan Kah KeeHe organized the "Nanyang Overseas Chinese Relief Association for Refugees from the Motherland", mobilized overseas Chinese in Nanyang to donate money, purchased national salvation bonds, selected overseas Chinese drivers to return to China, and transported anti-Japanese war materials on the Yunnan-Burma road, and he personally donated more than 100 fighter planes, more than 1,000 combat vehicles, 10 billion yuan of arms and relief food.
After the Japanese occupation of Malaya, the main force of resistance to Japanese rule on the Malay Peninsula wasThe CPM is a major member of the CPM, with Chinese as its main member, they allied themselves with the British and waged guerrilla warfare on the peninsula. Therefore, the local Chinese have become the most important objects for the Japanese to be wary of. In 1942, the Japanese army carried out a large-scale arrest and execution of Chinese in MalayaPurging the big **“。The number of people who died in ** is still a mystery, and it is said that 5,000-50,000 people died. For the Chinese community, the Japanese were invaders before they came to Malaya, and they were even more invaders after the occupation of Malaya.
The population of Kedah is predominantly Malay, with only about 10% Chinese. When the Japanese Consulate erected this memorial monument in Chidah State, Kedah State *** expressed its support with actions. When the memorial was inaugurated in 2019, the Kedah Executive Councillor for Tourism, Arts, Culture and Heritage Asmiru opened the memorial with an invitation letter in Malay and English stating "Opening Ceremony of the Monument to the Heroes of Japan". Maybe in the eyes of these **, the Japanese are really heroes. The memorial monument was built next to Alor Setar's Chinatown, and may also be intended to attract more tourists, especially Japanese tourists, to visit, as is the case at the cemetery in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which commemorates Japanese prisoners of war. Unexpectedly, there are still people in the Chinese community who remember that period of history and voice their objections.
However, if you ask young Chinese in Malaysia today, most of them are unfamiliar with the history of Japanese colonization of Malaya, after all, it is too old. Moreover, after the Japanese left, the unfair treatment of the Chinese did not stop, and in 1969 there was a bloody conflict between the Malays and the Chinese."The May 13 incidentAnd the racist remarks of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad have made the Chinese in Malaysia even more indignant. 
Memorial monument (pictured Fearless).
Resources. Su Junxiang. The Japanese army that invaded Kedah in World War II was a "hero"?Lianhe Zaobao. March 24, 2019.
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