History preserved

Source: "Lifestyle"-The Star- 1 May 2005

THE mighty British military fortress at Batu Maung was rendered impotent when the British retreated in the face of advancing Japanese troops that arrived from the northern part of Malaya during World War II.

Upon their arrival in Penang in December 1941, the Japanese soldiers found the fort abandoned and used it as an interrogation camp for prisoners of war and civilians.

This is where the Japanese used to chop people’s heads off at the Batu Maung fort that has now been converted into the War Museum Penang.

The 1930 fortress in south-east Penang, now turned into the War Museum Penang, was equipped with two 15-inch Howitzer guns that could swivel 180°. According to museum founder Johari Shafie, the guns had a range of 30km to 50km, which them to cover the Mata Kuching Royal Air Force base in Butterworth (now a Royal Malaysian Air Force base) in the event the base was attacked.

“But the British dynamited the guns before leaving Penang because they did not have time to remove them for use in the defence of Singapore,” he says.

Johari adds that the British spent £40mil to construct its defence system in Penang at the Batu Maung fort, Fort Auchery in Batu Feringghi, the mobile base observation tower in Tanjung Tokong, and at the Swettenham Pier; they were all incapacitated during their retreat.

The Batu Maung fortress, abandoned and reclaimed by the jungle after the war, was rediscovered by Johari who applied to lease 7.8ha of land around it to develop it into an outdoor living war museum; the museum opened in 2002.

It features underground military tunnels, an ammunition store, observation tower, an intelligence and logistic centre, a generator room, halls, offices, canon firing bays, sleeping quarters, cook houses and a medical infirmary.

Johari Shafie standing where one of the Howitzers had been positioned facing the sea at the British fort at Batu Maung.

Johari says a Col Kobayashi’s battalion of the Japanese 5th division stormed in from Muka Head in small boats in the early hours of Dec 17.

“According to the late Malay volunteer Datuk Capt Mohd Noor, the Japanese troops first entered from Muka Head camouflaged as fishermen and bandits. That was before the official arrival by ship at the Church Street Pier,” he explains.

When the commander of the Malayan campaign, General Tomoyuki Yamashita – the famed “Tiger of Malaya” –arrived, Johari says Col Kobayashi was instructed to turn the Batu Maung fortress into a camp for prisoners of war.

Johari says the Tiger of Malaya was a brilliant military commander who instantly took swift and severe action when he learnt of Japanese troops plundering and raping.

“Three Japanese soldiers convicted of rape by a court martial were executed by a firing squad at the Penang police headquarters,” adds Johari.

After the war, Yamashita himself was convicted by an American military commission in Manila for atrocities committed by soldiers under his command.

He was hanged on Bataan Island in the Philippines on Feb 23, 1946, and an exact replica of his gallows is recreated at the War Museum Penang.

The museum, offering night tours and dormitory stays, is open daily. For details, call 016-421 3606 or 04-626 5142. – By C.K.K.