Safe from crime but ...

Source: "Lifestyle"-The Star- 29 May 2005


There was good news – albeit just a little – and there was bad news, plenty of it. PHILIP GOLINGAI talks to old-timers who remember the nearly non-existent crime rate during the Japanese Occupation, and the ever present fear of losing one’s head.

IN 2003, Thye Onn Pajak Gadai, a pawnshop in Johor Baru, was robbed twice. During the Japanese Occupation, however, the owner of the pawnshop, which was then located about 300m away from the present shop, was more worried about faltering business than robbery.

“The Japanese dealt very harshly with robbers. Who dares to commit crimes when they chop your head off for stealing?” says Ho Choo Wing, the now 79-year-old owner of Thye Onn.

“Security cameras were unheard of. We did not have these grills,” he says, pointing to the iron barrier that now separates him from his customers. “In the old days, you just walked in. Nowadays, you dare not take any risk.”

However, when the Japanese chased the British out of Johor Baru in 1942, the pawnshop was looted.

Pawnbroker Ho Choo Wing felt safer, at least from robbers, during the Japanese Occupation. - Photo by ONG SOON HIN

“When the Japanese took over Johor Baru, they ordered the Chinese to evacuate to north Johor because the soldiers were preparing to attack Singapore, so my family closed the pawnshop and moved to Pontian,” recalls Ho, who was then 16 years old.

About three weeks later, his family returned to Johor Baru, only to find that their pawnshop had been partially looted. Pawned items, such as a sewing machine, clothes and musical instruments, which they could not take along on their exodus, had been stolen. Even the safe had been broken into.

However, the Hos were lucky that their loss was only material.

“The first batch of Chinese families that returned to Johor Baru before us disappeared. We never knew what happened to them,” he says.

During the Japanese Occupation, the pawnshop opened for business even though there were few customers.

“Maybe one or two customers a month if we were lucky. People did not have anything to pawn because they did not have any income,” he says. “They were more into gambling games like Chap Ji Ki (a guessing game based on the 12 pieces in Chinese chess) and four-digit.”

His teenage years during Japanese rule were spent helping out at the pawnshop and loitering. And, wondering what was happening to Malaya and the world.

“We did not know anything about the outside world (beyond Johor Baru) since all forms of communication were controlled by the Japanese,” he recalls.

Ho’s face breaks into a smile when asked what were the items pawned during the 1940s.

“Bicycles, frying pans, tapak serih (betelnut paraphernalia), sarongs, sewing machines, guitars, pen, watches ? anything that people could bring to the shop. But no cars or motorcycles as we did not have any space to keep them,” he says.

Transactions were in Japanese “banana money” and after the Japanese surrendered in 1945, Ho’s family holdings became valueless.

“When the British returned, I did not go back to school because I had to work in the pawnshop ? we had to start from scratch,” he says.

The Japanese Occupation may have been safe in terms of robbery but, still, Ho remembers it as “terrible”.

“We did not know whether there would be a tomorrow or not. Our lives were not safe. The Japanese could have come to slaughter us at any time,” he explains.