A story from Victoria Point – Burma- May 1942 – WW II
Japan entered the war with an attack on the American Pearl
Harbor naval base at Hawaii, on Dec 7th1941. It was a devastating attack,
launched mainly from Japanese aircraft carriers, destroying many ships in the
American Pacific fleet. Their primary intention was to cripple the Western
command, thereby preventing the Pacific Fleet from interfering with the Japanese
conquest of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. Having succeeded in that effort,
the Japanese commenced with the plan to bomb Burma’s Victoria Point next and
secure an entry into the Burmese mainland.
On the night of 7th/8th December 1941, the Japanese invaded
Thailand by land and sea, and so gained possession of airfields and assembly
areas for the invasion of Burma. The first blow fell on 11th December, when an
air attack was made on Tavoy in Tenasserim. On the 12th a Japanese detachment
crossed the frontier in the extreme south, their objective being Victoria
Point, the site of one of the airfields on the Singapore route. Victoria Point
and Mergui both suffered air raids on the 13th, and the former was evacuated on
that day, although the Japanese did not occupy it until the 15th. From there
they moved slowly up the coast and after a series of engagements Rangoon fell
on 7th March 1942, as the British started their retreat to India.
Hundreds of thousands of Indian workers in SE Asia were now in full flight across the land borders into India, their ancestral home. Their belief was total that the British Raj would do nothing to help them, for they saw no support either at Malaya, Singapore, or in Burma. Subhas Chandra Bose was still in Germany and the Azad Hind had not yet been formed.
The Japanese had full control of the air space and the seas
between SE Asia and India. The only way for the refuges to India, though
hazardous and distant, was by land. They streamed Northwards from Singapore,
and Malaya. After a perilous trek, survivors reached the southernmost border
point of Burma, a place which was in those days called Victoria Point
(Kawthoung these days), an area already in Japanese hands, and just across
Thailand.
At Victoria Point, and many other sleepy towns along the
way, the war quickly brought about huge turmoil. Within days, these places were
teeming with Japanese, fleeing Indians, and shortly thereafter, many Australian
prisoners of war. Before we get to Victoria Point, there, let us go back a few
decades and check out the demographics, and the life of the many people from
Malabar, mainly Moplahs, settled in Burma
The worker migrations from Malabar started during the famine
years in the final decades of the 19th century. Another reason for this
was the antagonism and the oppressive situation prevalent in Malabar after the
1921 Moplah revolt. Many a Moplah ended up in Burma, where the rice mills and
the paddy fields were slowly coming into Chettiar hands, the financial/banking
system being mostly in their control, and getting a job in Burma, as a menial
laborer was quite easy and lucrative. The Bafaqih and Jifri Sayyids had their
warehouses and business in Burma, and they employed quite a few Malabari
Muslims for port and mill jobs. Others
found work in British plantations. A network was thus in place, kinsmen could
be found, and one could get started quickly. Another incentive was that once they
earned some money and stability, one could even acquire a local mistress.
During 1900-1938, a total of 11,515,000 Indian migrants
(derogatively or not, but called kallas) went to Burma. In 1901 the number of
Indians in Rangoon increased to 120,000 i.e., about half of the population of
that. In 1941 out of the total Burmese population of 16,823,798, Indians
constituted 918,000 or 5.4%. On average they made between 10/ to 40/-Rs per
month. Though these comprised mainly Telugu, Oriya, and Tamil Bengali labor,
quite a few were from Malabar, mainly Moplahs. While a few worked in the menial
labor category, many ran tea shops, restaurants, and provision shops. These
were the kakas as they were termed in Burma, Mayala, and Singapore, and the
people we will be talking about. (Note: This article is narrowly focused on the
Moplah worker from Malabar)
According to the intrepid journalist M Sivaram – People
from Kerala were dominant among Burma’s white-collar workers, governmental and
commercial. It was a common joke that every other man in this category came
from Ottapalam. And wherever you went in rural Burma, the first Indian you met
was a ‘kaka’ from Kozhikode or Koyilandi, running a modest but popular tea
shop.
The Cholia Muslim Association was established on October 20,
1912, by Malabar Muslims, following which The Malabar Muslim Association was
established in 1918. In Rangoon, the Malabar Muslims conducted a social club
together with the Malabar Hindus, the Malabar Club, which started activities in
1913, some years before the Muslim Malabar Association came into being. In
1931, Malayalees in Burma totaled 11,343 males and 875 females. As documented
by Nalini Ranjan Chakravarti, there were 3,205 ‘Malabaris’ and 9,441 kakas
(Moplahs) in Burma, then. Interestingly, there were so many Malabar Moplahs in
Burma, that when Abdurahman Sahib decided to start a newspaper in Calicut, he
went to Burma to solicit collections. If you recall, Kozhikode Abdul Khader,
did a stint in Burma. On the darker side, whenever there were racial riots in
Burma, kaka shops were the first to be looted or damaged.
Kaka - Etymology
The escapees from Singapore
After the war, several accounts of valor and struggle surfaced,
and Lt MM Pillai’s small book is just one among them. Corroborated by his
debrief accounts, we come across the mentions of two brave Moplah traders in
the war zone and their selfless actions, each straddling the waters separating Burma
and Thailand. What is remarkable is that while ANZAC survivors failed to
mention such acts when writing tomes about their POW days, Pillai and the other
escapee Radhakrishnan did not fail to remember these simple shopkeepers.
The Japanese whom the British remarked – ‘could not even
shoot straight’ had brought them to their knees and by February 15, it was all
over. Mark Pillai from the # 45 Army Troops Company became yet another among
the thousands of prisoners-of-war following the fall of Singapore. Pillai and many
others were packed into 13 prisoner-of-war camps on the humid,
mosquito-infested island. But Pillai and two of his friends Radhakrishnan and
Natarajan decided to escape.
Why escape? Food was becoming scarce (camp rations comprised
two chapatis a day and a cup of black tea). Brutal punishments such as
beheadings were not uncommon. Already, the Japanese had machine-gunned
thousands of Singapore’s Chinese residents. The prisoners now faced the
prospect of torture, and slow death, following potential transfer as slave laborers
to distant Thailand, Borneo, and Manchuria.
Pillai was to become the first Allied Officer to escape from
Changi and make his way back to India accompanied by Radhakrishnan, a medical
officer, traversing all of 3,000 miles. They traveled roughly a thousand miles
on foot, a thousand miles by boat, and a thousand miles by train to make this
epic journey to freedom.
Pillai & Radhakrishnan’s 3000-mile journey
Radhakrishnan, having sent his family back home before the
war managed to rustle up 600 $, selling
his belongings, while Natarajan and Pillai had 100 $ between them. Finally,
after 11 weeks as prisoners of war, on May 6, Pillai and Natarajan slipped out
of their camp at Bidadari and linked up with Radhakrishnan to commence their flight
to freedom. Wearing dhotis, long shirts, and Gandhi caps, they boarded a train
with tickets to Penang in Malaya, posing as onion and potato traders.
After a long and arduous trip through Singapore and Malaya,
the three escapees arrived at Pak Nam Ranong, in Thailand, then called Siam. It
was here they chanced on Abu Bakr Kaka and Lamba Kaka, the two shopkeepers.
Abu Bakr Kaka
At Ranong on the Siam side, they met Abu Babr Kaka, a Moplah
shop owner, considered quite influential in the neighborhood. Pillai says - Abu
Bakr was a rough diamond, a person of strong likes and dislikes, yet with
sterling qualities. He took charge of us almost immediately. Abu Bakr gave us a
lot of encouragement and promises and helped us, to the best of his ability. He
secured some cheap lodgings and introduced us to another friend of his who was
running a tea stall.
They stayed there, lying low for a couple of days, obtaining
information from BBC & AIR broadcasts, waiting to cross over to Burma. Not
divulging that they had Military antecedents or about the prison escape, they
lied to Abu Bakr that they were Tamil civilians (even though Radhakrishnan was
Telugu) trying to get to their relatives living in relative safety at Moulmein.
Pillai explains their perilous situation – Our funds were
running low, if only Abu Bakr had been told the truth about our financial
conditions, no doubt he would have saved us the money we spent on our boarding.
He thought that money was no problem to us. We dared not disillusion him, for
he would have then wondered why, if we were so broke, we should concern
ourselves with our kith and kin across the border.
After some persuasion by his wife who was partial to
Indians, the Japanese (Burmese man) Counsel at Ranong granted the three
escapees, visas to go to Victoria Point across the waters in Japanese-occupied
Burma. Chanting India and Gandhi, flashing their IIL passes and visas,
the three alighted at Victoria Point. It was here that they met Lamba Kaka,
referred to them by Abu Bakr on the Siam side.
That these Moplahs were in regular touch and knew each other
is quite clear. Such shopkeepers formed loose trading networks, especially so
since vegetables and provisions were moved in boats from Siam to Burma.
Lamba Kakka
Pillai and his two compatriots walked up the slope and the
narrow street to the biggest of the provision stores around. There they met
Lamba Kaka, a tall, thin Moplah. After some refreshments, the three sat down in
the store to cool their heels and observe the goings on, continuing to stay
with Kaka for the next two days. They saw Indians, very few Burmese, and quite
a few Australian prisoners of war, but they never learned Kaka’s real name.
Quoting Pillai - Whoever he was and whatever he did before the
war, he was now a changed man, and making money was certainly not what
motivated this towering figure. The Japanese garrison was guarding a bunch of
Australian prisoners, forced to labour at some important war project somewhere
near Victoria Point. During the rest period, the guards allowed a few of these
miserable POWs to roam a while on the only street, hoping to get some food.
Many of them came to Lamba Kaka's establishment often singly and occasionally
in groups, not exceeding three in number. Lamba Kaka's kindness to them needed
to be seen to be believed. He handed out the goods, accepting whatever money
was offered to him. Kaka never missed espying any penniless Aussie looking
longingly at some tinned foodstuff. He would quickly collect a few tins of
fish, cheese, butter, or anything edible that was handy and thrust them into
the pockets of the dumbfounded prisoner. The stories of his generosity
travelled like Wildfire among the prisoners. I saw many an Australian n enter
the shop and come out carrying an abundance of food items far beyond his means.
Some of them were too overcome with gratitude to express it in words. There was no need. Their eloquent eyes said everything
better than worlds could.
Lamba Kaka's open-handed charity was unsullied by
ostentation or any other selfish motives. His general store must have been a
source of steady income earlier. I did not find out how long he had been in
business, nor could I assess the extent of his wealth. But the transactions he
carried out during the few days that I was there would certainly have made
serious inroads into his reserves. With the cessation of all mercantile
shipping in these waters, his turnover must have dropped down to a trickle -
the little that could come from the interior of Siam via Ranong.
I never could find out what motivated this Moplah to
become Victoria Point's fountainhead of charity. All I could think of was that
Nature had infused in him a sense of unassailable optimism and unparalleled
kindness. He had no thought for his immediate safety, let alone the distant
future, I sincerely hope that no harm ever came to him and that he was able to
regain the wealth he had fed to the river of charity.
The official report in the archives also has no name for Lamba
Kaka.
It simply describes them thus…
Abu Bakr Kaka - A sturdy loyal man, running
an eating shop. Of generous proportions, fair, bold, and can speak a number of
languages. He has lived in Siam for many years. Very dependable type.
Lamba Kakka – Has a pock-marked face, is
brusque and blunt in speech but has a good height. Intelligent and loyal. Can
speak eight languages. Is giving free cigars to Australian POWs.
In the official report, the escapees state - Whilst in a
provision shop at Victoria Point an Australian sergeant came for stores. The
prices were high, but the shopkeeper was pro-Ally, and he was allowed to take
Rs. 15 worth of goods free and was told to tell his friends that they could do
the same. The Australian informed us that by tipping the Japanese sentry 20
cents a time he was allowed out. He gave his name as Eric Merrill and said he
came from Perth. There had been talk amongst the P.OW. of escaping but it was
heard that this was too risky as it meant almost certain death. That evening,
with the aid of the shopkeeper, we were able to catch the Japanese boat to
Mergui.
The report also says - The South Indian Mohammedan
predominates in the merchant section of the community. These are men of
moderate incomes and had business and had business dealings with the Japanese
but were invariably loyal (to the British). The richer merchants were Mohammedans
from Bombay like the Suratees and they too were loyal.
The escapees got through to India, thanks to many of these
and other helpers, after seven months. Pillai & Radhakrishnan arrived at
the Indian border on Aug 2nd, and in Delhi on Aug 25th.
Natarajan remained in Burma.
The fates of Abu Bakar and Lamba Kaka are not known. Perhaps
they survived the war, and their progeny are living in the region, perhaps they
too went back to India following the war, like many others. Over half a million
Indians trekked home from Burma after Rangoon was bombed, with little official
help, the British rulers simply abandoned them. It is a sad story, which I
promise to retell, another day. Many thousands perished along the way, and I can
only hope these two were not among the dead.
Pillai never went back to SE Asia following the war, I guess
he had enough.
I find it sad that many in India keep on cribbing about
religions and minorities and treat one or the other shabbily with revenge
in their mind and driven by tales and happenings from ancient history! I wanted
to simply tell this story to those who did not know that there was a time, a
time when the world was at war and when such trivial thoughts hardly mattered. Simple
people like Lamba Kaka and Abu Bakr viewed life and people differently, they
were driven by humanity, not by hate, divisive thoughts, nationalities, or
religion.
Notes
Burma has fascinated me, for years. I wanted to visit
Rangoon and study the stories of the Indian workers during the 1930s, the war
period as well as the INA years in Rangoon, but it never worked out. Amitav
Ghosh’s fine work ‘The Glass Palace’ was
a consolation, when published. The recent earthquake brought many of the events
I had studied during 2018-19, to the fore of my mind, and here I am with this
small tale.
Pillai’s notes mention Australian POWs who had been at
Victoria Point for some months, and of a larger group’s impending arrival on
May 23rd. The first of the 'A' Force prisoners started arriving on 20th
May (4 days before Pillai and Radhakrishnan arrived at Victoria Point) in Burma
and worked on airfield construction at Victoria Point, Mergui, and Tavoy. Possibly,
it was an error in recollection. Pillai also mentions an ANZAC POW Eric Merrill
whom I could not trace, using Varley’s diary.
Varley’s diary makes no mention of Lamba Kakka. The A Force
sailed in the Celebes Maru on 15 May 1942, from Singapore to Victoria Point, in
Burma, where Green's battalion and some other groups (a total of 1,017)
disembarked. Varley mentions - natives started to throw parcels of food over
the back, unbeknownst to the Japs of course, they would have skittled if they’d
have got caught. But they’d throw over a box with fifty boiled eggs in it or
something like this. I have thus far not found any other corroborating
Australian account of this benevolent shopkeeper, but it does not surprise me.
From the story of an executed ANZAC prisoner RS Goulden at
this site, we note - Goulden tried to escape in July 1942, and was caught and
beheaded, by the Japanese. Camp life was harsh. Food was meagre and
consisted of rice and vegetables and any protein that could be brought from the
local villagers.
Hopefully someone from down under will chime in.
Gautam Hazarika, whose book “The Forgotten Indian Prisoners
of World War II” will hit the stands soon, helped me with the official report
of Pillai’s escape (I had only the shortened version from Sareen’s compilation).
Three Thousand Miles to Freedom – MM Pillai – A wonderful read…
Escape narrative of Lieut M.M. Pillai, Royal Bombay Sappers & Miners, and Lieut V. Radhakrishnan, Singapore Volunteers – AWM 54: 779/10/4
Muslims Of Burma – Moshe Yegar
Diary of Brigadier A. L. Varley. M.C. 12 May 1942 - 26 March 1944
INA, A documentary study, Vol 1 – TR Sareen
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