Good Morning, All: I never knew Japan had offered opportunities for Japanese peasants to come to Sabah and acquire land for farming. Here is the story of one person who left Japan, tried farming in Sabah and returned. Except for spelling and minor mistakes, the translation is from a Japanese school teacher.
Japanese Colonization of Sabah
In 1940, the Ministry of Colonisation of Japan, stated in its Borneo immigration plan that:
1.Each immigrant is given 20 chobu (20 ha.) of land and be an independent farmer within three years.
2.The Ministry fully guarantees the project by giving trust money to the company in charge. The Nissan co. (Chairman then was Ayukawa Qisuke who was also the Chairman of the Manchurian Development Co.). Immigrants were the trusted immigrants of the Ministry, that is, the Hinomaru (Japanese national flag) immigrants.
3. The daily wage is five times that of Japan’s.
4. Any family of three or more persons may apply. The more children one has, the greater one’s chances of being selected for emigration.
Before embarking, we attended lectures on immigration for about 10 days.
When the ship left the port, we were compelled to state on the form renouncing our citizenship. Then, our passports were taken away and all our funds, except pocket money to be expended on the ship, were confiscated, furthermore, my legal seal was taken away. We lost all our human rights. I thought I had been reduced to the status of a slave. On the seventeenth day, we landed in Tawau. I expected we might be jubilantly welcomed by our predecessors. However, all the people who had gathered to see our landing howled loudly, “why have you come to such a place?” I was devastated. On hearing the real conditions, I realised we were actually serfs.
On the third day after we arrived in Tawau, though still fatigued by the voyage, we started working, that is, weeding in a Manila hemp plantation.
On the fifth day, I suffered stomach trouble. As I returned to the field, the superintendent arrived by a motorcycle. No sooner had he seen me than he cried out angrily and loudly, “why didn’t you start working on time?” I replied, “It’s a physiological problem. It can’t be helped.” He cried out louder, “Go to the toilet before you work!” Having got angry’ I replied, “Are You stupid? I have come to Borneo for the rest of my life. What difference does three or five minutes maker’?
Arguing for a while, I said that as he could not deal with the matter, I would go to the office to speak with the Shocho (Manager) went to the office alone to see the Manager. He did not want to see me, and instead, the chief of the Labour Department, Mr. Uematsu, told me that he was responsible for the workers. I told him what had happened that morning and that, according to the others, the condition here was totally different from what had been promised by the Ministry of Colonisation, and hence we should be sent back to Japan. However, he turned a deaf ear to my complaint and began to abuse me verbally- “What can you see in a few days? All the others are willing to work. Get back to work and don’t complain.” But I refused to give in. Suddenly, the superintendent, with whom I had disputed that morning, charged at me. With a height of 180 cm, he was a big fellow and charged at me. With a height of 180 cm, he was a big fellow and a wrestler. I knocked him in the face with all my strength. He fell, his nose was bleeding, and his spectacles were broken. I had practised judo in the Seinen Gakko. ” Come forward and fight with me.” No one dared to touch me. Looking out, I noticed that the machines in the factory had stopped and that the workers had gathered around to watch the fight. In no time, I had scrambled atop an abandoned lorry in the garden, and I appealed loudly, “You are all slaves who are not even as free as the oxen or horses. Oxen or horses have freedom to bite or kick. Let us unite and destroy these takobeyasre, regain our powers and rights as human beings and to ensure that the promises of the Ministry of Colonisation are implemented. We should organise ourselves and send much hemp and rubber as possible to the Empire of Japan, which is suffering from a lack of raw materials.
I appealed to them for about thirty minutes. Then someone shouted ‘Fetch the dynamite quickly’” I immediately responded by saying’ “Are you stupid? do think you can destroy the Japanese spirit by dynamite? I will deal with you later”.
At that time, the people cried, “Superintendent Satoh, Superintendent Satoh.” I entered the office to look for Satoh, but he was not there. I left the office triumphantly. Although it was 10 o’clock in the morning, all the workers followed without entering the factory. On returning to their lodgings, I heard more complaints from them, and we decided jointly to sign a petition. I asked them to fetch a legal seal, but no one possessed it, as it had been confiscated by the company (mine had been confiscated on board the ship). I went with three others to the office to retrieve it.
We summed up our grievances against the company and listed our demands in sixteen clauses as below: (1) Double the present wages (which were 50 cents a day then) and give us 15 cents meal allowance a day(2) Pay the wages in cash (until then wages were paid in kind, e.g., food, through appointed retail shop). (3) Cancel the debt of the immigrants, which ranged from ¥1,000 to ¥2,000 each. In Japan, a house cost about ¥1,000 at that time (4) Repair all leaking roofs. Replace all floor mats with new ones. While labourers lived in lodges made of thatched walls and roofs with nipah leaves, the staff of the company lived in western type residences. (5) Return the passports and legal seals to the original owners. (6) Stop censoring letters. (Only letters sent by certain families who had been bribed by the company reached Japan. These letters and pictures were used by the company to demonstrate how happy immigrants were in Borneo.) (7) permit all the immigrants to see the officers of the Ministry of Colonisation when they visit here. (Usually only certain families received them by songs and dances.)(8)Replace the Commissioner of the Ministry of Colonisation, Mr. Samejima. (The officer was supposed to protect immigrants, but instead, he was bribed by the company, and he had done nothing good for the immigrants). (9)Permit the free purchase of materials (Although prices in the Chinese or Indian shops were cheaper, we had to buy from company shops.)(10) Permit each couple an independent house, regardless of the number of members in the family (11) Improve medical care so that immigrants who fell ill could be examined and treated.(12) Improve the educational facilities by building more primary schools. (13) Provide every family with a vegetable garden. (We had to buy vegetables.) (14) Return the deposit passbooks to the original owners. (15) Fulfil the promises made by the Ministry of Colonisation. (Although the earliest immigrants had worked for three years [which was the promised term, they were still not allocated their 20 ha. and were still in debt.) 16) The above demands should be approved unconditionally.
After retrieving the legal seals, we drew up a petition. However, in Mukim Tiger, which was one of the settlement areas and located 5 miles away from the seaside jungle or 3 miles away from the mountains, 40 immigrant families consisting of some 17O members were settled. They asked for our help.
At 2 a.m., we went over the mountain singing war songs. At 4 a.m. we reached the Mukim. The residents had gathered at the Mukim Tiger Office after being informed of our arrival – At our meeting, we were to sign the petition. I signed it with blood by cutting my little finger. I also spoke of the commitment to our cause.
“Please sign it as if it were signed in your own blood. Once signed, we are all comrades. Those who dare to betray comrades will be treated as our common enemy. You have five minutes to make up your mind. Those who are satisfied with the company had better leave within this time.”
During this time (how long it had seemed to us!), no one left. We had unanimous support.
We organised ourselves into a military-like group. Although I could not be re-enlisted because of poor eyesight, I had the experience as a member of a construction group for three years in Fukushima village, which had been formed in Manchuria by immigrants from Fukushima prefecture. This group was a part of the Band of Armed Cultivators in that Japan’s colony.
Seven persons, three each from Mukim Tiger and Mukim Table (another settlement area) and I, became the leaders of the newly formed group. I was to direct the operation as the “President.”
In my younger days, I liked books on struggle very much. “Mein Kampf” by Hitler, “My Autobiography” by Mussolini, “Count Monte Christo” by Dumas and so on were books which I had read eagerly and were quite useful in this case. After having formed our group, we decided to gather at the Table Primary School at 4 p.m. the next day. All of us from Mukim Tiger took rice-balls and a few other simple meals cooked by the housewives of Mukim Tiger before we left there at 7 a.m. At 3 o’clock in the afternoon, we saw leaping red flames near the primary school. I thought our members had stoked a signal fire to encourage us.
I gave an address and, following my order, they sang and marched proudly to the company office. We arrived there at about 6 pm. To show their respect to the President’, the commander ordered them “eyes right!”
After inspecting them, I told them that, as the negotiations were about to begin, they should prepare for an assault at any time. Our ‘general staff of seven’ then entered the office.
The senior management staff, including the Manager, had assembled in the office. I had presented our petition sealed with blood. We asked them to recognise all the claims unconditionally. The Manager was trembling. Reading the petition in a sonorous voice, I asked them, “Do you understand? If You do, You must recognise it.” The Manager replied, “As our headquarters are in Tokyo, please let us decide the matter on the spot.’’ I replied, “It doesn’t matter. If you break your promise, we have no alternative but to return to Japan.” After the negotiation, I reported the results to our members, who waited for us outside the office. ‘‘Our requests have been granted. Qur wages will be doubled from tomorrow onwards. The unit remuneration for contracted work will also be doubled. Your debts have been written off. All the deposit passbooks will be renewed. We will work hard, live a civilized life and become independent farmers, each owning 20 ha. as promised by the Ministry of Colonisation. Let’s unite and work harder!”
Finally, we gave three cheers for our victory and retired. We could manage to recover our human rights through a tight unit.
I worked in the daytime, and at night went to the Kampongs to hold meetings.
Part Two Next Time
Recollections of Labor Conflict in Japanese Estate Tawau by Saito Yasuji in Borneo Review December 1992
