The current events have got me thinking very deeply and I have a lot of thoughts about the past, current and future, and I need to get it out of me. (I think there will be a few long posts from me) The past:
While I watched I can speak (and other movies based on comfort women) one thought that reverberated in my mind was this could have happened to my grandmother. My maternal grandmother only told me this story once: when the war began, my great grandfather immediately pulled her out of school to stay at home, she hated it because had been looking forward to school. When the Japanese came to their village, she and her female cousins were sneaked out and made to live in the simple hut in the orchard (back then it was like a jungle – really tall fruit trees), they couldn’t cook (no fires) but ate whatever food that could be sneaked to them. She told me at that time it felt like an adventure as she smiled – however I know how scary it would have been for her and how thankful she was and how different her life could have been if she had been taken.
It’s strange to think how the war, something that feels so long ago has shaped me seen and unseen ways – I can see it when I look at myself or when I look at my kids. My ethnicity is Malay, however all my life I’ve been asked if I wasn’t, I was never really bothered about it cause I never really did care. I only found out in my late teens by my MOTHER that my PATERNAL grandmother is of Chinese descent. She was adopted by my grandfather’s family and eventually married to him. During those turbulent times, Chinese families gave their daughters up to malay families to protect them – the Japanese oppressed the Chinese, and when the Brits came back they were against the Pro-Communist Chinese. Even on my mother’s side, my grandfather’s sister was also adopted from a Chinese family. I had never realized it because I always thought that’s how they looked for as long as I had known them and never questioned it. Imagine having to give up your child as a way to save them.
Back then such horrible things were done to men, children and women. Oh how easy it is for men people to become monsters.
rawrling
March 13, 2019 at 7:27 PM
The current events have got me thinking very deeply and I have a lot of thoughts about the past, current and future, and I need to get it out of me. (I think there will be a few long posts from me) The past:
While I watched I can speak (and other movies based on comfort women) one thought that reverberated in my mind was this could have happened to my grandmother. My maternal grandmother only told me this story once: when the war began, my great grandfather immediately pulled her out of school to stay at home, she hated it because had been looking forward to school. When the Japanese came to their village, she and her female cousins were sneaked out and made to live in the simple hut in the orchard (back then it was like a jungle – really tall fruit trees), they couldn’t cook (no fires) but ate whatever food that could be sneaked to them. She told me at that time it felt like an adventure as she smiled – however I know how scary it would have been for her and how thankful she was and how different her life could have been if she had been taken.
It’s strange to think how the war, something that feels so long ago has shaped me seen and unseen ways – I can see it when I look at myself or when I look at my kids. My ethnicity is Malay, however all my life I’ve been asked if I wasn’t, I was never really bothered about it cause I never really did care. I only found out in my late teens by my MOTHER that my PATERNAL grandmother is of Chinese descent. She was adopted by my grandfather’s family and eventually married to him. During those turbulent times, Chinese families gave their daughters up to malay families to protect them – the Japanese oppressed the Chinese, and when the Brits came back they were against the Pro-Communist Chinese. Even on my mother’s side, my grandfather’s sister was also adopted from a Chinese family. I had never realized it because I always thought that’s how they looked for as long as I had known them and never questioned it. Imagine having to give up your child as a way to save them.
Back then such horrible things were done to men, children and women. Oh how easy it is for men people to become monsters.
greenfields
March 13, 2019 at 7:37 PM
Your grandma, her parents, her adoptive parents and all others were amazing, amazing people. How easy it is indeed for men to become monsters.
rawrling
March 13, 2019 at 8:15 PM
Thank you! Its a great reminder of how we can and will survive through anything.. And that there is still goodness even in the worst of times.
deadlybaby
March 13, 2019 at 10:39 PM
it’s also infinitely more heartwarming when regular people band together and help each other during times when they’re faced with the biggest monsters