Malaysian scholar James Wong shares his experience at a conference commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War held last year at the Singapore History Museum and and hosted by the National Institute of Education. While rubbing shoulders with several noted wartime scholars, he also writes about expanding ways of looking in our wartime past.
One of my points of observation was that while the Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore must take pride in the anti-fascist war, we must never forget that there were also Malays, Indians, Orang Asli and Eurasians who also participated in one form or another in the collective defence of our land and people. Of course, I brought alone the photographs I took with Abdullah C.D., Rashid Maidin, Suriani Abdullah and Abu Samah earlier in southern Thailand to illustrate or reinforce my points.
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