Once in a while, my mother would tell us tales of her family clan and their proud lineage. She would always tell us to conduct ourselves with integrity and dignity, so as not to disgrace the family name. The family clan was of the elite scholar class and very traditional in the feudal Chinese way. If you've ever watched those old Chinese period dramas, the family was rather like that.
Great-grandfather was an Imperial Adviser to a Manchurian official in the Imperial Court of Emperor Puyi (1908–1912 AD). Emperor Puyi was the 12th and final ruler of the Ch’ing or Qing dynasty (1644–1912 AD). Being a Han Chinese in an era where the Manchurians held precedence, my great-grandfather must have achieved exceptionally high scores in the arduous Imperial Civil Service Examinations because he rose to Imperial Court status in the Forbidden City.
Grandfather also possessed this political acumen, because when the dynasty was collapsing and rebellion was breaking out, he had the foresight to gather his family and escape the turmoil in China. I've seen a photo of him in my cousin's photo album; a handsome man with a long patrician face. A few of my male cousins strongly resemble him.
He settled in Singapore with his 2 wives and ended up having a total of 13 children - 2 sons and 11 daughters. But Grandfather was an enlightened man for his time. He insisted that all his daughters be educated, along with his 2 sons. Very unusual in those days when women were only expected to get married and have children.
Mum was the youngest from the Second Wife. There was a set hierarchy in the family. Everyone knew their place under the roof of their three-storey house. The First Wife made most of the decisions regarding to household matters. But Mum said that both her mothers became like sisters and divided the household duties among them. It helped that Mum's mother had bore a son to carry on the family name as well.
During the Japanese Occupation of Singapore in 1942-45, the island was renamed Syonan-To (Light of the South). Grandfather had connections who gave him some advance warning that Japanese invasion was imminent. As he had no way to safely evacuate his whole family (again), he did the next best thing. He called in favours and hid, or buried what they could.
There was a Buddhist temple behind the residence of a close relative. Grandfather had donated a large sum of money to them when it was first built. The monks buried on their premises most of the family's leftover gold and jewellery after they sold their chain of gold shops.
Grandfather also built a makeshift bomb shelter and filled the sandbags with raw rice to hide food from the Japanese. In the cellar, he buried a large number of tinned food and also filled the garage to the brim with tins. This was a move that saved their lives and others, as most of the available rice supplies were taken away for the Japanese army. Strict food rationing meant that many families starved if they couldn't grow their own food, like sweet potato and tapioca.
The Japanese gave Grandfather just 24 hours to vacate his entire family and bond servants before they took over the main house and another building. But for some blessed reason, they didn't even look twice at the garage or the bomb shelter in all those 3 years. Grandfather and others in the family stealthily removed the food stores a bit at a time until everything was safely taken away.
For the next 3 years, my grandfather would open the back door every morning and call out to any lost-looking person wandering in the street, and give them a bowl of rice congee (watery gruel or porridge) with a few bits of sweet potato and tapioca. He must have fed all the homeless in the area for that period. Ironically, one of them later became one of the wealthiest men in Singapore; not that anyone in his family would remember my grandfather today though. That's just human nature.
Mum's mother found work as a servant for the Japanese army. Not for the hardened officers who followed the brutal way of the bushido, but the regular admin staff who were apparently kinder to their underlings. My grandmother was an extremely brave woman - she stole rice from the Japanese. It was a frightening risk she took. Whenever she had to prepare food for them, she'd become quite clumsy and spill some rice. Only a small handful at a time, which she promptly swept up and hid away. Mum thinks that the Japanese staff probably guessed what grandmother was up but chose to ignore it. After all, she got away with it every day for those 3 years.
My grandparents, to my mind, were extraordinary everyday heroes. Whenever things get a little tough, I think about them and what they went through and it inspires me to somehow find the strength to carry on.
(p.s. I've attached a rare portrait of my grandmother at 16).
I've read this through 3 or 4 times, each time trying to imagine how scary it must have been. Did your family stay on the property or did they have to vacate completely?
I like to think the rich man's family does remember your grandfather, if not by name then by deed.
The family had to leave completely. I think they felt it was safer to simply stay out of sight. Grandfather decided to split up the boys and the rest of the family up into a few smaller groups to find shelter with relatives and friends who could take them in. This was for safety and the survival of the family. Because if any group met with a mishap, hopefully another group might survive to continue the family name.
Grandfather used the 24 hours to arrange for the valuables to be divided among the groups. What they couldn't take with them, they got the temple to hide for them. The temple safely protected the trove, which was recovered after the War but due to a number of reasons, didn't last long. After Grandfather's death, the First Wife wasn't the best caretaker of the family fortunes.
As for the food, they managed to remove everything from the garage and cellar in just a day.
I'm sure the rich man's family would remember how he was fed. Grandfather had said that he was always the first in line every morning for his meal!
