Few people know that a lone Kuching-born Chinese Foochow was part of the 600-member Australian Allied Force that Liberated Sarawak from the Japanese on September 11, 1945.
The colourful story of how Sgt Chua Gin Teck from the Z Force played a role in the repatriation of Borneo takes us back to when he was given away for adoption to a family in Singapore.
Born in the Chinese zodiac year of the Tiger, he was given away at the age of six of following a series of tragic events including the death of his mother, where he was blamed for bringing the family bad luck.
His story which has been recorded in his biography recorded by James Ritchie’s in “Honour Before Self” (2000) and in Dr Bob Reece’s “Masa Jepun” (1998) that traces Chua’s life.
Brought up by a family whose patriarch was an opium smoker-cum-pusher, Chua became a gun-toting Singapore gangster from the age of 16 before joining the circus, and left for China to join the ‘Nanyang Volunteer Corp’ as a truck driver in 1937 before joining the ‘Z’ Special Force in Australia after the Japanese invasion of South East Asia in 1941.
After training at Fraser Island in Australia and Morotai in he South Pacific, Chua was involved in several raids against Japanese outposts before the repatriation of Borneo in 1945.
On June 10, 1945 — three months before the end of the War — Sgt Chua was part of the 9th Australian Division A.I.F. sent to invade invaded Labuan and Brunei.
Within days of landing on the beaches of Labuan the Japanese who were concentrated in the island surrendered; three weeks later the War was over after American dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August.
Sgt Chua recalled the events after the fall of Labuan including the repatriation of Brunei, how he was reunited with his wife from Singapore Swee Yin who had been taken to Brunei by the Japanese to help run the company’s hairdressing saloon.
He was told that his former friends from the underworld had helped with the funeral arrangements and finances after his mother had died. She later accompanied her husband to Labuan before the official surrender of Sarawak at Pending in Kuching.
After the capture of Labuan and Brunei Chua he was involved in another operation — the liberation of West Kalimantan Province. Chua remembers that six LCTs (Landing Craft Transport) with about 70 personnel each were sent to land on the shores of West Kalimantan.
After storming the beach, they headed or Pontianak, the capital of the province. He said, “At about 10 a.m. the LCTs reached the shore and the craft dropped a platform. We all rushed out and were fired upon by the enemy who were on top of a steep cliff (embankment) about 200 yards away from the sea. We were like sitting ducks”.
While crawling up the beach a Z force operative named Don Ellery suddenly contracted cramps and could not move further. Noticing his colleague in trouble, Sgt Chua crawled back and tried to haul Ellery forward but he was too heavy.
An Australian soldier then came to his assistance and together with another soldier dragged him to the foot of the steep embankment where he was safe from gun fire.
Ten years later Chua met Ellery in Singapore and discovered that Ellery was serving as a senior police officer in Johore Baru and had married a local girl there.
After Chua returned to Kuching he received a cake that had been sent by Ellery’s mother to thank Chua for saving her son. Until the late 1950s, Chua received a cake each year which was sent to his residence at 47 Wayang Street.
During the assault on the beaches of Dutch Borneo, the LCT’s artillery bombarded enemy position destroying the embankment and making it easy to advance.
After the landing, the Australian forces left for Pontianak by road and there detained the Japanese. There were many casualties on both sides. After two days in Pontianak, Chua returned to his base at Labuan.
On August 6, the Americans dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and three days later, on Nagasaki. The destruction of the two cities convinced the already back-peddling Japanese to surrender on August 14.
On September 11 Brigadier Thomas Eastick headed for Kuching in an Australian corvette HMAS Kapunda from Labuan. The Kapunda anchored off Pending wharf just outside Kuching while the remaining members of the Australian troops landed at the Ban Hock wharf.
Just after 2.30 p.m. after a slight delay, the Japanese area commander Major General Yamamura arrived at the Pending wharf. He was taken aboard the Kapunda, signed all the surrender papers and also handed in his sword to Eastick.
Reminiscing that historic day, Chua added: “The first party of Australians landed at Ban Hock wharf in Kuching’s town centre about two hours after the Pending ceremony. Even though there were the much-feared Japanese “Kempetai” (intelligence) officers at the waterfront, the crowds begun to swell when news reached the residents about the surrender order.
“In an incident which occurred earlier in the day a Sarawak volunteer Lau Chai Lim raised the Union Jack and the Sarawak flag at Fort Margherita signalling the repatriation of Sarawak.”
At 5 p.m. Sgt Chua was invited to join a group of officers led by Major William Ditmas, Captain Webb, Sgt Shepard who was an American and an Australian Corporal named Carter, landed at Ban Hock wharf in a small boat and marched to the town’s clock tower about a hundred yards away.
“There we met a Japanese officer (blue flag officer) who kneeled and handed over his sword and revolver to Sergeant Shepard. Another Japanese near a guard house also surrendered his weapons to our officers who escorted the surrendered personnel to the Sarawak rest house where they were detained”.
Reece in “Masa Jepun” wrote: “Among the Australians to land later that afternoon from HMAS Rattlesnake, one of the local snake boats used by Australian guerrillas on the Borneo Coast was Sgt Chua Gin Teck. A tough little Sarawakian who had worked in circuses in Southeast Asia before driving trucks on the Burma Road, he had joined the British army in Singapore just before the Japanese attack. Evacuated to Perth by ship, he had subsequently joined the Australian army and was selected for ‘Z’ force partly because of his knowledge of local languages”.
About two hours later, Chua strolled through Kuching. He was elated of having returned to his birth place. It was hardly the same place; he couldn’t recognise it because he had left the place when he was six years of age.
After arriving at Carpenter Street, not far from Bishop Gate Street where he was born, he noticed that there were no street lights. Petty traders used oil lamps to sell their wares including Japanese cigarettes.
Chua asked around for his older brother detective Ong Eng Tho who had joined the Sarawak Constabulary. Eng Tho had taken refuge in one of the coastal villages after the Japanese invaded Sarawak and was still hiding out there.
He was amused when they asked whether he was a citizen of Australia or America because he was the only Asian among the Allied Forces who landed in Kuching. When he told them he was born in Kuching, they were overawed and hailed him as a hero.
The following morning, 500 Australian troops marched around Kuching’s Padang Sentral several times to create the illusion there were more numerous numbers that they really were as there were a few thousand Japanese who were not aware of Japan’s official surrender.
On the third day, Sgt Chua met his brother and they exchanged greetings. Eng Tho was pleased that Chua had returned to his homeland — not as a misfit, but an honourable member of the Allied Forces.
Later Sgt Chua accompanied a group of officers to the Batu Lintang Prisoner of War (POW) camp to check on the situation. On arrival he saw a group of captured Japanese being punished.
“All the Japanese were forced to line up and march up to a pot of boiling water. There were two Gurkha soldiers standing in front of the Japanese. The Japanese were then each forced to kneel in front of the pot of boiling water and then drink its contents,” said Chua.
Those who drank the water were in pain while others who refused to do so were kicked in the head with the heavy army boots in retribution for their acts of cruelty when they were guards at the POW camp.
Among other things, Chua was told that when they Japanese heard of the impending invasion of Kuching, they had pierced wire through the ankles of their Silk prisoners and tied at both ends, to prevent them from escape. The Japanese has had their fill of torture and it was time for them to taste their own medicine.
On September 15, Sgt Chua celebrated his 30th birthday in Kuching. A day later he met Sarawak’s famous K.F. Wong — who was then a budding photographer carrying a Leica camera at the old Pending bridge — Wong had gone there to take pictures of the Japanese POWs departure.
In Labuan, Chua was reunited with Major Toby Carter, who was the overall in charge of the “Semut” operations in Sarawak. Together with British Major Tom Harrisson, about 70 operatives had parachuted men into the Bario highlands and other parts of Sarawak where they raised an army of local resistance.
After the War Chua joined the Sarawak Constabulary’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) on December 16, 1945, where his brother was a sergeant. Appropriately, the officer in charge was Major Ditmas of the Rattle snake who was now a Colonel. The officer in charge of the Central Police Station where he was stationed was a Captain Marlowe — a ‘Z’ force officer who held the rank of Superintendent.
Sgt Chua excelled in his duties and went on a rampage to clear the town of criminals. First to go were the gangsters and gambling syndicates such as the “Apek Bayat” (a three card game) who had made a lot of money during the Japanese occupation.
“The Japanese had introduced these Apek Bayat operators who were mainly from Hong Kong and most of their victims were mainly housewives when they went out to market. They would wait for these innocent housewives and then coax them to try their luck. They would shuffled three cards, two Aces and a King, and then ask them to pick the King with the promise of doubling their takings. But the Apek Bayat were too fast and fleeced the women of the market money”.
The gangsters ruled the town and prostitution was rife. Sgt Chua felt that he had a duty to clean Kuching of bad hats. He was so frustrated with the situation and complained to his brother.
When his brother told him not to interfere because the thugs were powerful, Chua berated him:“You are in the CID….are you working for the gangs or the government? You should control them instead of them controlling you!” quipped Gin Teck.
In April 1946 Sgt Chua was among 15 Sarawakians who were chosen to march in the Victory Parade in London; the group involved included 10 Iban, three Chinese and two Malays.
Nine years later on April 21, 1953 Sgt Chua joined Sarawak’s first “Jungle Unit” called the Sarawak Police Field Force (PFF) headed by a Z Forces compatriot, New Zealander Captain Eric Edmeades from the Surveillance Reconnaissance Department (SRD).
Another officer from the newly-established PFF was another Chinese War Hero from Malaya — Tan Sri Koo Chong Kong who had joined the communist-led Anti-Japanese army led by famous leader Chin Peng.
At the end of the war, Koo joined the British in the fight against the Communists and became a marked man; he was sent to Sarawak to help the State fight the local communists.
With his exprience in jungle warfare, Koo and Sgt Chua were chosen to train the elite Sarawak PFF who later excelled in ending the 27-year-long Sarawak Communist Insurgency which ended in October 1990.
After retiring from the police as a Sub Inspector Chua did a variety of jobs, helping the local keep an eye on the local criminal scene while posing as a Circus Performer at Wayang Street, before become a Dog trainer.
As a renowned resident of Wayang Street, Chua who often wore his Australian army hat was nicknames “Amphai Teck” or “Detective Ah Teck”
He died at the age of 86 soon after the launch of his book in Kuching by Sarawak Commissioner of Police Datuk Yusof Jaafar in 2001.
Note: Z Special Unit was a joint Allied special forces unit formed during the Second World War to operate behind Japanese lines in South East Asia. Predominantly Australian, Z Special Unit was a specialist reconnaissance . Its main mission was to. insert trained operatives into enemy territory to gather intelligence, harass lines of communication, carry out general sabotage, attack shipping and organise local resistance. In one special operation Sgt Chua and a Kadazan operative wiped out a Japanese outpost in Southern Philippines while disguised as fishermen.
