The Gensui's Treasure. B J Le Chêne
hell, but after a coupIe of months of boredom, I dropped the Pahang Club lot, and made friends with some of the local lads. We took trips inland, hunting with the aborigines and up the Lipis and Jelai rivers fishing and swimming. They played table tennis in their own club, cricket and football in the Clifford school playgrounds and I was hooked. It all became fun and exciting.’
‘I was supposed to be here for six months but with a little coercion from my mother back in Scotland, my father extended my stay for another six. I think that that one year was the most carefree I have ever been. Yes, there was a war on - but you know, I was young - we young lads knew and yet, we didn’t know. I think youth is like that. It all seemed a bit far away.’
‘When the Japs came, it was a bolt out of the blue to me and my new friends. Not so much for my father. Mother was already home. She expected my father to be back for good a month later. He’d stayed back to help organize transport for the planters, teachers, doctors, nurses, missionaries, civil engineers, government officers and any other westerners to leave for Kuala Lumpur and the small port at Klang, in the west coast of Selangor, where they hoped to get away before the war caught up with them.’
‘However, the Japanese came in from the north like a black cloud. So, the last convoy of cars and lorries made a pitiful drive to Kuala Lumpur. The only way out from Kuala Lipis was on two of the most appallingly twisting roads over the Titiwangsa mountain range. All they could do was to pray that they would reach the city and transport out of the country. Most of them didna make it, of course.’ He paused to sip whisky. Ah Keat added more ice and he continued.’
‘Staunch Brit that my father was, he refused to leave his post until he was satisfied that everyone who could be reached was safe gone. I stayed with him. Big mistake. When the Japs came streaming along the road and down beside the railway tracks on bicycles and a few trucks, he gathered us all together in the British Residence and waited. When he was ordered to surrender, he asked, ‘On what terms?’ When told that there were no terms, he flew into a rage and refused to do as he was told, so the Japs took him out and cut his head off. He, and old Bill Beckford, who was in charge of the police force, were made an example of to others who thought they could rely on war prisoners’ charters.’
Tea was brought for them and Yoshiro helped Aziz to settle Mac so that he could drink his tea and eat the sandwiches Ah Keat gave him. Yoshiro needed the toilet and rose to leave, but Ah Keat showed him to Mac’s bathroom behind a beautifully-carved rosewood screen. When he returned, he turned questioning eyes to Aziz who smiled and said, ‘I think I was followed from KL. We are now in lockdown. Let’s wait and see. The dogs? They’d use darts on them, I would think.’
Ah Keat opened the door to the patio and the dogs walked in and lay beside the bed.
‘My father said you were interred by the army?’ Yoshiro enquired of Mac, who was rooting around in his bed. Mac looked at him and drawled, ‘Well, you cuid say that - I expect.’
‘No cigars!’ scolded Ah Keat.
‘Ah Keat, you are torturing a dying man,’ Aziz said softly. ‘Give him his cigar.’
‘Ah Keat’s face became wooden. ‘Doctor said, no smoking, it will kill him faster.’
‘Perhaps. But happier, no?’
Ah Keat went to the desk and brought the humidor to Mac. ‘Here,’ he growled. Mac rolled his head and laughed aloud at the face above him.
‘You smoke okay. You die soonest.’
The men laughed together. Mac lit up and puffed contentedly as he carried on with his story.
‘Yes. I was, as you put it, interred by the Japs. I met your father when they executed my father. He stood with his back to me but stepped in front of me and said clearly and softly in English, “Close your eyes,” when the sword was lifted. He looked into Yoshiro’s eyes and said, ‘I trusted him from then on. Between us we saved each other’s lives, I think.’
Yoshiro said, ‘I see. Do go on, if you can, but don’t tire yourself.’
‘We were herded into a room at the police station and kept there for two days, then we were put to work. There were two westerners, me and John Miller, an Australian gold mine manager from Raub. I was made to do the accounting of the gold mine’s stock and John Miller was made to carry on the work of the mine. We were put in separate rooms and we weren’t allowed to speak to each other. At work, we wrote things down and a Japanese soldier would take them between us. We were allowed a ration of food and a bath each day but at night we were locked up separately.’
‘Your father, Akiro, was a first lieutenant to his father the Gensui Teizo Kawaguchi. He was one of the most powerful men in the Kempeitai or Japanese Secret Police in Malaya. With his three henchmen, Lieutenant General Arinaga Atuzawa, Lieutenant General Akimasa Hachirou and Colonel Akari Takafusa, they oversaw security. As far as I know, they were all Yamaguchi-gumi. Or, as they are called more often, the Yakuza. I don’t know about Akiro then, but I thought he was one of them. The so-called Secret Police were hated by their own soldiers and the mainland Japanese, as well as the territories they invaded, and with good reason.’
‘I am not sure what made us become, not friends, but let’s say, careful for each other as and when we could be. We hardly spoke, but it seemed to me that Akiro looked out for me. For us. John and me.’
‘How do you mean, looked out for you?’ Yoshiro asked.
‘It’s hard to make it sound sensible. He managed to keep John and me away from the attention of the four monsters when any of them visited or were near. They knew who we were and where we were, of course. He was scrupulous about making us obey the rules. We were watched at gunpoint most of the time and believe me, we kept our heads down. But Akiro, by seeing that every order was obeyed to the letter, kept us out of sight as much as he could.’
‘That went on for six months or so and then a Japanese manager and a book-keeper were sent from Japan and they were not military personnel. We, therefore, were out of a job. We ended up back in Kuala Lipis as labourers replacing sleepers on the railway line. The Brits had scuttled as much of it as was possible in the time, they had to thwart the Japanese attempt to use trains to carry troops to the south.’
‘This was much harder work so least said. We had a sadistic bastard overseeing us and the Chinese lads suffered wickedly. John and I came in for our fair share but again Akiro tried. We ended with a civilian overseer who would at least give us water. We were surprised when one fine day a new General turned up and pulled us out of the work gang. We both expected to be killed and as we were now working buddies, we consoled each other as best we could.’ Mac stopped and said to Yoshiro, ‘Are you sure you want to hear this?’ At his nod, he continued.
‘Akiro, your father, acted as our interpreter and we spoke through him. I was asked for confirmation of what I had done at university. Hearing that I had studied minerology, and that John had worked as an assayer in the Raub gold mine, we were told that our new job would be prospecting and that we had better behave.’
‘Now, what you must think on is that there were several Japs, as well as Taiwanese, who had been sending information back to Japan about routes and business in Malaya. It turned out that a Taiwanese bloke had known about a local Chinese – one Wong Ah Pek, who had been talking of a fantastic deposit he had found in the jungle north-west of Kuala Lipis. He had been canvassing some rich men and banks for a loan to set up the mine and to start digging properly. Ah Pek was dead, having told under torture, everything he knew, including the location of his find. Anyone else he had told about it was either in prison or dead.’
Yoshiro glanced around the room. The men’s faces were rapt. He realized that none of them knew anything about what Mac was telling them. The old man’s voice was strong and his lined old face alive with memories. He went on with his tale.
‘General Akimasa Hachirou headed up the interview along with Lieutenant Colonel Akari Takafusa of the Kempeitai or secret police. These two were the hounds from hell. The Gensui, was the boss and no mistake, but they were both Yakuza members.
‘Because