The Japanese Community in Malaya before the Pacific War: Its Genesis and Growth

Author(s): Yuen Choy Leng

Source: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Sep., 1978, Vol. 9, No. 2, Japan and the
Western Powers in Southeast Asia (Sep., 1978), pp. 163-179
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Department of History,
National University of Singapore

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The Japanese Community in Malaya before the Pacific War:
Its Genesis and Growth

YUEN CHO Y LENG

Introduction
During the period between the Great European War (1914-18) and the Pacific
War (1941-45) the Japanese expansionist impulse in the South Seas expressed itself
through emigration and economic enterprise abroad. There were Japanese settle
ments in almost every country in the region. The larger ones were in the Philippines,
Malaya, and the Netherlands East Indies. On the eve of the Pacific War the estimated
number of Japanese residents in the South Seas was 24,000, with investments totalling
around ?250 million. Compared to those of the Western colonial powers and the im
migrant Chinese, the size of these investments was insignificant and their numbers
meagre.1 But this only served to spur those interested in Japan's economic expansion
in the South Seas to make greater efforts to achieve their aims. External events helped
to realize these objectives. For a brief interregnum during the Japanese Occupation
(1942--45) the Japanese became the politically dominant community in the region with
control over its economic resources.
This paper is concerned with the Japanese community in Malaya and traces its
growth from several dozen prostitutes to several thousand entrepreneurs. The
changing nature of the community reflects the expanding Japanese interests in Malaya.
During the Meiji era Malaya was a refuge for vagabond sailors and a dumping ground
for enslaved prostitutes from Japan. But several decades later when Japan was on the
verge of invading the country, it had become "a source of valuable supplies as well as
a market for Japanese goods".2

Genesis and Growth

Even before Japan withdrew from the rest of the world into its cocooned era of
isolation (1636-1868) its early contacts with Malaya were inconspicuous and incon
sequential. From the period of the Ashikaga Shogunate (1338-1573) which fostered a
flourishing foreign trade to 1636 when Tokugawa Iemitsu severed relations with the
outside world (apart from allowing a Dutch foothold at Deshima in Nagasaki), there
was little intercourse between the two countries. Japan's trade with the Malay penin
sula as carried out by middlemen, traders from the Ryukyu Islands who called
annually at Malacca where they exchanged the produce of Japan and China for the

1 The Dutch had investments totalling ?5,700 million; the Americans, ?1,000 million; and
the British, ?1,100 million; with the Chinese having ?1,000 million. Haruji Matsuye, 'The
South Seas and Japan", Contemporary Japan IX, no. 5 (May 1940), 626.
2 Ibid.
163

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164 Yuen Choy Leng

merchandise of the cosmopolitan port. During the first decades of the seventeenth
century when Japanese activities abroad expanded rapidly, there was direct and
official contact with the peninsula but this was limited to an occasional visit by a
goshuin-sen4 to Malacca. Individual traders and merchant adventurers also found
their way to this part of the world but not many were drawn to the Malay peninsula.
Sizeable communities of Japanese settlers were found in neighbouring countries like
Luzon, Siam, and Indochina but no such settlements were found in Malaya.5
In contrast to this lack of contact, the years after the Meiji Restoration saw the
genesis and growth of a Japanese community. One of the first significant indications
of Japanese presence in Malaya was the census returns of the population of the Straits
Settlements for 1871. Three years after Meiji Japan opened her doors to the European
powers, the first Japanese arrived in Malaya. In 1871 there was a solitary Japanese
resident in Singapore and ten in Penang.6 By the end of the Meiji era (1868-1912)
the number had increased to over 4,000.7 This growth however is no measuring rod
for their economic significance in Malaya. Out of the few thousand Japanese, more
than half were women engaged in professions which were not too reputable. As a
contemporary description of the motley population of Malaya observed:
There are a few Japanese merchants and commercial men of acknowledged stand
ing, but for the most part the Land of the Rising Sun is represented by an un
desirable class.8
Table 1, compiled from census figures taken between 1891 and 1911, corroborates
the above observation, showing how women far exceeded men numerically.
The history of the Japanese community in Malaya had an unsavoury beginning.
Most of the women were prostitutes who were often victims of the Japanese yellow

George Sansom,>4 History of Japan, 1334-1615 (London, 1961), p. 180. For an account of
the triangular trade between Japan, the Ryukyu Islands, and Malacca, see C.R. Boxer, The
Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650, California Library Reprint Series Edition (Berkeley,
1974), pp. 8-14. For more details on relations between the Ryukyu Islands and Malacca, see Hsu
Yun-Tsiao, "Notes on the Relations between Ryukyu Islands and Malacca Sultanate during
1464-1511' (Paper No. 84, Proceedings of International Conference on Asian History, Inter
national Association of Historians on Asian History, KualaLumpur, 1968).
Goshuin-sen was a government-licensed merchant vessel. Goshuin means "official pass
port with vermillion seal" and sen means "ship". In 1625 whilst only one ship was sent to
Malacca thirty-five were sent to Siam, thirty to Luzon, twenty-six to Cochin-China, and twenty
three to Cambodia. Iwao Hina and S. Durai Raja Singam, Stray Notes on Nippon-Malaysian
Historical Connections [hereinafter referred to as Nippon-Malaysian Connections] (Negeri
Sembilan, 2604/1944), p. 36.
One of these Japanese adventurers, Yamada Nagamasa, even involved himself with local
politics in Siam. Ibid., pp. 55-56; George Sansom, A History of Japan, 1615-1867 (London,
1964), p.35.
6 Returns of Population of the Straits Settlements for 1891, p. 46. The first Japanese
resident in Singapore was a Madam Toyo, wife of an Englishman, who came to the colony in
1870. Mamoru Shinozaki, interview, 17 Apr. 1975. [He was press attache with the Japanese
Consulate-General in Singapore during 1938-40].
7 J.E. Nathan, The Census of British Malaya, 1921, p. 90.
8 Mrs. Reginald Sanderson, "The Population of Malaya", in Twentieth Century
Impressions of British Malaya, ed. A. Wright and H.A. Cartwright (London, 1908), p. 127.

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 Table I
Distribution of the Japanese Population in the Straits Settlements
and the Federated Malay States, 1891-1911

_1891
Sex Singapore Penang Malacca Perak Selangor Ne
Sem
Male 58 1 2 4 8
Female 229 20 15 28 60
Total: 287 21 17 32 68
1901
Sex Singapore Penang Malacca Perak Selangor Ne
Sem
Male 188 26 10 23 47
Female 578 212 10 175 186
Total: 766 238 20 198 233

1911
Sex Singapore Penang Malacca Perak Selangor Ne
Sem
Male 514 NA NA 125 116
Female 913 NA NA 629 579 2
Total: 1427 266 92 754 695 3

Sources: E.M. Merewether, Report on the Census of the Straits Settlem

on 5th April 1891;
George T. Hare, Federated Malay States, Census of the Populat
A.M. Pountney, The Census of the Federated Malay States, 19
J.E. Nathan, The Census of British Malaya, 1921.

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166 Yuen Choy Leng

slave trade.9 Lured away by vagabond sailors they came mainly from Shimabara (in
Nagasaki prefecture) and Amakusa (in Kumamoto prefecture). These were the poorer
districts in Japan which were also more exposed to foreigners, being in the southern
most part of Kyushu. These women were brought to Singapore where they were
organized into brothels.10 Some, however, were unfortunate victims of famines. Two
particularly bad famines broke out in Northern Japan in 1905/6 and 1913. These
destitute girls were assembled at Tokyo where they were shipped to various
destinations which included the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States.11
The increasing number of Japanese attracted by the economic opportunities in
Malaya created by the First World War made it desirable that the poor image pro
jected by early Japanese residents be replaced by a picture of a new breed of Japanese
interested only in legitimate economic activities. Measures were taken by the Japanese
consul to remove the tarnish on the Japanese image. In 1914 the consul deported the
first batch of Japanese undesirables.12 It was officially decided in June 1915 to pro
hibit Japanese women from entering the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay
States "for immoral purposes".13 Local British authorities noted that by 1919 the flow
of undesirable women leaving Japan or entering the Straits Settlements had ceased.
But whether this observation was completely valid is to be questioned. It was difficult
to check the movements of the prostitutes or their procurers. They avoided immigra
tion controls by smuggling their way into Singapore which became a main distributing
centre for the rest of Malaya.14 However the flow of human traffic was curbed if not
altogether stopped. At the same time Japanese brothels were closed down and their
inmates repatriated.15 The Japanese consul also appealed to authorities in the
Federated Malay States and the Unfederated Malay States to cooperate with the local

According to Mamoru Shinozaki, the yellow slave trade is known in Japanese as karayuki
which literally means "going to China or overseas". Karayukisan is the term used to refer to
"an overseas prostitute who, from the middle of the 19th century to the end of World War I,
had left her homeland, Japan, and gone abroad to sell herself to foreigners...." Yamazaki
Tomoko, "Sandakan No. 8 Brothel", trans. Tomoko Moore and Steffen Richards, Bulletin of
Concerned Asian Scholars VII, no. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1975), 52.
Mamoru Shinozaki gave an interesting account of how Japanese prostitution in
Singapore first began. Madam Toyo (see n.6 above) was left destitute by the death of her
English husband. To make ends meet she obtained employment in a European hotel under the
guise of a boy. But her disguise was discovered. She left the hotel and became a prostitute in
stead. Later she met some Japanese sailors whom she asked to smuggle girls from Shimabara
and Amakusa for her brothel (interview).
11 Letter, Alastair Duncan to Sir John Anderson, 29 Dec. 1913, enclosed in Despatch, Sec.
of State, CO. to Gov., S.S. 2 Jan. 1914 on "Reported Sale of Japanese Girls for the Purpose of
the White [sic] Slave Traffic", C0273/404.
Singapore Free Press, 10 July 1914.
Notes of interview between Ormsby-Gore, Parliamentary Under-Sec. of State, CO., and
Otobumi Hirikiri, editor of Nanyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun [South Seas Daily], 30 Apr. 1923,
enclosed in C0273/524.
14 Cik Minah (nee Yamamura), interview, 1 Mar. 1969. [Cik Minah came to Malaya in 1920
as a nurse. She worked in a Japanese dispensary in Singapore and married a Malay two years
later.]
Seen.7 above.

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The Pre-War Japanese Community in Malaya 167

Japanese associations to persuade the ladies to relinquish their profession and to

prevent new arrivals from entering the state.16 However, because of these efforts
prostitution was driven underground rather than stamped out.17
By 1921 a distinct change in the composition of the Japanese community had
developed. The rapid growth of the male Japanese population with a proportional
decline of female numbers became evident after the First World War, as illustrated in
Table 2. There were two factors which brought about this change. Firstly, as mention
ed above, the curbs imposed on the entry of Japanese prostitutes and their procurers
as well as their repatriation reduced the number of women in Malaya. Secondly, the
fortuitous creation of opportunities by the rubber boom (1909-12) and the First
World War led to an influx of Japanese businessmen.

Table!
Increase of Male and Female Japanese in Malaya, 1911-1921

State or Percentage of Male Percentage of Female

Settlement Japanese Japanese
1911 1921 1911 1921
Singapore 36 61 64 39
Penang 16 49 84 51
Malacca 12 38 88 62
Straits Settlements 32 60 66 40
Perak 17 34 83 66
Selangor 17 35 83 65
Negeri Sembilan 21 44 79 56
Pahang 10 22 90 78
Federated Malay States 17 36 83 64
Johore 66 68 34 32

Source: J.E. Nathan, The Census of British Malaya, 1921, p.90.

The rubber boom marked the beginning of Japanese economic interests in

Malaya. Although Japanese settlers had previously received encouragement from
their consuls to take up land in the peninsula,18 there had been no real incentive to do
so until the advent of large-scale rubber planting. Before 1909, the Japanese lacked
any real economic interests in Malaya. For example, in 1897 when the Sultan of

Letter, Japanese Consul to High Commissioner, Malay States, 22 July 1920, enclosed in
Kelantan File No. 1079/20. See also General Advisor (G.A.), Johore, File No. 612/20.
For instance, Japanese brothels in Singapore were often found to be operating under the
guise of massage parlours. Malayan Bulletin of Political Intelligence (M.B.PL), May 1922, en
closed in C0273/516.
18
The first large-scale survey was made on the southwest coast of the peninsula from Oct.
1893 to Feb. 1894. It was carried out by Miki Saito, Japan's second consul to Singapore. As a
result of the survey it was decided that Johore was the most suitable state for investment.
Umeji Mukai, Malai Seiji Keizai Ron [On Politics and Economics of Malaya] (Tokyo, 1943),
p. 21. I am grateful to Hara Fujio, Institute of Developing Economies, Tokyo for the above
reference. See also Matsuye, op.cit., p. 625 and Nippon-Malaysian Connections, p. 88.

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 168 Yuen Choy Leng

Johore offered a ninety-nine year lease of a thousand acres to a Japanese on favour

able terms, the offer was refused.19
One reason why the Japanese displayed reluctance to invest abroad was the lack
of confidence and capacity for economic expansion overseas. This was overcome only
after their victories in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and the Russo-Japanese War
(1904-5).20 The victories gave Japan's Industrial Revolution a tremendous impetus
which spilled over to Korea, Taiwan, and later to the South Seas including Malaya.
At the same time, when Japan was acquiring the means for economic expansion over
seas, the increasing world demand for rubber and the successful experiments on
rubber planting in Malaya made the cultivation of this crop a sound economic pro
position. The crops which were grown in Malaya in the 1890s did not have as great an
attraction as rubber in the 1900s. Because of technical developments such as the dis
covery of the vulcanization process, the growth of the electrical industry and the ex
panding use of pneumatic tyres for bicycles and later for automobiles, there was an
increasing world demand for rubber.21 The insufficient supply to meet this demand
caused the price of rubber to rocket to astronomical heights in 1910.22 In contrast, no
such prospects awaited the cultivators of coffee, sugar, pepper, or coconut. It is no
wonder then that at a time when the Japanese were beginning to look overseas for
profitable outlets for investments they should be drawn to rubber planting in Malaya.
Japanese rubber plantations were found in almost every Malay state, with heavier
concentrations in Johore and Negeri Sembilan. Table 3 gives an indication of their
sizes. However it was only in Johore that Japanese ownership of rubber estates became
a notable feature.23 The growth of Japanese rubber plantations in Johore was parallel
ed by an increase in the number of Japanese people in that state from 173 in 1911 to
1,287 in 1921.24 In fact the largest concentration of Japanese in Malaya was in the
Kota Tinggi district in Johore.25
Fluctuations in the rubber industry during and after the First World War caused
some Japanese to look for other fields of investment. The commercial and strategic

However another attempt was made by the same person in 1932 to revive the land lease.
G.A. Johore, File No. 692/32; High Commissioner's Office, File No. 1290/32. The Johore
Sultan's offer was very much in keeping with his welcoming attitude towards foreign capital to
develop his state. J.H. Drabble, Rubber in Malaya, 1876-1922 (Kuala Lumpur, 1973), pp.
49-52; K. Sinclair, "Hobson and Lenin in Johore: Colonial Office Policy towards British Con
cessionaires and Investors, 1878-1907" Modern Asian Studies I, pt. 4 (Oct. 1967), 338^0.
Chitoshi Yanaga, Japan since Perry, rev. ed. (Hamden, Conn., 1966), pp. 382-83. See
also William W. Lockwood, The Economic Development of Japan, expanded edition (Prince
ton,21 1968), pp. 18-20.
J.C Jackson, Planters and Speculators: Chinese and European Agricultural Enterprise
in Malaya, 1786-1921 (Singapore, 1968), p. 211.
22 Market prices for rubber in London rose rapidly to 9s. 3d. per lb. in 1909, reaching to as
high as 12s. 9d. in April 1910 before falling to 5s. 7d. by October of the same year. Drabble,
op. cit., p. 61.
23 Jackson, op. cit., p. 253.
24 Two-thirds of the 1,287 residents were men. See Appendix 1.
25 Nathan, op. cit., p. 91.

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 Table 3
Japanese Rubber Estates in Malaya, 1919

Japanese-owned Total Planted Latex Commencement

Estates Area Area Yield of
(1919) (Acres) (Acres) (lbs.) business

Straits Settlements 2,648* 2,260 549,894

Nissin Gomu 1,412 983 250,644 1913

Johore 96,449* 65,823 8,782,286

Nitto Gomu 17,227 5,590 547,376 1919
Pahang Gomu 9,937 5,552 856,452 1910
Sango Kosi
(Batu Pahat) 13,697 9,718 1,809,911 1897
Nanko Syokusan 8,807 6,684 670,742 1911
Sango Kosi
(Pengerang) 7,848 5,963 868,903 1896

Negeri Sembilan 7,303* 6,518 1,273,937

Mal ai Gomu 2,323 2,323 380,437 1912
Senda & Co. 1,648 1,548 180,000 1920

Selangor 4,033* 3,787 249,050

Matuda-Sanziro 631 631 100,200 1911

Perak 1,170* 1,146 233,470

Mizukami- Syotaro 153 143 23,000 1911

Pahang 327* 294 26,600

Kaneko-Turu 24 24 1915

Trengganu 20,814 120

Malai Gomu 3,194 100 1917

Kedah & Perlis 311 282 18,800

Okano-Sizu 105 105 5,000 1918

Note: The figures marked with an asterisk (*) give the total acreage of rubber estates
under Japanese ownership in the various states. The table also indicates the
size of the main Japanese rubber estates in each state.

Source: Nippon-Malaysian Connections, p. 124.

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 170 Yuen Choy Leng

importance of iron mining soon attracted a few far-sighted Japanese. Iron mining, a
post-war phenomenon in the mining history of Malaya ? first carried out in Johore
and later extended to Trengganu and Kelantan ? soon became a Japanese monopoly.
The Japanese were the only people attracted to iron mining.26 The growth of the
Japanese population in Kelantan and Trengganu was accompanied by the growth of
Japanese iron interest in these two states. Before iron mining was started in Treng
ganu there were 186 Japanese in that state. A decade later in 1931, when the state
iron deposits were being steadily exploited, the number of Japanese had almost
doubled. By the eve of the Second World War there were 537 Japanese ? a great leap
from the 73 who were in the state on the eve of the First World War.27 Although there
were not as many Japanese in Kelantan as in Trengganu, the growth of their com
munity there followed the same pattern. It was only during the latter half of the 1930s
that the Japanese launched a determined drive to exploit the iron deposits in
Kelantan. During this period the number of Japanese in the state increased from 64 in
1931 to 107 in 1938.28 The Japanese who came to work in the iron mines or rubber
estates were usually administrators or clerks. They obtained the necessary manual
labour from Chinese coolies and a small proportion of Indians and Malays.29
One interesting feature of the Japanese community in Johore, Kelantan, and
Trengganu, where their rubber and iron interests were mainly concentrated, was that
women were seldom in the majority. This was unlike the situation in the Federated
Malay States (F.M.S.) where there had always been more Japanese women than men.
Japanese in the F.M.S. were found in other kinds of occupations like shopkeeping,
watch-repairing, laundrying, hairdressing, and photography.30 During the period be
tween the two world wars the number of Japanese in the F.M.S. decreased whilst their
numbers in Johore, Kelantan, Trengganu, and the Straits Settlements, particularly
Singapore, increased.31
The same reluctance to take up land in the peninsula in spite of encouragement
from several quarters also characterized Japanese response to participation in the
growing entrepot trade of Singapore. One of their consuls, Huzita Tosio, following the
footsteps of his predecessor, Miki Saito, endeavoured to stir some economic activities
by setting up a commercial showroom to advertise Japanese goods.32 This effort was

26 For an account of the growth of Japanese rubber and iron interests in Malaya, see Yuen
Choy Leng, "Japanese Rubber and Iron Investments in Malaya, 1900-1941", Journal of
Southeast Asian Studies V, no. 1 (Mar. 1974), 18-36.
77
" See Appendix 1.
28 Ibid.
29 Report, marked Secret, G.O.C, Malaya to Under-Sec. of State, W.O., 24 Aug. 1932, en
closed in C0273/581 File No. 92052/32. This was confirmed by T. Mori (interview, 22 Oct.
1968), who observed that there was no recruitment of manual labour from Japan; those who
were recruited were employed in "technical posts like overseers, engineers and cooks". [T.
Mori is a retired principal of the Methodist Boys School, Kuala Lumpur. He came to Malaya
with his parents who brought their three children with them.]
30 See Appendix 2.
1 See Appendix 1.
Nippon-Malaysian Connections, p. 88.

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The Pre-War Japanese Community in Malaya 111

not too successful as the attempt turned out to be premature. It was not till 1918 that
a Commercial Museum was successfully established.33
The First World War was mainly responsible for the influx of Japanese into
Singapore. The 1921 Census Report of British Malaya attributed the phenomenal in
crease to the fact that:
The war, which stopped the import of German goods into British Malaya and
hampered British competition gave Japanese merchants this opportunity.
The Report further remarked:
For the past five years they have been so much in evidence in commercial circles
in Singapore that the increase recorded in the Settlement, 118.7%, is not
surprising.34
In fact the increase was greater than it appeared because of the recent repatriation of
Japanese prostitutes. Almost half of the total Japanese community in Malaya was
resident in Singapore.
Besides being occupied in planting, mining, and commercial pursuits, quite a
number of Japanese in Malaya were engaged in the fishing industry. There was a
steady inflow of Japanese fishermen after the War. In 1924 there was an estimated
number of 215 Japanese fishermen in the Straits Settlements and the F.M.S.35 A
decade later the number increased fivefold to 1,050.36 The steady increase in their
numbers was probably due to the development of Japan's overseas fishing industry.
Fishing had been a traditional occupation of the Japanese who had to live with limited
farming land but unrestricted access to the sea. During the Meiji period fishing was
confined to coastal waters, and the methods used were primitive. But with gradual
modernization, techniques were improved. After 1910 large-scale commercial
operations were organized to exploit the more distant seas. They catered mainly to the
overseas market for Japanese canned fish.37 Rapid strides were made by the Japanese
fishing industry in the South Seas. By 1931, it was employing 3,000 men and earning
an annual income of ?6,000,000. This industry had bases stretching from Manila to
Singapore.38 Fishermen based in Singapore carried out their activities around the
coasts of Malaya, Sumatra, and the islands between Singapore, Java, and Borneo.
Some venture as far north as the Gulf of Siam and the Mergui archipelago.39
The Japanese asserted a dominant control over the local fishing industry. There
were two main fishing concerns owned by the Japanese: The Taichong Kongsi owned
by Tora Yeifuku, and the Ishizu Fishing Company owned by Tojiro Ishizu. The for
mer was reputed to have supplied forty per cent of fish consumed in Malaya.40 It was

33 Singapore Free Press, 25 Nov. 1918; M.B.P.L, May 1922, enclosed in C0273/516.
34 Nathan, op. cit., p. 90.
35 R.L. German, comp., Handbook to British Malaya (1926), p. 175. [Hereafter cited as
German, Handbook, followed by the relevant year.]
36 German,#??itaooM1935),p.221.
18
Lockwood, op. cit., p. 91.
Report on Netherlands East Indies, Political Situation, by Consul-General, Batavia,
No. 105, 25 Sept. 1931, in Despatch, Sec. of State, Foreign Affairs to Sec. of State, CO., 26
Nov. 1931 enclosed in C0273/571, File No. 82045/31.
39 Report, marked Secret, G.O.C, Malaya, to Under-Sec. of State, W.O., 24 Aug. 1932,
enclosed in C0273/581, File No. 92052/32.
Ibid.;Nippon-Malaysian Connections, pp. 121-22.

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172 Yuen Choy Leng

estimated that Japanese fishermen provided Singapore with about fifty per cent
(approximately 5,000 tons) of the supply of fresh fish landed every year.41 Undoubted
ly the sophisticated equipment used by Japanese fishermen, such as engine-powered
boats and cold storage facilities for their catch, gave them this tremendous advantage
over their local counterparts who were still using "open sailing or rowing boats".42
As their numbers increased the Japanese took steps to organize themselves into a
cohesive social community. Although they were already bound by inherent ties of
languages and culture, by 1915 they felt the need for a more formal organization.
During that year Japanese Associations sprang up in the major towns of Malaya.43
The Japanese Association in Singapore was the parent body to which the others were
loosely affiliated.44
Among the reasons given for the need of such Associations was the desire to be
freed "from the undesirable stigma of bygone days" during a time "when more decent
Japanese arrived to begin their commercial career in Singapore".45 The Japanese
Association thus took upon itself the task to provide social cohesion to the emigrant
members of the Japanese community. The objectives of the Association were: to
promote the social unity of the Japanese community, and to work towards its econo
mic hegemony. Evidence for the former is in a report on one of the Association's
annual general meeting where it was impressed upon the members:
The Japanese Society is the meeting place for all Japanese residents in Singapore
and adjacent places. The Consulate represents their Government and protects
them but it is for the Japanese Society to promote unity among the Japanese com
munity.46
Evidence for the latter is also found in the same report. The Association saw itself as a
"self-governing community fighting the economic battle for Japanese supremacy in
the South Seas".47
The Japanese Association became the largest public body governing the Japanese
community in the various towns. It took over the management of existing organi
zations and formed new ones to cater to the needs of its members. In Singapore, the
Association took over the management of the Japanese Elementary School, the
Crematorium, the Japanese Ward in the Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and the Japanese
Young Men's Association. A Japanese club was formed in 1922 and recreational
facilities like a sports field and golf course were also provided.48 The Association also

German, Handbook (1935), p. 221. The Japanese fishermen used a peculiar method
known as moro ami (bream net). They used divers to drive the fish (bream) into the net. For a
fuller description see p. 220.
Ibid., p. 219. Attention was directed to this lack of mechanization about a decade ago.
"The most outstanding need of the local fisheries is the suitable conversion of fishery methods
from manual labour to the use of power." German, Handbook (1926), p. 174.
43 For a list of all the Japanese Associations established, see Nippon-Malaysian Con
nections, pp. 126-29.
44 Straits Settlements Police Journal (S.S.P.J), 1933, para. 89.
Kee Yeh Siew, "The Japanese in Malaya before 1942", Journal of South Seas Society
XX, pts. land 2 (1965), 64.
46 S.S.PJ, 1924, para. 89.
47 Ibid.
8 M.B.P.L, May 1922, enclosed in C0273/516. Nippon-Malaysian Connections, p. 127.

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The Pre-War Japanese Community in Malaya 173

has a record of every member of the local Japanese community. It is interesting to

note that when the police in Penang were unable to locate two Japanese prostitutes to
execute a warrant of arrest on them, recourse was made to the registrar of the Asso
ciation "who was at once able to say where they were".49 In economic matters the
Association served as a coordinating and supervisory body. According to British
government records, the Japanese Association in Singapore governed Japanese trade
in the whole of the British possessions in the South Seas,50 namely, British Malaya
and British North Borneo. When the Japanese Commercial Museum was set up in
1918, it very likely cooperated with the Association to advance Japanese economic
interest in the region.
Police intelligence records reveal that the Association was organized along fairly
detailed lines with the office-bearers designated as Prime Minister, Ministers, Vice
Ministers, or Secretaries. Together, they made up the Cabinet for "Singapore
Village". Their "portfolios" covered a wide range and included those of Home
Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Communications, Commerce, Sanitary Affairs,
Exercise, Agriculture, Education, Graveyard, and Imperial Affairs.51 The designation
of responsibilities along such a grandiose scale might be thought comic if not for the
official standing the Association had with the Japanese consulate and the high
positions which certain office-bearers had with the Tokyo Government. One of the
office-bearers who was also the president of the Commercial Museum had once served
as acting envoy to Siam.52
The Japanese placed great value on education. Even before the First World War
when there were not so many Japanese, aNipponzin Syogakko (Japanese Elementary
School) was already established in 1912.53 By 1933, the Japanese school in Singapore
had eleven teachers with an enrolment of 414 pupils, 38 of whom were boarders.54
Until 1937 when another school was set up in Batu Pah at,55 the school in Singapore
was the only institution providing educational facilities for Japanese children in
Singapore and Johore. The decision to have an additional school in Batu Pahat was
probably made as a result of a meeting in Tokyo in March 1933. The meeting, attend
ed by about forty prominent Japanese businessmen and the Ministers for Foreign and
Overseas Affairs, was convened to discuss the possibility of organizing a Society for
Overseas Education. An organized effort was felt necessary to encourage settlers who
had emigrated overseas to stay on instead of returning to Japan "on account of the in
adequate facilities for education abroad". Among the aims of the Society was the
encouragement of education for children of Japanese residents abroad and the train

49 M.B.P.L, Nov. 1922, enclosed in C0273/518.

50 S.S.P.J, 1924, para. 89.
51 Ibid.
Ibid. The person concerned was Goro Miho.
Nippon-Malaysian Connections, p. 155.
54 S.S.P.J, 1933, para. 89.
The school was owned and managed by the Japanese Association in Batu Pahat. Letter,
Chief Police Officer, Batu Pahat to Custodian of Enemy Property, Johore Bahru, 20 Dec. 194L
Custodian of Enemy Property, Johore, File No. 22 on "Japanese Associations".

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 174 Yuen Choy Leng

ing of Japanese children from overseas to take their place as leaders of the coloniza
tion development programme.56
Such was the value placed upon education that Japanese parents in Johore were
willing to send their young children to boarding school in Singapore.57 It was no won
der then that except for the Europeans and Eurasians, the literacy rate of the
Japanese was the highest among all the other races.58
The school was partly financed by local Japanese and partly by an annual subsidy
from the Japanese Government. Teachers were permitted by the local authorities to
be imported from Japan. However, since the 1930s Japanese educational policy in
creasingly came under the control of the militarist, and was completely under its
power when an army figure, General Araki Sadao, was appointed Minister of
Education in 1941. The educational content became ultra-nationalistic and anti
British. It was therefore not surprising that no newly recruited or returning Japanese
teachers were allowed entry into Malaya in 1941.59
With a sound educational system for the children and a high literacy rate amongst
the adults, it was easy for such a public medium as the press to communicate effective
ly with the Japanese community. The Japanese had their own daily newspaper, Nanyo
Nichinichi Shimbun (South Seas Daily), which like the school also had its beginning
during the First World War. The N.N.N.S. had two objectives, namely, to propagate
pan-Asiatic sentiments and to promote Japanese colonization. These were clearly
revealed in the paper's review editorial commemorating its tenth anniversary in 1924:
Occupying an independent position as pressmen in a corner of Southern Asia,
we have struggled against great odds for the last 10 years in order to promote the
Common Warfare [sic] of all Asiatics, for we cherish the true meaning of a
Common Brotherhood.
The editorial further added:
For the last 10 years we made it our business to be the faithful guides of the over
seas Japanese in the South Seas and also to be their obedient servants.
It also voiced the hope that:
The number of steady Japanese who are prepared to establish a second Japan in a
foreign land will increase, and we will assist them in the advance already made.60
In the latter half of the 1930s several other Japanese newspapers emerged in
Singapore. But these were mainly for propagandistic purposes. Newspaper propagan
da was a major part of Japan's campaign to win popular support. In May 1938 the first
issue of a weekly supplement of the Singapore Nippo was published in English. The
appearance of this weekly was obviously meant to appeal to the Malayan-born

56 S.S.P.J., 1933, para. 55; Monthly Review of Chinese Affairs, June 1933, enclosed in
C0273/585, File No. 13008/33.
57 In a police list of Japanese aliens in Johore, 31 Oct. 1938, the children below the age of 15
were listed as schooling in Singapore, Custodian of Enemy Property, File No. 23 n.d. on
"Names of Japanese Aliens in the state of Johore".
58 Nathan, op. cit., p. 110.
Herbert Passin, Society and Education in Japan (New York, 1965), pp. 155-57, 266-68;
S.S.PJ, 1941, para. 44, 57, 69.
60 S.S.P.J., 1924, para. 109.

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The Pre-War Japanese Community in Malaya 175

Chinese who read English newspapers extensively. The Singapore Nippo also had a
daily edition in Chinese.61 A few months later in the same year the Eastern News
Agency began operations in Singapore.TheEastern News Agencyiot Toho) was found
ed in 1920 as a reliable channel through which Japanese-controlled news might
reach the foreign and Chinese newspapers in China. The Agency was reported to be
wholly subsidized by the Japanese Foreign Office. It was therefore not surprising that
the staff of the Eastern News Agency in Singapore included members of the Japanese
Foreign Office.62 The Singapore Herald, a Japanese-owned English language daily,
came into circulation in April 1939. It was reputed to be the brainchild of the Consul
General, Issaku Okamoto. The paper which was clearly seen as solely motivated by
propagandist purposes was not well received. To improve its circulation it was sold at
a cheaper price than those of the other English newspapers.63
Conclusion
Despite an ignominious beginning at the turn of the century, the Japanese in
Malaya grew into a socially cohesive community with important stakes in the
country's economy. The major reasons for the Japanese presence there were the avail
ability of natural resources, such as rubber and iron, and the access to a market for its
manufactures, particularly after 1905 when the development of Japan's modern
industries began to accelerate.64 Expansionists hoped that informally through over
seas settlements like these, Japan would be able to expand its power abroad in the
post-World War I environment which frowned on colonization through forceful
means.65 In Malaya agencies like the Japanese Association and the daily, N.N.N.S.,
were used to remind members of the community of their responsibility to secure
Japan's economic supremacy in the South Seas. Measures were taken by the Govern
ment to encourage permanent settlement, for example, by providing adequate
educational facilities for the children.
But there were the more idealistic who viewed the role of the Japanese emigrants
differently, "not as colonizers, the spearhead of imperialism, but as agents of inter
national cooperation and world peace". According to this view, in a world which was
getting smaller through increased communication and contact among the nations,
Japan was in a unique position to contribute to world peace and civilization because
of its Asian heritage and absorption of Western civilization. As a government official
put it, "while we send out our emigrants...we must try to spread our civilization,
especially our spiritual heritage, in the world and contribute to world peace and the
welfare of humanity".66

61 S.S.P.J, 1938, para. 27. See also comments on file by A.N. Calsworthy, 11 May 1939,
C0273/658, File No. 50616/39.
62 M.B.P.L, Dec. 1926, enclosed in C0273/535;S.S.P./., 1938, para. 56.
63 S.S.P.J, 1939, para. 47; Letter, G.W. Seabridge, (Straits Times, Singapore) to G.R.
Tonkin (Straits Times, London), 28 Apr. 1939, enclosed in C0273/656, File No. 5037/1.
64 Kazushi Ohkawa and Henry Rosovsky, "A Century of Japanese Economic Growth", in
W.W. Lockwood, ed., The State and Economic Enterprise in Japan (Princeton, 1965), p. 77.
Akira Iriye, "The Failure of Economic Expansionism, 1918-1931", in Japan in Crisis:
Essays on Taisho Democracy, ed. B.S. Silberman and H.D. Harootunian (Princeton, 1974),
pp. 240-^4.
66 Ibid., pp. 25S-56.

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 176 Yuen Choy Leng

Measured against such ideals, the Japanese in Malaya performed poorly. Their
community was aloof and self-contained, hardly interacting with members of the
other communities like the Malays, Chinese, or Indians. An intelligence report
observed:
All Japanese, male and female, keep very much to themselves; they speak a
language which hardly anyone in the Peninsula knows even a little of.... It is
therefore extremely difficult to find any chink in the armour of reserve and
exclusiveness which they wear.67
T. Mori, a Japanese resident, made a similar observation. According to him the
Japanese were very "communal minded". They lived together in clusters of Japanese
colonies in the various towns. In Singapore the "Japanese colony" was in Middle
Road, in Kuala Lumpur it was Batu Road and Petaling Street, and in Penang it was
Cintra Street. There was not much social contact with the other communities except
when on business.68 An old Chinese resident in Penang once commented to the present
writer that though he had contacts with Japanese traders he never had the opportu
nity to even taste their sake (Japanese wine).69
This reserved character of the Japanese, together with their known fervour for
patriotic deeds, gave rise to a popular image of them as espionage agents. The follow
ing traveller's account gives an indication of the suspicion shown towards Japanese
residents:
You were begged to consider those Japanese shops opening in Malaya wherever
there was nobody to buy enough to pay postage to Tokyo. And look at the crafty
agents everywhere from Singapore to Siam, pretending to be barbers or anything
else that put them where gossip was thickest! And these Japanese fishing-craft
sneaking around just off-shore at the most unlikely coasts, when much better
fishing was nearer home!70
Evidently much of these stories were exaggerated. However the question of how much
of a basis there was for these suspicions forms a subject for separate study. But there
is no doubt that information gathered in the course of legitimate activities by bona
fide residents were later used to aid the invasion of Malaya in 1941.71 Probably the
legitimate organizations and activities of the Japanese community also proved to be a
useful cover for the genuine espionage agents who obviously did infiltrate into the
country.
In a limited way the existence of a Japanese community in Malaya was a fulfil
ment of the hopes of the expansionists, although its presence was not sufficiently large
to make any considerable impact on the economy. Neither did its small number nor
its reserved cultural character encourage it to become a forerunner of the new world,
envisaged by the idealist, where East and West meet to form a universal civilization.
Eventually Japan resorted to force to build its new world embodied in the Greater

67 M.B.P.I., May 1922, enclosed in C0273/516.

T. Mori, interview.
69 Khor Cheang Kee (a journalist, resident in Penang), interview, 30 Oct. 1968.
70 H.M. Tomlinson, Malay Waters (London, 1950), p. 51.
Masanobu Tsuji, Singapore: The Japanese Version, trans. Margaret E. Lake (Sydney,
1960), p. 12.

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The Pre-War Japanese Community in Malaya 111

East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere which included Malaya and the rest of the South
Seas. Japanese military power ensured political dominance and economic hegemony
over the region and the establishment of an Asian cultural bloc based on the asserted
superiority of its culture. But when this power failed its new world also collapsed.

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 Appendix I
The Japanese Population in Malaya, 1871-1938

Straits Settlements Federated Malay States Unf

Year Singapore Penang Malacca Total Perak Selangor Negeri Pahang Total Johore Kelantan
Sembilan

1871 IM 10M nil 11 NA NA NA NA NA NA

1881 8M 4M nil 26 NA NA NA NA NA NA
14F
1891 58M IM 2M 4M 8M 2M
229F 20F 15F 325 28F 60F 12F 120 NA NA
1901 188M 26M 10M 23M 47M 15M 2M
578F 212F 10F 955 175F 186F 41F 46F 535 NA NA
1911 514M 266 92 1785 125M 116M 71M 25M
913F 629F 579F 262F 222F 2029 173
1921 1909M 118M 41M 190M 274M 258M 35M 878M 5M
1211F 122F 68F 3469 376F 499F 324F 122F 1978 409F 10F
1931 1801M 110M 15M 139M 216M 165M 13M 674M 35M
1414F 123F 45F 3508 235F 301F 183F 71F 1323 479F 29F
1939 NA NA NA 4200 NA NA NA NA 610M NA
327F

Source: Compiled from Census Reports, 1871-1931, and List of Numbers of Per
Origin who have Immigrated to the Colonies during the Last Five Yea
Despatch No.S. of S.36/1939, High Commissioner's Office to Sec. of St

Note: NA ? figures not available

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 Appendix II
Official Consular Classification of Occupation of Japanese
Residents in British Malaya, British North Borneo, and
Sarawak as on 1 October, 1933

Occupation Number actually Number of

employed dependents
M M
Employees in Commercial
Firms 576 169 406
Planters 110 37 98 164
Estate employees 102 16 48
Fishermen 916 33 103
Employees of Iron Mines 68 11 36
Laundry workers 47 4 20 59
Tailors 44 37 15 55
Carpenters 89 23 23 68
Petty traders 176 16 89 234
Hotels and Restaurants 97 114 15 46
Geishas, Prostitutes,
Maidservants 87
Barbers 90 5 44 74
Teachers 12 11 13 11
Medical Practitioners, etc. 82 45 68 98
Photographers 95 1 17 78
Domestic Servants 22 221 5 35
Factory employees 58 8 24
Shipping 139 1 10

Source: Straits Settlements Police Journal, Dec. 1933, para. 95.

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