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James Brooke might be widely known as the first ‘White Rajah’ of Sarawak. However, did you know that he was not the first man to be known as the first ‘White Rajah’ in Borneo? About 30 years before Brooke established his dynasty in Sarawak, British merchant and adventurer Alexander Hare founded an independent fiefdom in […]
Sometimes when you eat a certain food, you are eating a piece of history. Take banh mi, for instance. It is a type of Vietnamese sandwich made up of an airy baguette with a cirspy, thin crust filled with various ingredients like cilantro, pork sausage, pickled carrots along with chilli and mayonnaise. While the Southern […]
Unit 731’s official name was ‘Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army’ but their actual work had nothing to do with safeguarding health and security. This biological and chemical warfare research development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army actually started epidemics and polluted rivers with human remains. Based at the Pingfang district […]
The Geneva Conventions are four treaties and three additional protocols which establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. Basically, the treaties define the basic rights of wartime prisoners for both civilians and military personnel. In other words, just because you have conquered a country, it doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you […]
Captain Lionel Matthews might not be a familiar name for Sarawakians but during World War II (WWII) he was executed by a firing squad on Mar 2, 1944 in Kuching. After the war, he was posthumously awarded the George Cross. It is the highest award for heroism or courage in the face of the enemy […]
Kempeitai or also known as Kenpeitai was the infamous Japanese military police from 1881 to 1945. In Japanese-occupied territories, this police force was in charge of arresting and executing those who were suspected of being anti-Japanese. They were notorious for their brutal treatment of prisoners during World War II (WWII). Many historians refer to them […]
If you are not familiar with Flores island, Indonesia, it was the home of Homo floresiensis, a species of small archaic human. This species of human was nicknamed ‘Hobbit’ by its discoverers, after the fictional race popularised in J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Hobbit. It is believed that the Homo floresiensis lived on Flores island until […]
Outram Prison was one of the earliest prisons in Singapore. Originally, it was known as Pearl’s Hill Prison before being called Outram Prison or Outram Road Prison. Completed in 1882, the jail complex had five blocks for male criminals; four for natives and one for European. Other buildings housed the female prisons, hospitals, employees’ quarters, […]
‘Sumpit’ or ‘sumpitan’ are what we call the blowpipe or blowgun in Borneo. Some communities in the Philippines and Sulawesi also refer to the blowpipe as ‘sumpit’. In fact, the first written description of sumpit can be found in the works of Italian scholar and explorer Antonio Pigafetta in 1521 who visited the Palawan people. […]
Junyo Maru was one of the many Japanese hell ships during World War II. It was used to transport Prisoners of War (POWs) with bamboo cages built in to imprison them. When it was attacked and sunk on Sept 18, 1944 by British submarine HMS Tradewind, it became the world’s greatest sea disaster at the […]
