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Know the true story behind Oscar-nominated film Sandakan No. 8 (1974)

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Sandakan No. 8 (1974) is a Japanese film directed by Kei Kumai which focused on the ‘karayuki-san’.

‘Karayuki-san’ is the Japanese term for young women forced into sexual slavery in the 19th and early 20th century. Directly translated, it means ‘Ms. Gone-To-China’, although it was expanded to ‘Ms. Gone-Abroad’ as it saw these young women being trafficked to Southeast Asia, Manchuria and even as far as San Francisco.

The movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1975. (It lost to Akira Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala.) 

Know the true story behind Oscar-nominated film Sandakan No. 8 (1974)

The plot of Sandakan No.8

The film starts with journalist Keiko Mitani (Komaki Kurihara) who is researching the history of Japanese women who were sex slaves in Asian brothels during the early 20th century.

While researching, she finds Osaki (Kinuyo Tanaka), a former karayuki-san who lives in a shack in a rural village.

Osaki agrees to tell her life as the film goes into a flashback to the 1920s.

Poverty-stricken circumstances led to a young Osaki (Yoko Takashi) being sold by her family to work as a maid.

The location? Thousands of miles away in Sandakan, British North Borneo (present-day Sabah).

Osaki thought she was going to work in a hotel. As it turns out, the establishment was actually a brothel called Sandakan No.8.

She is forced to work as a prostitute at Sandakan No.8 until World War II. During her stay at the brothel, she has a short-lived romance with a poor farmer.

When Osaki finally returns to Japan, her brother and his wife who have bought a house using the money she sent them, turns her away. Osaki’s life can never be normal again due to her past at Sandakan No.8.

In the epilogue, Osaki tells Keiko about a graveyard established for prostitutes who died in Sandakan.

Later, Keiko makes her way to Borneo looking for the cemetery. When she finds the graveyard, Keiko realises that all of them were buried with their feet pointing in the direction of Japan.

It is a gesture to condemn their ancestral home for abandoning them.

Sandakan No. 8 is based on the book “Sandakan Brothel No. 8: An Episode in the History of Lower Class”

When author Yamazaki Tomoko interviewed a former karayuki-san, she gave her the pseudonym – Yamakawa Saki – to protect her identity.

Yamazaki met her by accident during a trip to Amakusa in 1968 while researching on karayuki-san. After a series of interviews with Osaki and her friend Ofumi, Yamazaki wrote the book “Sandakan Brothel No. 8: An Episode in the History of Lower Class” (1972).

Although it was Yamazaki’s first book, it instantly became a national best-seller, with her work considered as a pioneer work on karayuki-san. It was later followed by “The graves of Sandakan 1964” and “The Song of a Woman Bound for America 1981”.

The real-life Osaki was born around 1900. Shortly after her birth, her father died leaving her mother struggling to feed three children.

Osaki’s mother then remarried, this time to her own brother-in-law, moving in with her new husband and his six children. For the most part, however, her mother left Osaki and her siblings to fend for themselves.

In order to survive, Osaki’s brother sold her to a procurer for 300 yen. Osaki had also agreed to go because her best friend was going too. She was only 10 years old.

When Osaki first arrived at Sandakan, she worked as a cleaner in the brothel on Lebuh Tiga in Sandakan.

After she turned 13, she was forced to take on customers.

Osaki’s life at Sandakan No.8

Later, she moved to Sandakan No. 8, also known as Brothel No.8, which was unusually owned by a woman named Kinoshita Okuni. She was also known as Okuni of Sandakan who treated her girls well.

Before coming to Sandakan, Okuni was a live-in mistress to an Englishman back in Yokohama. After he left Japan for good, she moved to Sandakan to open a general store and a brothel.

Osaki became a live-in mistress to an Englishman in Sandakan after seven years working at the brothel.

Interestingly, the arrangement was a facade to hide the fact that the Englishman was having an affair with another Englishman’s wife.

Little is known about the Englishman. Osaki called him “Mister Home” and he worked at Dalby Company which owned a shipyard in Sandakan back then. Mister Home also had a wife and children back in England.

Nonetheless, Osaki was happy with the arrangement. She still received money from Mister Home to send it back to Japan and she no longer took customers at the brothel.

Unfortunately, just like the film, Osaki was rejected by her elder brother and the rest of her family upon her return to Japan.

So where is Sandakan No.8?

Just like Keiko in the movie, Yamazaki made her way to Sandakan in the 1970s.

To her disappointment, there were no traces left from Sandakan No.8 or any other brothels.

However, she did find an old graveyard which is now called Sandakan Japanese Cemetery.

It was founded in 1890 by Osaki’s boss, Okuni. She built it to pray for the souls of Japanese who died in Sandakan.

And just like in the movie Sandakan No.8, they were all buried with their feet pointed in Japan’s direction.

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Ellena, the forgotten American colony in Sabah

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Did you know that there was an American colony in Sabah? And at one point in time, James Brooke and successors were not the only white ‘Rajahs’ on Borneo island.

The establishment of Consulate in Brunei

In 1850, the United States signed a bilateral treaty of Peace, Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation with the Sultanate of Brunei. This treaty was enforced on July 11, 1853 and is still in effect to this day.

Then in 1865, the US sent its first consul in Brunei, Charles Lee Moses.

Moses later on played an important role in the establishment of Ellena.

In August 1865, Moses concluded a 10-year lease with Brunei’s Sultan Abdul Momin.

The Sultan then guaranteed land rights in various areas in the north of Borneo.

Later, Moses went on to sell these rights to an American merchant Joseph William Torrey in return for a third of any profits made.

In October 1865, Torrey along with another American, Thomas Bradley Harris decided to build a colony in the area of today’s Kimanis, about 45km from Kota Kinabalu.

The new venture was pursued under The American Trading Company of Borneo. It was a chartered company formed by Torrey, Harris and several Chinese investors.

Torrey even made a trip to Sultan of Brunei to draw up a new concession letter on Nov 24, 1865.

In the letter, the Sultan even gave Torrey the title of ‘Rajah of Ambong and Marudu’.

The beginning of Ellena colony

Finally in December 1865, Torrey with 12 Americans and around 60 Chinese founded a colony in Kimanis called ‘Ellena’.

After raising a flag of his own designed, Torrey appointed himself as the governor and Harris as his vice-governor.

The news of this colony even made it to Hong Kong China Mail. The news reported, “The progress of the enterprise will be watched with much interest, as being the first attempt of Americans to colonise away from their own continent.”

Ellena, the forgotten American colony in Sabah
Thomas Bradley Harris (standing) and Joseph William Torrey, founders of the US colony “Ellena” on the Island of Borneo

The downfall of Ellena

According to Frank Tatu in his paper ‘The United States Consul, the Yankee Raja, Ellena and the Constitution’, the British government was concerned with American intentions.

They asked their Minister in Washington to enquire about the issue.

In response, the British was informed that the US had not authorised any attempts to form any settlements in Borneo.

As for Moses, he simply acted on his own.

Maybe because the colony was not approved by their own government, Ellena went down as fast as it came into being.

Ellena became a target for pirates from Hong Kong and Macau.

In the same time, the colony did not have any financial backup and their workers were going hungry.

Rumours had it that it was Moses who recruited the pirates in an effort to collect the money from the company.

While Torrey was trying to find investors in Hong Kong for Ellena, Harris died of Malaria on May 22, 1866.

By the end of 1866, Ellena was abandoned.

The remaining Ellena colonists found work at nearby British-operated coal fields while others went back to Hong Kong.

As for Torrey, he buried his friend Harris on the top of a nearby hill in Ellena.

He still used his title as the ‘Rajah’ and conducted commerce in the region for several years.

Finally in 1881, Torrey sold his rights in Kimanis to Austrian Baron von Overbeck and partner Alfred Dent for $25,000.

This paved way for what we know now as the British North Borneo Company (BNBC).

What happened to Moses?

The fall of Ellena affected the life Moses who became poor after the collapse of the colony.

Tatu stated, “He frequently wrote the US State Department complaining that no consular fees were to be had, and imploring that he be accorded a salary. Receiving no favourable response, Moses was driven to desperation.

“Moses allegedly armed attacks on the burning of his consulate on Mar 25, 1867 by ‘Malay people’.
By way of demanding reparations, Moses threatened the Sultan with retaliation by American naval units ‘to fire and burn the city.’”

However, the Sultan strongly believed that Moses burned the consulate himself. He was reportedly seen removing valuables from the consulate for days before the fire.

In the meantime, Moses moved to Labuan to wait for any news especially from the US.

There, tragedy struck him again when one of his children died. He had no choice but to send his wife and surviving child back to the US.

In September 1867, Moses received the news that he had been suspended from his duties by the president.

Then in May 1868, he boarded the Barque Swallow and later reported to be lost at sea.

The rediscovery of Ellena and he rediscover the grave of Thomas Bradley Harris

Ernest Alfred Pavitt, a land surveyor for the British North Borneo Company (BNBC) was the one who found Harris’ grave in 1909.

In a note published in British North Borneo Herald, Pavitt wrote, “A good many years ago, having to go from the West Coast to the Interior of British North Borneo, accompanied by Mr. P.F. Wise, the District Officer of North Keppel, we made our starting point from Kimanis and from the principal native kampung on the river. Mr Wise pointed on a hill on which he had told me an American gentleman had, some years previously, been buried.

”This was again brought forcibly to my collection some days ago as in my examination of land at this particular place I sent a gang of coolies to clear the top of a small and prominent hill of jungle to enable me to have a look at the surrounding country.

“On my going up a few days later I found this was the resting place of evidently an old pioneer, as there still exist in a very fair state of preservation both the head and foot stone marking this interesting spot.”

A year later, while BNBC was opening the Kimanis Rubber Estate, they found that some of the hill sides had been carefully terraced.

The company believed that these terraces were probably the remains of the company’s experimental planting.

What happened to Torrey after Ellena collapsed?

A year after the collapse of Ellena, Torrey had a daughter born in 1867. He named her Elena Charlotte, most probably after his colony.

Torrey later bought his own ship which he christened as ‘Ellen’.

From 1877 to 1880, Torrey was a vice-consul at the US Consulate in Thailand.

By 1883, he returned to America. In 1885, he received the news that he had been appointed as the King of Thailand’s chief adviser.

While he was contemplating whether he should accept the post, Torrey died suddenly on June 22, 1885.

After his death, Torrey was known as the ‘Yankee Rajah’ and ‘the only American Rajah’ despite the fact his beloved colony did not even last a year.

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Elizabeth Mershon’s patronising descriptions of ‘Wild Men of Borneo’

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It is the 1920s. Imagine you are a pastor’s wife, and have sailed thousands of miles from your home to live in a very foreign country.

You don’t speak the local languages so there is no way you can understand their cultures or customs.

Your husband is always away from home preaching to people you refer to as the ‘wild men’ with hope the news of the Gospel will ‘civilise’ them.

And you stay at home with your servant girl who often clashes with you because she is not running the chores according to your American way.

The only way you could learn about this foreign place you are living in is through your husband and other Westerners around you.

By the time you return to your home country, you write a book and publish it under the title ‘With the Wild Men of Borneo’ (1922), which is what Elizabeth Mershon did.

Elizabeth and her husband Leroy Mershon were stationed in Sandakan in the 1920s as part of the Seventh-day Adventist North Borneo Mission.

Her book ‘With the Wild Men of Borneo’, obviously was by no means an anthropology book but was based on her experience here in Borneo.

For the most part, it offers a glimpse of life in Borneo before World War 2, and also the Western perspective of the ‘civilising mission’ which can be seen in Mershon’s descriptions of Borneans as part of an introduction in the third chapter of her book.

These descriptions are based on her personal opinions which Mershon seemed to have gathered from hearsay around her.

Elizabeth Mershon’s patronising descriptions of ‘Wild Men of Borneo’

So here are some of Elizabeth Mershon’s eyebrow-raising descriptions about the so-called ‘Wild Men of Borneo’:

1.There are ‘two classes’ of Dayaks and one of them is ‘more truthful than the other’

“There are two classes of Dyaks. Those living inland are called Land Dyaks; those living on the coast are called Sea Dyaks.”

“The Sea Dyak, unlike the Land Dyak, is truthful and fairly honest.”

2.The Ibans are descended from the Bugis?

“The Sea Dyaks are not as pure a race as the Land Dyaks, having intermarried with the Bugis from Makassar, in the Celebes.”

3.The description about Bajau people

“On the east coast of British North Borneo are found the Bajaus, or Sea Gypsies. They are a lazy, irresponsible race, building their houses over water, but living almost entirely in their boats. They are of Malay origin, although much darker and larger than the Malays. Taking each day as it comes, and never troubling about what is going to happen tomorrow, they pick up a scanty living along the seashore, catching fish, and finding turtles’ eggs, clams and sea slugs. They lead a wild roving life in the open air, plundering and robbing at every opportunity.”

4.The Bajau are not the only ‘lazy people’ in Borneo according to Mershon

“The Sulus are very lazy, independent and troublesome. Yet they are very brave, and make the best sailors and traders among the islands.”

5.Perhaps ‘the laziest people’ in Borneo according to Mershon are the Muruts

“A very low race called the Muruts live in the interior, on a mountain range near the west coast. These people simply will not work. They eat food they can put their hands on. No matter how dirty an article of food may be, and no matter how long an animal may be dead, it is all the same to the Muruts; they eat it and seem to enjoy it.”

6.The Bruneians don’t seem to be hardworking either

“The natives living in Brunei are called after the name of their country. They too are very lazy; but when they have a mind to work, they make good fishermen.”

7.Finally, the last group of ‘lazy people’ of British North Borneo

“There are also a few Malays and Javanese in British North Borneo. The former are naturally lazy and do not care to work. The Javanese make fairly good gardeners for the Europeans.”

As patronising as Mershon might sound, she did grow fond of Borneo.

In the very first paragraph of her book, “From my childhood days until I arrived in Borneo, all I knew about the country was that it was where the wild men lived, and I always imagined that they spent most of their time running around the island cutting off people’s heads… Before you finish what I am going to tell you about distant Borneo and its people, I hope you will have learned that the ‘wild man from Borneo’ is not such a bad fellow after all.”

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BTS and other K-pop artists who have visited Kota Kinabalu

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After the ninth episode of South Korean hit drama ‘Start-up’ aired last November, Kota Kinabalu went trending online.

While bragging about the view of the sunset from his family’s holiday homes, the character Cheol-san mentions the sunsets at Santorini and Kota Kinabalu.

The capital state of Sabah is not that foreign to South Koreans. During the pre-Covid days, Koreans made up the second largest international arrivals in Sabah, second to China, with almost 30,000 South Koreans recorded in 2019 according to Sabah Tourism Board.

However, do you know that K-pop boy band BTS was one of the many South Koreans who had arrived in Sabah?

Apart from Jay Park and Hyuna who had performed here before and IN2IT’s Isaac Voo who is a Sabahan, here are some K-pop artists who have already set foot in Kota Kinabalu:

1.BTS

Today, even non K-pop fans recognise the name ‘BTS’.

When the seven-member K-pop idol visited Kota Kinabalu back some time in May 2015, it was just about two years after they debuted.

If they were to arrive in Kota Kinabalu today, Sabahans (and most likely the rest of Malaysia) would definitely go crazy.

During their visit, the members stayed at Pacific Sutera Hotel and visited Lok Kawi Wildlife Park.

It wasn’t just fun and fames for BTS when they were in Kota Kinabalu as they came to shoot the BTS Summer Package 2015 (a photobook and vlog released in conjunction of their debut anniversary).

2.Hyeri from Girls’ Day

Remember in 2017 when George R.R. Martin tweeted a picture of himself and Quentin Tarantino enjoying a cruise down the Kuching Waterfront? By the time he posted the photo, they both had long left the city.

The same thing goes for Hyeri from K-pop girl group Girl’s Day in 2019. When she posted a photo of herself in a dark dress with palm trees in the background, Malaysian fans quickly recognised that it was taken somewhere near Kota Kinabalu City Mosque.

The mosque is partially surrounded by a human-made lagoon, giving it the nickname “The Floating Mosque”.

While Hyeri never confirmed if she was really in the city, she was most probably back in South Korea when she posted the photo.

BTS and other K-pop artists who have visited Kota Kinabalu
“The Floating Mosque” Credit: Pixabay.

3.Ailee

On Apr 6, 2015, K-pop solo artist Ailee posted a photo of herself with a group of friends having a good time by a poolside on Instagram.

A photo of a celebrity having fun by the pool, no big deal right?

The photo, nonetheless, drew attention from her Malaysian fans thanks to her caption, “#kotakinabalu, #poolside and #welovesun”

In another photo of herself in a black bikini, she used the hashtags #goodbye, #timetowork and #backinseoul.

Obviously, she stayed under the radar as she flew in and out of the city.

Have you ever spotted any K-pop artists in Kota Kinabalu before? Let us know in the comment box.

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What you should know about the Battle of Beaufort

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The Borneo campaign of 1945 was the last major Allied campaign in the South West Pacific Area during World War II (WWII) to liberate Japanese-held Borneo.

One of the combats that took place during the campaign was Battle of Beaufort in 1945.  

Located about 90 kilometers south of Kota Kinabalu, the town of Beaufort was initially developed to help the economic activity of interior of Sabah.

The town was named after former British governor Leicester Paul Beaufort.

The prelude before the Battle of Beaufort

The operation to secure North Borneo was separated into phases; preparatory bombardment, forced landing and an advance.

They wanted to turn Brunei Bay into a naval base for the British Pacific Fleet. To do that, the Allied forces need to secure Labuan to control the entrance to Brunei Bay. At the same time, Labuan would be developed as an airbase.

After several weeks of air attacks as well as a short naval bombardment, soldiers of the Australian 24th Brigade landed on Labuan on June 10.

The Japanese garrison was outnumbered and the Australians quickly captured the island’s harbour and main airfield.

The fight in Labuan continued until June 21. In the end, a total of 389 Japanese personnel were killed on Labuan and 11 were captured. Meanwhile, Australian casualties numbered 34.

After capturing Labuan, the Australian solders successfully captured the town of Weston against light opposition from the Japanese.

Since there was no road from Weston to Beaufort, the battalion advanced along the single track railway toward Beaufort.

In the meantime, another Australian battalion landed around Mempakul from Labuan also without any resistance from the Japanese.

They managed to secure the Klias Peninsula before moving along the Klias River heading to Beaufort.

Later, the two Australian battalions reunited at Kandu and made their journey towards Beaufort together.

Once the Australians captured Beaufort, they would be able to control the railway that ran toward Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu).

The Battle of Beaufort

What you should know about the Battle of Beaufort
A 2/43rd Battalion mortar crew firing on Japanese positions near Beaufort on 28 June 1945 (Copyright expired – Public Domain).

On June 26, the two Australian battalions started to approach the town. At that time, there were about 800 to 1000 Japanese soldiers at Beaufort.

The Australian soldiers coordinately captured the town and ambushed the route where the Japanese were expected to withdraw along.

At the same time, the Japanese resistance lacked coordination as they tried to launch six counterattacks against the Australians.

During the battle, some fights even went down to hand-to-hand combat.

The six counterattacks by the Japanese all resulted in failure. By June 29, Australian soldiers had captured the town.  

With that, the Australians were able to open the Weston-Beaufort railway line to bring in the supplies.

The Allied forces then continued to secure Papar on July 6.

In the end, The Battle of Beaufort took the lives of seven Australians and 93 Japanese, leaving 40 people (including 2 Japanese) wounded.

The story of Tom Starcevich’s gallantry

What you should know about the Battle of Beaufort
A patrol from the 2/43rd Battalion in the Beaufort area during August 1945 (Copyright expired- Public Domain).

On June 28, Tom Starcevich’s company encountered two Japanese machine-gun positions in the middle of a jungle track.

The Japanese opened fire first and the Australians suffered some casualties. Starcevich moved forward and assaulted both Japanese positions using his Bren gun.

He killed five Japanese soldiers and causing the rest to retreat. Later on the same day, the company again came across another two machine gun positions. Again, Starcevich single-handedly attacked both and killing another seven Japanese soldiers.

For his bravery, Starcevich was awarded the Victoria Cross after the war. It is the highest decoration for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to members of Commonwealth armed forces.

The track where Starcevich’s gallant move took place was later renamed Victoria Cross Road.

Additionally, there is a monument in Beaufort named The Starcevich Monument or Beaufort Australian Monument dedicated to Starcevich.

The aftermath of Battle of Beaufort and the discovery of comfort women

With their six counterattacks, the resistance in Beaufort was the only time that the Japanese had actually made an effort to fight against Allied forces in North Borneo.

Although there were minor combats in the following months, the Battle of Beaufort was considered the last significant action fought in North Borneo during WW2.

In August 1945, a member of the Australian Ninth Regiment was in Borneo as part of the British-Borneo Civil Affairs Unit.

He reportedly found some Javanese women who had been transported to Borneo by the Japanese as comfort women. These women were forced into sexual slavery during the war.

The Javanese women were living in the ruins of the Japanese comfort station somewhere in Beaufort.

According to the book Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II, the Australian forces took them to a small island off in the Borneo coast for medical treatment and rehabilitation.

While the Australians wanted to send them back to Indonesia, the women were afraid of going home because of the shame associated with their experience, so much so that one of them committed suicide. However, it is not certain if the rest of the women managed to return home.

After the war ended, Beaufort was the place where the Japanese were told to gather before they were transported back to Japan.

Unfortunately for them, many of the Japanese were killed by the Muruts on their way to Beaufort.

Out of thousands of Japanese troops who marched to Beaufort after surrendering their firearms, only a few hundred ever reached Beaufort.

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The locust plague that hit North Borneo in 1919

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Do you know a plague of locusts once hit North Borneo about a century ago in 1919?

The Sarawak Gazette on Dec 16, 1919 reported that until that year North Borneo had never suffered from a locust plague on a big scale.

The locust plague that hit North Borneo in 1919

“As far as is known the only occasion on which they have appeared previously was about fifteen years ago in the Tenom district, when they died out spontaneously without increasing to large proportions.”

The 1919 locust plague started in Tempasuk (Kota Belud) at the end of December 1918.

“The insects rapidly increased in number- their multiplication being doubtless assisted by favourable weather conditions and by June of this year they head spread to Kudat and Mempakad on the north, Membakut and Kuala Penyu on the south and Parenchangan in the Interior residency on the east,” the report stated.

By June, the locust plague hit the river Bengkoka in the Marudu district, the Sipitang district and the river Lingkabao in the Sandakan residency.

Fighting against locust plague

Since the locals and administrators of North Borneo were not familiar with locust plagues, they initially did not know how to fight it.

Eventually, they came up with a very labour-intensive solving method.

The report stated, “The first method of destruction used was to drive the hoppers into traps composed of sheets by a strip of smooth oilcloth sewn near the top. A pit was dug at the apex of the trip and filled with water with a little crude oil on the surface; on falling into this the locusts were immediately killed.

Another method to kill them, especially when labour was scarce is to poison them. The vegetation on which they were feeding was sprayed with sodium arsenite ‘with molasses being added to make the poisoned substances attractive’.

These methods were successful in killing the locusts, save for small swarms that escaped their fates.

By the end of 1919, North Borneo was almost free of locust plague. However, patrols were still being maintained to guard against the possibility of scattered individuals multiplying into swarms.

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The Brunei Civil War and how it led to Sulu’s claim over Sabah

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The Brunei Civil War took place centuries years ago from 1660 to 1673. However, the consequences from this particular warfare seems to have an effect even to this day.

Adding on to the element of disbelief of this piece of history, the Brunei Civil War had, in fact, started from a cockfight.

The Brunei Civil War, a warfare which started from a cockfight

Pengiran Muda Bongsu, the son of Brunei’s 12th sultan, Sultan Muhammad Ali, had been indulging in a round of cockfighting with Pengiran Muda Alam, the son of the chief minister (only second to the sultan), Bendahara Abdul Hakkul Mubin.

The innocent cockfight turned bloody when Pengiran Muda Bongsu was defeated by Pengiran Muda Alam.

Pengiran Muda Bongsu, either being a super sore loser or entitled as the sultan’s son (perhaps both?) was so enraged by the loss that he stabbed Pengiran Muda Alam in the chest with his keris, ultimately killing him.

The Brunei Civil War and how it led to Sulu’s claim over Sabah
When a cockfight turns bloody. Credit: Pixabay.

The wrath of a father

The bendahara was furious upon learning the death of his beloved son, marching his men to the palace to confront the sultan.

‘A tooth for a tooth’, Abdul Hakkul Mubin told the sultan, wanting to avenge his son’s death.

To this demand, various sources cite the sultan’s responses differently.

One source stated that Abdul Hakkul Mubin was denied the right to search the palace for Pengiran Muda Bongsu, while another source stated that the sultan had allowed him to do so.

Either way, the prince had made his escape and the bendahara could not find Pengiran Muda Bongsu.

Furious, Abdul Hakkul Mubin went amok, going into a killing spree which took the lives of everyone in the palace, including the royal family.

With the help of his men, Abdul Hakkul Mubin killed the sultan by garroting him to death.

The place where the sultan was slain is now known as ‘Marhum Tumbang Dirumput’, as his body was left lying on the grass.

Meanwhile, the bendahara took the throne, becoming sultan as he crowned himself the 13th Sultan of Brunei.

Sultan Abdul Hakkul Mubin’s reign

Naturally, the people were not happy that their new sultan had killed his way to the throne. In order to gain their trust, Sultan Abdul Hakkul Mubin installed the late sultan’s grandson – Pengiran Muhyiddin – as the new Bendahara.

It was not enough. The loyal followers of the late Sultan Muhammad Ali were not happy, imploring the now Bendahara Muhyiddin to fight against Sultan Abdul Hakkul Mubin.

A rebellion started by ‘mengarok’

Muhyiddin and his followers planned to create a disturbance at the palace and the houses in the area.

They started to ‘mengarok’, poking spears through the floors of the palace and houses.

When Sultan Abdul Hakkul Mubin turned to Muhyiddin for advice on what to do, he advised him to move his palace to Pulau Chermin.

The moment the Sultan moved out from the mainland to Pulau Chermin, Muhyiddin declared himself the 14th Sultan of Brunei.

No country can be ruled by two kings. Therefore, the battle between the two sultans began.

The war begins

After repelling several attacks from Muhyiddin, Abdul Hakkul Mubin eventually retreated to Kinarut, Sabah.

With help of local Bajaus and Dusuns, he managed to defend himself from Muhyiddin.

Abdul Hakkul Mubin reportedly lived in Kinarut for 10 years to defend his title.

In the final attack at Kinarut, however, Muhyiddin still failed to defeat Abdul Hakkul Mubin.

Then, Abdul Hakkul Mubin decided to return to Pulau Chermin.

It turned out to be a great strategic move for Abdul Hakkul Mubin. From there, he was able to control the food supply going into the mainland as the island is located near the mouth of Brunei river.

In the meantime, the people of Brunei were suffering as they could not go out to fish during the civil war.

Worried that the war would drag on, Muhyiddin decided to seek the Sultan of Sulu for help.

In return, Muhyiddin promised to hand over the eastern part of north Borneo as a reward.

Finally, Muhyiddin’s men successfully attacked Pulau Chermin, launching the final assault on Abdul Hakkul Mubin and his men.

Knowing that he would be defeated, Abdul Hakkul Mubin threw himself into the sea along with his crown.

The Brunei Civil War and how it led to Sulu’s claim over Sabah
Territory in the 1878 agreement from the Pandassan River on the north west coast to the Sibuco River in the south. Copyright: Public Domain

The Sulu Sultanate and their claim over eastern Borneo (current-day Sabah)

Meanwhile, the Sulu Sultanate was like that classmate everyone used to have who did not contribute to the group assignment but still had his share of the mark.

They reportedly did not help much in the final battle except by showing up at the last minute.

Regardless, the Sultan of Sulu still claimed his reward of eastern Sabah.

Meanwhile, Brunei, on their side, never recognised the claim and never released any official document to legitimise Sulu’s sovereignty of the area.

Fast forward to December 1877, Baron Gustav von Overbeck managed to convince the Sultan of Brunei to concede some territories to him to form the British North Borneo Company.

From there, he found out about the Sulu’s claim to the eastern territory of the area. Hence, he proceeded to obtain that part of territories from Sultan of Sulu.

Some historians believed that was when the real trouble of the North Borneo dispute began. Many believed that the eastern part of Borneo was never officially ruled by Sulu sultanate in the first place.

Overbeck reportedly wanted to ‘avoid’ future problems with Sulu Sultanate. Therefore, he had the Sultanate of Sulu to sign an agreement on January 22, 1878.

The problematic agreement which, depending on the translation, stipulated that North Borneo was either ceded or leased to the British company.

Today, the Philippines, presenting itself as the successor state of the Sulu Sultanate, retains a dormant claim on Eastern Sabah on the basis that the territory was only ‘leased’ to the British North Borneo Company in 1878.

Can you imagine how these international claims today, had originated from a cockfight?

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8 things the Timugon Murut believe about Nabalu, or the afterlife

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8 things the Timugon Murut believe about Nabalu, or the afterlife

Different beliefs offer different views of the afterlife. In some views, the afterlife takes place in a spiritual realm. Another popular view is reincarnation. It is where the individual may be reborn into this world with no memory of his past life.

Meanwhile in Sabah, the Timugon Murut people have their own perception of the afterlife.

According to Kielo A. Brewis in his paper The Death of a Timugon Murut (1987), nabalu is what the Timugon Murut people believe to be their afterworld.

So here are what you should know about the traditional belief of the Timugon Murut when comes to nabalu:

1.After a person dies, their soul is said to leave the body and continue to float around the house until a chicken is sacrificed on the morning of the burial day. That is when the soul goes to nabalu.
At that time, the soul is believed to not take any special form, but is merely invisible.

2.Souls of good people can straightaway go to Nabalu. Although there is no mention of an escort like the grim reaper, some said that the souls flew to Nabalu while others said angels (masundu) came to get them.

3.If there is a rainbow during the wake or on the day of the burial, it means the dead person is present to take part in the sorrow of the villagers. Beside that, it means that the soul will get to Nabalu very quickly.

4.Souls that are barred or delayed from entering Nabalu will turn into a ghost (timbunus). It is a Timugon Murut version of vampire with a particular preference for pregnant women. It likes to lurk around at the time of childbirth on lonely stretches of road causing accidents so that they can suck the blood of the victims.

5.If the deceased had cursed or poisoned someone, they may turn into a snake or a black cat at death. The soul will probably never reach Nabalu, and is destined to roam and haunt people.

6.Speaking of haunting people, the same fate goes to the soul of a person who died a violent death. His soul will not go to Nabalu immediately but will have to stay around for some time to frighten people.

7.Meanwhile, a soul who has gone to Nabalu can occasionally come down and visit people. He flies down in the form of a bird and watches the people on earth.

8.As for the location of Nabalu, those who believe in it said that it is “up there”, on top of a great mountain facing the sunrise. Brewis opined that the mountain his informants referred to could not be Mount Kinabalu since the mountain could not be seen from Tenom valley where the Timugon Murut lived. One thing for sure is that Nabalu is a good place where there is no sickness and people probably are of the age they were when they died.

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A legend of how the Timugon Murut people came into existence

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The Timugon Murut is one of the 29 ethnic groups of Murut people.

Overall, the Murut people can be found mainly in Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia as well as in Brunei and Kalimantan, Indonesia.

As for Timugon Murut, they mainly live in Sabah. Each of the ethnic group of Murut people including Timugon Murut has its own distinct language, custom and even folklore.

Here is a tale on how the Timugon people was created as recorded by researcher Kielo A. Brewis in the paper The Death of a Timugon Murut (1987):

There was a great flood which saw everyone drown, except one young man, who climbed up a very tall coconut tree.

After the waters began to recede, he went down to look for survivors.

An angel from heaven (masundu) came to tell him that there were no other survivors and gave him a proposal instead – that they should marry.

The angel wasn’t anything like the shiny Western concept of an angel, but came in the form of a woman who was afflicted with a skin condition, similar to that of ringworm.

Even though he was the only person left on the planet, the young man did not want to marry her.

Instead he went off to find prettier girls, holding on to the hope that there were survivors besides himself.

In the meantime, the angel did not handle the rejection well.

In his absence, the angel made a clay figure that looked much like herself, except the figure did not have the markings of ringworm.

Then she made the figure into a living being by spitting red betel nut juice from her mouth onto it.

When the young man returned empty-handed and saw the beautiful girl who had been made from clay, he wanted to marry her.

Their descendant became the ancestors of the Timugon Murut.

A legend of how the Timugon Murut people came into existence
The man marries the woman who was made from clay. Credit: Pixabay.

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The forgotten All Saints Chapel of Sandakan POW Camp

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The forgotten All Saints Chapel of Sandakan POW Camp
The ruins of huts in the prisoner of war camp, Sandakan, North Borneo, October 1945. Those who were too ill for the march were eventually murdered here. Credits: Public Domain (Copyright expired) Courtesy Australian War Memorial: 120457

Do you know there was an Anglican chapel at Sandakan prisoners of war (POW) Camp? The priest, Padre Albert Thompson who founded the church called it ‘All Saints’.

The Sandakan POW camp was infamously known as the starting point of the notorious Sandakan Death Marches.

The last prisoners of the camp was John Skinner who was beheaded on Aug 15, 1945, five hours before the Japanese Emperor announced his country’s unconditional surrender.

Life on the camp was beyond horrible, especially towards the end of the war. The prisoners were subjected to shock and water torture.

Those who committed ‘crimes’ such as stealing food from the camp kitchen were imprisoned in a small cage similar to a dog cage.

They were placed there up to 30 days with little food.

In the midst of the torture and suffering, a number of the prisoners found hope and faith through the camp’s All Saints Chapel.

The description of All Saints Chapel

The forgotten All Saints Chapel of Sandakan POW Camp
Shand’s tribute to Padre Thompson.

The description of the chapel can be found in a letter written by Lieutenant Sergeant H.W. Shand to Gladys Minnie Thompson. She was the wife of Chaplain Thompson.

“Space was at a premium, and all quarters overcrowded in the extreme, so with a few willing helpers, he got to work and dug out an area under one of the huts, which he made into a rather beautiful little chapel.

“The furnishings, ornaments, etc., were made from odd bits of materials scrounged by working parties, and then carved by various fellows in the camp. The cross and altar of wood were very nicely made. Altar hangings consisted of some cloth he had saved and intended one day to have made into a cassock.”

According to Shand, Thompson called the chapel ‘All Saints’ and calling the Sandakan POW Camp his parish.

The servers of All Saints Chapel

Shand wrote, “Although by no means an ardent churchman myself, and of no practical assistance to him, I am proud to say that I became a friend of his. Apart from ordinary church parades and services for regular churchgoers, he began his work by conducting hymn singing sessions, with a short service each Sunday night. Even song usually followed these.”

As for the layman servers of the chapel, Shand stated “Church wardens and a vestry council were appointed, and one man on light duties acted as verger and cared for the chapel. A Church of England Men’s Society was formed, and many new members were regularly admitted.”

As time went by, All Saints Chapel came to be packed for all services, both on Sundays and midweek evening.

This was despite the fact that most of the men had been out all day doing manual labour building Sandakan airstrip.

Padre Thompson’s sacrifice for his parishioners

Writing to Mrs Thompson about her husband’s life at the camp, Shand stated, “You will understand that many of these things were done in the face of opposition by the Japanese at times, and under difficult and disheartening circumstances. His normal and important work of cheering the sick, etc., went on all the time.”

Even though there were times Thompson was not required to do manual work, he would go out with the rest in order to give someone badly needed rest.

While Shand was one of the 150 POWs chosen to Batu Lintang Camp, Kuching in October 1943, Thompson was left behind in Sandakan with the rest which included almost 2,000 prisoners.

The forgotten All Saints Chapel of Sandakan POW Camp
Flying over the prisoner of war camp (POW) in Batu Lintang at a low height, RAAF Beaufighter pilots reported sighting white POWs, clad in khaki shorts, who excitedly waved as the RAAF aircraft flew over to drop leaflets announcing Japan’s surrender. Credits: Public Domain (Copyright expired). https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C242106

The life of Padre Albert Thompson

The Reverend Albert Henry Thompson was serving in the Australian Army Chaplains Department during World War II (WWII).

He was taken prisoner at Singapore in February 1942. At first, he was sent to Changi Prison as a POW. Then in July that year, he was sent to Sandakan in British North Borneo (Sabah) .

The chaplain was on the second phase of the marches to Ranau, a distance of approximately 260km away through mountainous terrains.

The Japanese decided to move the prisoners as they were anticipating Allied forces landing.

Historian Lynette Silver wrote that his POW column was about two kilometers east of a place called Tampias where Thompson struggling with walking due to a large suppurating ulcer on a foot.

Then, two Japanese officers removed him from the line and ordered him not to go further.

To this day, we might never know whether the Japanese killed him or he was left to die due to his condition.

Record stated that Thompson died on June 19, 1945 at the age of 42.

In his letter which was published on Advocate on Mar 27, 1946, Shand also paid tribute to the late priest.

“Of one thing I am sure – Albert Thompson died as he lived, steadfast in his faith and his church, and setting an example in fellowship and self-sacrifice to those about him.”

As for Thompson’s little chapel the All Saints, it was burned to the ground along with the rest of the camp sometime in May 1945.

The forgotten All Saints Chapel of Sandakan POW Camp
Kundasang War Memorial which was dedicated to those who died during Sandakan Death Marches including Padre Thompson.

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