World War II broke out the year I turned 7. During the Occupation, rice was tightly controlled by the Japanese. The Japanese issued ration tickets to us to collect rice. We were a family of six, including my parents and me, with one older brother and two younger sisters. With so many mouths to feed, the rice we received was barely enough. Our home was a wooden attap house in Eunos, one of the many along the roadside. Behind our house, we used a plot of land to grow sweet potatoes, tapioca, and some vegetables.

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My mother and father were from Hainan Island. They came by boat and it took them a week to reach Singapore.They were matchmade by their families in Hainan and arrived as a married couple, hoping for a better life in Singapore. Unfortunately, the war broke out here. My father worked as a taxi driver, and my mother took care of us at home. She cooked sweet potatoes or tapioca with a little rice on top. Sometimes we mixed it with "zha liang" (small fried bits of dough).

​My brother and I would walk to Joo Chiat Market to buy sweet potatoes or tapioca. We were kids at that time and there were always long queues filled with adults. By the time we made it through the crowd to get food, we were exhausted, and we barely had enough to eat each day. On our way home, we sometimes drank water from the public water taps on the streets. Those were the difficult days we had to endure.

Postcard of Joo Chiat Road in the 1930s

Collection of Children’s Museum Singapore; Donated by Prof Cheah Jin Seng

Credit: Roots.gov.sg (link)

​Shortly after the Japanese arrived, we moved to a kampung in Changi, where we lived in a small area meant for rearing pigs and stocking firewood. One night, the Japanese raided the kampung and arrested the men living there. Only two men managed to escape - they were sleeping near the windows and leapt out when they spotted the Japanese. Since the women and our family were living in an area meant for domestic animals, the Japanese didn't think to look there. For the next few weeks, we slept inside the rubber plantations for safety and moved back to Eunos in 1943.

​Near my kampung in Eunos was a rubber plantation. One of my neighbors used to rear fighting fish, so my friends and I would go to the ditches in the rubber plantation to catch fighting fish. We'd sell the ones we caught to our neighbor for a few cents to a dollar. Sometimes, we caught "lueh her" (snakehead fish), "thor sat" (catfish), and "sampan" (gourami fish). We would also use the sap from the rubber trees to patch our clothes when they were torn since clothing was in short supply back then.

Mending clothes with sap from rubber trees

Illustrated by Julia Tay

​I attended Xin Sheng Primary School during the Japanese Occupation. During the war, the teachers taught Japanese in the school, but it reverted back to a Chinese school after the war ended.

​My older brother didn't attend school; he worked at a storehouse run by the Japanese. It was a place that stored food rations and supplies. His salary was a cup of rice the size of an evaporated milk can. When the Japanese surrendered, people rushed to the store to grab supplies like food, biscuits, and clothing. My brother and I were too young to compete with the adults in the rush. We waited outside the store and scavenged items dropped by the mob.

Painting of food rationing during the Japanese Occupation, artist unknown,1942

Credit: Roots.gov.sg (link)

​We reared a few animals like chickens, ducks, and pigs at our home. During Chinese New Year, when we wanted to slaughter our pigs, we would drown them in baskets because we didn't want the Japanese or our neighbors to hear that we had pigs in the house. My mother would buy chicks and ducklings from the streets along Huay Sia (also known as Kallang Gasworks back then). Occasionally, peddlers would cycle to the kampungs selling chicks and ducklings. Sometimes I would buy fish hooks and try to fish for loaches and mudfish in the drains to supplement our meals.

​For drinking water, we collected it from public water pipes on the streets, which looked a little like the fire hydrants you see today. Water wasn't piped directly to our homes, so we had to collect it from the public pipes or dig a well beside our house.

​Most of the time, we ate vegetables, and on some days, we had a bit of fish. Chicken or duck were reserved for special occasions like Chinese New Year and Mid Autumn Festival. Our life was still manageable as my father continued to earn income as a taxi driver.