Section 37: Sungai Lui Memorial

Around 8 o'clock in the morning on Thursday, October 8, 1942, a tragic and despairing event took place as Sungai Lui, Negeri Sembilan; a ruthless massacre by the Japanese military.

Upon the Japanese military's entry into the village, a Japanese officer brandished a samurai sword and issued orders for a frenzied massacre. The sound of machine guns echoed relentlessly as the villagers' cries of agony intertwined with the wailing of children. One by one, the villagers fell, and the once lively countryside instantly transformed into a place of hellish horror and death.

Before the Japanese troops entered the village, they had already obtained detailed information about the villagers' daily routines. At around 6 o'clock on that fateful morning, they silently surrounded the village, armed and prepared for the massacre. They proceeded to kick open each door, waking up the villagers and herding them to an open space. The villagers, startled and filled with fear, were astonished to see a large number of Japanese soldiers in their village, and they felt a sense of terror and unease. Although they were unsure of what was happening, they realized that disaster was imminent.

It took them three days before the bodies were collected. According to the description of the morticians (corpse disposal workers) at the time, the victims of this massacre had begun to emit a rancid smell after three days of exposure, and the corpses were piled up like a mountain. Among the murdered residents, some were shot, while others were stabbed with bayonets, their deaths were horrific.

The morticians could already smell the strong stench of death before they entered the village. When they witnessed the tragic deaths of some villagers they were familiar with, they burst into tears on the spot.

Blood stains were everywhere in the village. Ditches, streams, and mud ditches in log cabins were filled with clotted blood, and the stench of blood and putrefaction mingled in the hot sun and was sickening.

They moved the corpses to a temporary shelter for the relatives and friends of the deceased to identify them, and registered them one by one according to the number and recorded their names. Since some of the deceased could not be identified, they were marked as Anonymous. After careful counting, a total of 368 villagers were killed by the Japanese army. After completing the registration of the corpses, an appropriate time was determined for collective burial to provide the deceased with a final resting place. According to estimates, the length of the cemetery is about several feet (one foot is about 30.48 centimeters) from the headstone to the end of the tomb.

This description is very tragic and terrible, revealing the cruelty of the tragedy and massacre that occurred at that time.

It was this fortunate coincidence that allowed them to escape the disaster.

When they heard about the Japanese massacre in Sungai Lui the next morning, they were speechless with fright. Although they were grateful to have escaped the calamity, the thought of their relatives and many villagers being killed brought tears streaming down their faces on the spot.

Wu You is also the elder sister of Wu Zhi Fen, the former chairman of the Bahau Chinese Association. Wu Zhi Fen recalled that when the tragic incident occurred in Sungai Lui, the people in Bahau were all shocked. Although he was still very young at the time, through the narration of his parents, he learned the severity of the situation, especially the harrowing escape of his sister's family, made him feel event more remorse.

Although 81 years have passed, whenever one recalls these painful past events, it still evokes strong emotions.

For those who are younger than 30, this blood-stained history is merely a memory tale passed down by the elderly. However, for the older generation, these memories are filled with blood and tears, causing many families to be torn apart.

After the massacre, many houses in Sungai Lui were set on fire and destroyed by the Japanese army. The entire village turned into a dead village with no residents, only the public grave was left where people mourned and accused the bloodthirsty culprits.

It was not until July 1984 that a monument built in memory of the dead was finally