Jesselton revolt

This article is about the revolt in North Borneo. For the incident during the Japanese occupation in Singapore, see Double Tenth Incident.

Jesselton revolt
Part of World War II
Some names of resistance movement members aside from the main group who were subsequently executed after the revolt.
Date 9 October 1943 (1943-10-09) – 21 January 1944 (1944-01-21) (3 months, 1 week and 5 days) Location Jesselton, British North Borneo Result Japanese victory. Execution of Albert Kwok and others who surrendered.
Belligerents
Kinabalu Guerrillas Defence Forces	Empire of Japan  • Occupied British Borneo
Commanders and leaders
Albert Kwok  Hiew Syn Yong  Kong Tze Phui  Li Tet Phui  Tsen Tsau Kong  Charles Peter  Jules Stephens  Budh Singh  Sohan Singh  Panglima Ali  Orang Tua Arshad  Musah Duallis Jemalul Saruddin  Subedar Dewa Singh	Shimizu
Units involved
Overseas Chinese Defence Association  • Chinese National Salvation Association North Borneo Volunteer Force North Bornean indigenous volunteers Philippine indigenous volunteers Members of Indian Imperial Police Limited arms support: United States Forces in the Philippines	Imperial Japanese Army  • Kenpeitai
Strength
100 Chinese ≈200 Bornean/Philippine indigenous peoples/Eurasian/Sikh Indian	≈Hundreds Japanese police (1943) ≈Thousands Japanese troops (post 1943)
Casualties and losses
324 resistance members killed	50–90 police/soldiers killed
2,000–4,000 civilians massacred by the Japanese

The Jesselton revolt (also known as the Jesselton uprising or the Double Tenth Revolt/Incident) was a revolt by a resistance movement known as the Kinabalu Guerrillas, comprising local Chinese, indigenous peoples, Eurasian and Sikh Indians of Jesselton, North Borneo and led by Albert Kwok, against the Japanese occupying forces of North Borneo.

The movement succeeded in killing around 50–90 Japanese police and soldiers and temporarily took control of Jesselton (which after the war in 1946 would become the North Borneo and then later Sabah capital) and several neighbouring districts of Tuaran and Kota Belud. Owing to extremely limited arms supplies, however, the movement was forced to retreat to its hide-out. The Japanese Kenpeitai then launched attacks against coastal settlements in western North Borneo to find the leader and members of the guerrilla force, with many innocent civilians suffering the various atrocities that have become synonymous with Japanese conquest in the Pacific War.

The leader of the revolt finally decided to surrender following Japanese threats to execute more civilians if the guerrillas did not turn themselves in. Following the arrest and subsequent execution of the rebel alliance, the Japanese returned to administer North Borneo until 1945 when the main Allied liberation mission arrived.

Background

Albert Kwok, the main leader of Kinabalu Guerrillas.

Due to persistently harsh rule under the Japanese occupation, resistance against the Japanese developed, especially on the west coast of North Borneo, where a revolt was led by Albert Kwok with the members comprising mostly Chinese and some indigenous peoples. Kwok, a local Teochew Chinese from Kuching in neighbouring Sarawak, had previously been working with the China Red Cross and serving under the Kuomintang of Chiang Kai-shek, before returning to Borneo through Malaya in 1940. During his time in China, Kwok was also a student of the Seventh-day Adventist Mission School in Canton. He arrived in Jesselton on 15 May 1941 and started a medical practice treating piles.

In February 1942, Kwok wanted to establish contact with the Australians or Americans in eastern North Borneo, but he was unable to continue his trek by foot across the island jungle when he reached Pensiangan, which had a great number of Japanese troops. He needed to establish relations with the Allied movements, especially the United States Forces in the Philippines (USFIP), as they were the sole armed resistance movement in the region at the time which had a good supply of firearms. After he managed to establish contact with the American forces in the Philippines with the help of a fellow Chinese businessman named Lim Keng Fatt, a Muslim cleric (Imam) named Marajukim from Sulu who was part of the resistance movement in the Philippines approached Kwok in Jesselton where he hence departed to Tawi-Tawi for training. From there, they travelled further to Sulu and met Lieutenant Colonel Alejandro Suarez, learning of resistance movement operations in the Philippine archipelago.

In May 1943, Kwok returned to Jesselton greatly determined to liberate North Borneo. Upon arrival, he first contacted the Overseas Chinese Defence Association (OCDA), with whose help he acquired medical equipment and cash donations for the support of the resistance in Sulu. Once again, in June 1943, he travelled with Marajukim to the Philippines. Through the mediation of Suarez, he met with the representatives of the US army and was commissioned as a Lieutenant on 1 July 1943. Upon his second return to North Borneo, Kwok arrived with three pistols, a box of hand grenades, and a promise to be given more weapons. However, in the end, he could not induce the guerrillas in the Sulu Archipelago to send more firearms, and he was forced to launch a revolt with limited supplies. A resistance group under his leadership was then established on 21 September 1943, with the group calling themselves the Chinese National Salvation Association (CNSA), a branch of the OCDA. With collaboration between the Chinese and indigenous peoples, the group was subsequently known as Kinabalu Guerrillas Defence Force.

Uprising

A plate commemorating the 324 fallen resistance members as well as victims of Japanese massacre in Petagas.

As the date of execution for a pending Japanese decree to seize any in opposition to the Japanese administration loomed closer, the resistance group was forced to launch their revolt ahead of schedule. With many of his members armed with only melee weapons such as parang, spear and kris, the movement launched their attack from 9 October 1943 and temporarily retook Jesselton, Tuaran, and Kota Belud from the Japanese, leaving around 50–90 casualties on the Japanese side.

In the combined land and sea attack on the Japanese, most inhabitants of the islands around the coastal areas contributed ships to the movement. Native Bajau-Suluk leaders such as Panglima Ali (Sulug Island), Jemalul (Mantanani Islands), Orang Tua Arshad (Udar Island), and Saruddin (Dinawan Island) contributed to the revolt mostly through attacks from the sea. Both Jemalul and Saruddin volunteered themselves from the Philippines to lead the Binadans of Mantanani and the Dinawan Islands.

From land, the revolt was supported by native Dusun-Murut leaders such as Musah originated from Kampong Narupot Bingkor representing the Dusun of Gana community and Duallis for the Murut, as well as members of the Indian Imperial Police led by Constable Subedar Dewa Singh, and administration and police members of the former colonial authorities of North Borneo, mostly serving under the aegis of the North Borneo Volunteer Force (NBVF) led by Jules Stephens and Charles Peter, as well as Sergeant Bud Singh and Corporal Sohan Singh.

After the successful revolt, the resistance movement under OCDA and NBVF jointly hoisted the flag of the Republic of China and Union Jack on 10 October 1943. Most of the members of the OCDA were loyal to the Republic of China while the NBVF remained loyal to the United Kingdom, although the NBVF was not even recognised by the British government.

With Imperial Japanese reinforcements from Kuching en route to suppress the rebellion, however, Kwok along with other members of the resistance were forced to retreat to their hide-out. The OCDA celebrated the birthday of Sun Yat-sen, the founder of Kuomintang and subsequently the Republic of China, by hoisting the national flag again and singing the national anthem of the Republic of China on 12 November 1943.

Aftermath and legacy

The Petagas War Memorial built on the site of execution to honour the sacrifices of Kinabalu Guerrillas.

Following the arrival of Japanese reinforcements, the Japanese authorities subsequently launched a ruthless counter-offensive by bombing coastal settlements from Kota Belud to Membakut and by machine-gunning the North Borneo population. Almost every village in the area was burnt down, with around 2,000–4,000 innocent civilians executed— mostly belonging to the Bajau and Suluk civilian population. After threatening to kill more civilians if the leaders of the uprising did not turn themselves in, Kwok finally surrendered under duress, along with several of his top officers. In all, Kwok and some 175 people who for the most part had nothing to do with the uprising were executed by the Japanese on 21 January 1944 in Petagas, Putatan.

After the war, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) set up in 1946 to prosecute the many Japanese war crimes concluded that during the resistance movement led by the Chinese and indigenous peoples in North Borneo, the Kenpeitai had been involved in a reign of terror, arresting, torturing, and massacring hundreds of Chinese rebels while systematically exterminating the coastal population of Suluk people. The sacrifice of the movement was honoured with a memorial in Petagas, the Petagas War Memorial, today just east of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

References

• Goodwin, J. W. (1953). Eastern World. Far Eastern.
• Tregonning, K. G. (1960). North Borneo. H.M. Stationery Office.
• Luping, Margaret; Chin, Wen; Dingley, E. Richard (1978). Kinabalu, Summit of Borneo. Sabah Society.
• Dick, Crofton Horton (1983). Ring of Fire: Australian guerrilla operations against the Japanese in World War II. Secker & Warburg. ISBN 978-0-436-20157-8.
• Watt, Donald Cameron (1985). The Tokyo War Crimes Trial: Index and Guide. International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Garland. ISBN 978-0-8240-4774-0.
• Abbas, Ismail; Bali, K. (1985). Peristiwa-peristiwa berdarah di Sabah (in Malay). Institute of Language and Literature, Ministry of Education (Malaysia).
• Evans, Stephen R. (1990). Sabah (North Borneo): Under the Rising Sun Government. Tropical Press.
• Reece, Bob (1998). Masa Jepun: Sarawak Under the Japanese, 1941-1945. Sarawak Literary Society. ISBN 978-983-9115-06-2.
• Danny, Wong Tze-Ken (1998). The Transformation of an Immigrant Society: A Study of the Chinese of Sabah. Asean Academic. ISBN 978-1-901919-16-5.
• Ooi, Keat Gin (1999). Rising Sun over Borneo: The Japanese Occupation of Sarawak, 1941–1945. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-349-27300-3.
• Thurman, Malcolm Joseph; Sherman, Christine (2001). War Crimes: Japan's World War II Atrocities. Turner Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-56311-728-2.
• Tarling, Nicholas (2001). A Sudden Rampage: The Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia, 1941-1945. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 978-1-85065-584-8.
• Danny, Wong Tze-Ken (2004). Historical Sabah: The Chinese. Natural History Publications (Borneo). ISBN 978-983-812-104-0.
• Julitta, Shau Hua Lim (2005). Pussy's in the Well: Japanese Occupation of Sarawak, 1941-1945. Research and Resource Centre, SUPP Headquarters. ISBN 978-983-41998-2-1.
• Hwang, Andrew (2010). "Remember the North Borneo resistance fighters". The Star. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017.
• Ooi, Keat Gin (2010). The Japanese Occupation of Borneo, 1941-1945 (PDF). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-85054-1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 October 2017.
• Ooi, Keat Gin (2013). Post-war Borneo, 1945-50: Nationalism, Empire and State-Building. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-05803-7.
• Ham, Paul (2013). Sandakan. Transworld. ISBN 978-1-4481-2626-2.
• Kratoska, Paul H. (2013). Southeast Asian Minorities in the Wartime Japanese Empire. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-12514-0.

Further reading

• Maxwell, J. Hall (1965). Kinabalu Guerrillas: An Account of the Double Tenth 1934 [i.e. 1943]. Borneo Literature Bureau.
• Brooks, Ronald J. (1995). Under Five Flags. Pentland Press. ISBN 978-1-85821-322-4.
• Danny, Wong Tze-Ken (2006). "The Kinabalu Guerrillas in Local and National History" (PDF). Sabah Society Journal. Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya. pp. 19–30. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 October 2017.
• Danny, Wong Tze-Ken (2007). "The Petagas War Memorial and the Creation of a Heroic Past in Sabah". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 80 (2 (293)): 19–32. JSTOR 41493694.
• Daily Express (2013). "Granddaughter seeks apology for massacre". Daily Express. Archived from the original on 18 October 2017.
• Lajiun, Jenne (2015). "Relatives share stories of Sabah fallen heroes". The Borneo Post.
• Daily Express (2015). "Albert Kwok's daring raid". Daily Express. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017.
• Daily Express (2017). "82-year-old recalls execution of hero dad in Petagas". Daily Express. Archived from the original on 28 October 2017.
• Ralon, Larry (2019). "Man recalls how father, brother perished in war". Daily Express. Archived from the original on 22 January 2019.