Cho Huan Lai Memorial
The Cho Huan Lai Memorial or Keningau War Memorial in the Malaysian city of Keningau is a memorial commemorating the murder of the Chinese Consul General Cho Huan Lai (卓 還 來) and his colleagues on July 6, 1945 by the Japanese Kempeitai .
Description of the monument
The monument is in the form of a towering stele about 4 meters high. The cross-section is rectangular; the wider side facing the entrance with red old Chinese characters is slightly concave. At the lower end of the stele there is a slightly wider, square block on which a bronze plate is inserted, which provides information about the monument in English. The stele is placed on a three-tier, square staircase base.
The commemorative inscription in large red, old Chinese characters reads "Memorial for Cho, Consul, and his four colleagues" .
The bronze plaque also explicitly names the names of those executed here, namely
- Cho Huan Lai, Consul General for the Republic of China,
- Cyril Drummond Le Gros Clark, Chief Secretary of the Rajah of Sarawak,
- Valentine A. Stokes, General Practitioner, Sandakan,
- Henry William Webber, Civil Engineer, Manila and
- Donald Macdonald, planter, Kuching, Sarawak.
Above the bronze plaque, a marble slab is embedded in the stele, which bears the following inscription in Chinese script:
|
Cho Huan-Lai from Nak Hou, with a French PhD in engineering and proficient in English, French and Russian, arrived in Sandakan in July 1940 to support the Chinese there. He served the authorities loyally and was respected by locals and foreigners. During the war he was arrested on false testimony, but never bowed to his captors. On July 6, 1945, at the age of 33, he and four European friends were cruelly executed at this location. The Japanese officer in charge was charged and sentenced in Singapore in September of the following year. |
Historical background
When the Japanese invaded Sandakan on January 19, 1942 , the Chinese consulate was one of their first destinations. Cho Huan Lai, who had been Consul General for the Chinese Republic in Sabah since 1940, was arrested on the spot. Shortly before the Japanese got to the consulate, he had managed to destroy confidential documents and the decryption books . Due to his diplomatic immunity , Cho was interned with other Europeans on Pulau Berhala and later transferred with his family to the prisoner of war camp in Kuching .
Cho used his connections to circulate messages from outside to the inmates inside the camp. When the Japanese got wind of this, they arrested Cho and about ten other internees in May 1944. A military court sentenced them to prison terms, which they served first in Kuching Prison and later in Batu Tiga Prison in Jesselton.
Some of the men sentenced died in an air raid on the prison in late 1944. Cho was wounded. In January 1945 the Japanese moved the group first to Beaufort prison and finally to Keningau on April 12, 1945. After the prison was bombed, inmates were transferred to Batu Silau, two miles outside of Keningau.
In Keningau, Cho came under the command of Lt. Col. Abe Keichi, the military commander of Keningau, and Lieutenant Akutagawa Mitsuya, the commander of the local Kempeitai. On July 5th, Cho and his colleagues were due to be released for having served the sentence in full. As none of them were still alive at the end of the war, inquiries were made into their whereabouts. It was found that the men were being taken to Keningau Airfield under the pretext of being transferred to Ranau and executed on July 6, 1945 near the airfield, two miles from Lieutenant General Abe's headquarters.
After the end of the war, the British government was keen to find out about Cho and his European companions. The investigation was led by Richard Evans, a former resident of the West Coast Division . In October 1945 his search led him to Keningau. There he discovered the graves of Cho, Stokes and the others. Although denying their role in the execution of Cho, Abe Keichi and Akutagawa Mitsuya were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out in Changi Prison in Singapore.
The remains of the victims were partially reburied in the old Anglican cemetery at Kota Kinabalu.
Installation site
The memorial is across from the entrance to the former Keningau airfield at the site where Cho Huan Lai and his colleagues were executed.
literature
- Danny Wong Tze Ken: Historical Sabah: The War , Opus Publications Kota Kinabalu, 2010, ISBN 978-983-3987-37-5
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Menno Schilt Huizen & Annadel Cabanban: A Visit to teh Keningau War Memorial ; Accessed October 1, 2012
- ↑ Consul's Niece Returns Debt of Gratitude for Eggs after 65 Years ; Accessed October 1, 2012
- ↑ a b c d Wong Tze Ken, pp. 129–130
- ^ Wong Tze Ken, p. 131
Coordinates: 5 ° 21 '2.6 " N , 116 ° 10' 4.3" E