i. 女人



   All I knew about my grandma was that   hiding out from air raids   she was   old enough to

recall    Her mum   chanting The Lord’s Prayer in mandarin [sic]   All I knew about my

grandma was   every time the soldiers come [sic] around her kampung   she had to roll her

eldest daughter   in a mattress   and tuck it under her bed   blacken her face and teeth with

charcoal   wear a dirty top   All I knew   was   they   had to   cut their hair   short to look

ugly/dirty   behave/look/pretend to be   a man    hide   to avoid getting taken   relatives

disguised them as boys   the soldiers   would throw babies up in the air then bayonet them

as they fall [sic]   They   dragged   her   off the road on the way home from school    left in

disgust when they discovered she was on her period   Her mum and the rest of the family

were all shot dead   All I knew about my grandma was that.










ii. 男人



            The known and documented locations   were Changi, Punggol, Bedok and Sentosa.
My   Grandfather   didn’t   tell us much   until few [sic] years back

            My grandfather   doesn’t want to talk about the war.

      My grandfather   told us kids this   (Story   in hokkien [sic]

                        before he pass [sic] away)   My grandfather   heard

an explosion.   he   rushed back to see   his   village   a sea of red

            soldiers chasing villagers   cutting them down

      mass killings.   bodies with nails ripped out,   water torture

                        chopped off   heads   stuck   on poles   away into the forest

soldiers chased after   him   a bayonet.   cut   his leg   deep

            a villager threw a bucket at the soldier, and he half ran half

      drag [sic] himself towards a bush among the trees and lay flat.
My grandfather   was marched off to a beach with many others.

            My   Grandfather   was rounded up   and placed on the back of a lorry.

      My grandfather   was taken   and died in a large vat of water(?).

                        My   Grandfather managed to escape   by hiding in a drain

Granddad on   my   mom’s side was taken   they

            loaded them up on lorries with other Chinese, drove them to a hill.

      They were told to dig a ditch   When it was complete,   they

                        sprayed them with a machine gun.   lined them up   and shot them.

Everyone fell   My grandfather   got several ribs and teeth broken,

            lay there amongst the corpses.   was blinded for life.   it was around

      sunset.   My grandfather   played dead   became deaf in one ear.

                        My grandfather   waited   and waited for a while more,   out of the

pile of dead bodies,   slowly, under   darkness,

            made his way   home   all covered in blood










iii. 忘記



Most older Singaporeans, at least in my family, refuse

      I think their other stories are more interesting   Uh,
warning: some grandparents really don’t like talking about it

      Grandparents didn’t like talking about it at all. 
Grandpa doesn’t want to talk about the war.

      There was always a really heavy air and silence
between sentences so I just dropped it after a while

      Nobody wants to relive   watching their parents get shot.
Don’t be surprised if your grand parent’s [sic] don’t

      say anything because
    as much as there was [sic] atrocities

families   also   profited
    in exchange for   investment   in the 1970s   there was

a closed-door agreement   to lower discussion 
    basically dump money on us to shut the fuck up

since   investment help [sic] boost economic growth
    Can argue was good [sic]   though.

We needed money desperately then.  
The   attitude was to remember   but not to be imprisoned by it.

    they were more concerned with getting on with their lives,
a lot of the people who lived through that era are

    already dead or don’t remember   (or were too young   ),
It has been   years at this point after all.



              Anyone managed to see the Soon [sic] Ching plaque placed at Sentosa?

    a private golf course occupies the area so it is not   accessible to the public…
                                                                         a lot of the family stories are gone too.










iv. 食物



              cold water   some vitamins.   biscuits
sweet potatoes.   tapioca.   tapioca for 3 years.
sweet potatoes (SP)   the reason why
              my father refuse [sic] to eat tapioca.
2 SP.   sweet potatoes   with rice
rice   was a sacred item   nothing
              nothing but rice mixed with plain water
a rotting chicken   a   living scarecrow
battling hunger,   for   years   Let’s just say
              when things got bad… pets   disappeared.










Light of the South was composed entirely of found text from the r/singapore subreddit.