The Japanese Army discovered his clandestine activities, arrested and shipped him to Kuching for a two-and-a-half year detention.
Wife Lo Nyuk Yin, 85, said it worried her to death that they might behead him like they did to so many other locals captured on suspicion of helping the "enemy" but couldn't believe it when he came home alive albeit in blood soaked clothes.
But for all the risks he took, Henry Chang remained a faceless man for over 65 years, seemingly forgotten. Until Sunday 20 April, when Perth-hailed Ryan Rowland came, sought him out and presented Henry the National War Veteran Association of Australia Medal in the presence of his children and relatives in their house in Paddington.
"It's an honour for all veterans who were active during the war, either courageous in their life or in their death," noted Rowland who said he was commissioned by the War Veterans Association to present Henry the medal on their behalf.
Rowland said Chang was part of "a group of young, courageous locals who were one mark beyond heroism considering they fundamentally had very little arms and very little communication tools but had the will and instincts to follow their values and principles when they assisted captive Australian soldiers.
"They saw the atrocities and decided to give assistance and disrupt the Japanese for continuing to torment the soldiers," Rowland said in his tribute.
The fact is Chang had received a letter of commendation from the Australian Army after the war in addition to another rare letter of recognition drafted in Chinese from the then Nationalist Government of China for his "resistence" efforts against the enemy both physically and financially.
Rowland said he read Chang's story only two years ago and decided on the promise that "we would locate him and make reparation for what was forgotten (since then).
The whole idea of doing this started when he brought Kangal and another Ranau woman to Australia last August when the Association did "very instinctively in an impromptu act" served the same medals to them.
"I said to them we must follow through and acknowlege as many living people that we can find in Sabah. If they have gone (died), we would find their family and present it posthumously," Rowland said.
Incidently, over a coffee chat after Suday's medal presentation, Rowland discovered that another of Chang's close relatives, Theresa Regis, also deserved to be given the National Veterans Association of Australia medal and the ceremony has been fixed on 29 April at 7pm at the Hyatt Hotel.
Rowland's attention was drawn to a 1995 story written by Christine Willie, which read: "At the time (between 1942-45). I was only about eight years old. My grandmother used to make banana and sweet potato fritters. Then I would go with my friend Aminah to the other households to sell these cakes. We walked along the Mile 7 road and on several occasions saw Australian PoWs cutting wood. They only wore loin clothes and looked thin and hungry. When we passed with our baskets of cakes they begged us some food.
I remember thinking , 'They have no money, my grandmother would get angry.' But we felt sorry for them so we left them our food baskets at the roadside.
The twist to this amazing story is that when Keith Botterill, one of only six who survived, came back for a Returned Services League gathering, Theresa met him.
As they got talking , Botterill remembered "the banana fritters and the little girls." Theresa was quoted as saying: "Who would think our paths would cross again after 40 years?"
The touching story led Rowland to decide on the spot Thereas is mistakably another living medal honour material!
So, the family war veterans grow.
The plan is to extend this "bond and friendship" struck between captive Australians and Sabahans 65 years ago into the deep future, Rowland said.
He cited the presence of two Perth high school students - Ami Leigh Carr of Manjimup Senior High School and Kyren Gorey of John XXIII College who came on a sponsored trip after winning a contest based on the war history of Borneo, particularly the Death March.
"We want the bond and friendship to only strengthen and given to the new generation . We are oldÉwe encourage young students to follow our footsteps, take the stick ahead of us," he said.