Double Tenth timed with Sun Yet Sen’s
Published on: Sunday, May 15, 2022
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The following account of the Double Tenth revolt was taken from a chapter of the now rare book “Stories From Sabah History” compiled by FG Whelan, the Deputy Director of Education, Sabah. It once was part of the Sabah school syllabus until discontinued during the Usno administration. (1967-1975) for reasons unknown. The Double Tenth revolt was the only armed uprising in Malaysia by ordinary civilians against the Japanese led by Albert Kwok, a Sarawakian Chinese which managed to even defeat the Japanese army, killing many and temporarily taking over Jesselton (now KK). Today’s Malaysian school history books hardly mention it. Daily Express decided to reproduce this important but largely forgotten episode of Sabah’s history, so that readers can compare it with the eyewitness account by Neelakantan on what happened at that time.
The rest were new to the business. No written orders of the force have survived. Very likely there were none. People have taken different views of what Kwok’s plan really was.
Some think he intended to knock out the Japanese in Jesselton, hold the town and rally supporters to his banner, then, with help from the Allies, throw the Japanese out of Sabah.
We know that Kwok was a man who always looked on the bright side of things and hoped for the best; but we also know he was no fool. It would have been a very stupid leader who would hope that such a plan would succeed.
It is more likely that he hoped to strike a blow at Jesselton and rouse up other bands to further resistance while he pulled ‘back hoping for help from the Allies, and for arms and supplies from Suarez in the Philippines.
With this aid he could keep up attacks against the enemy until the Allies invaded and drove them out.
Perhaps he hoped only to strike a desperate blow against the Japanese, losing all in the effort but at least making the enemy think again and drop its plan to enslave the Chinese youths and girls. We will never know what he really hoped, but we do know he sent for arms from Suarez and planned the burning of the Jesselton godowns so that the blaze would attract help from a friendly ship or submarine from the Allied fleet.
We also know that through Lim Keng Fatt he had been told, that the Allies could not help and had been advised to keep quiet until a more favourable time. But, as we have seen, his hand was forced.
The Chinese youths and girls were about to be conscripted and the volunteers had been rounded up by the Japanese and told that they would shortly be returned to duty.
Albert Kwok had a hard decision to make but he made it with cheerfulness and courage. He fixed his rising for the night of October 9th, 1943, the eve of the great Chinese festival of the Double Tenth. This is the day on which the Chinese celebrate the triumph of the revolution of Dr Sun Yat-sen. He thought that, if the Sabah Chinese could celebrate the festival as free men, it would do wonders for their spirits.
Kwok’s plan for the assault on Jesselton was simple but required good organization and careful timing. A lorryborne force was to drive straight into the town and knock out all the police posts. except Victoria Barracks, which was thought to be too difficult to capture.
A group on foot was to come into the town by the back way through Likas and Signal Hill and take post at the landward end of the Customs, while the islanders were to swarm over the sea wall and attack the seaward end of this area. Another force of islanders was to attack the town near Fraser Street.
The signal for the assault of the islanders was to be the sound of the bugles blown by the lorry-borne force after getting to grips with the enemy. As we have said, no one knows for certain what Kwok planned to do next. The night of October 9th was perfect for the attack. Despite their well-organized spy system the Japanese had no , idea of what was coming and had arranged for a lecture at the Koa Club (the Jesselton Recreation Club) and all leading citizens were supposed to attend.
The moon was nearing the full but there was some cloud which gave the men cover. Kwok had on his army uniform and the rest of them wore dark clothing, except some who dressed in chawats and darkened their otherwise bare bodies. The force had three lorries which were to take the road party into Jesselton. They dowsed, one headlight, showing only one as a sign of recognition.
The first blow was struck at Tuaran where all the Japanese police were killed and six rifles and a quantity of ammunition were captured. Next came the Japanese police station at Menggatal where the garrison of fifteen Japanese was wiped out and three local policemen killed.
These two swift blows accounted for thirty enemy, all killed without any loss to the guerillas. The two-pronged attack on Jesselton now developed. The overland force made off for Likas and the lorried force prepared for its swoop down the road. Meantime the tea raid was being prepared.
For days the islanders had been gathering in their boats. From as far north as Mantanani they came, sailing at night to avoid detection. The islanders mustered in their boats on the beaches of the off-shore islands near Jesselton,. then moved in and stood off the sea wall ready for the attack, the pirate blood of their ancestors fully roused.
It was too much to hope that the attack would be a complete surprise. The alarm was given by a Tiawanese spy who ran in from Menggatal. The Japanese meeting broke up in confusion and many Japanese made their way to places of safety. But the lorry borne fighters were soon in town and attacking their first objective, the police station on South Road.
This post was supported by troops in the nearby military post office and there were armed men in the Japanese Military Police post in the Sports Club not far away, so the guerillas had a difficult task. They succeeded after a short, fierce battle. The Military Police did not interfere to help their comrades. But the guerillas were disappointed because there was very little ammunition in the police station.
Bugle calls gave the signal to the islanders and they stormed over the sea wall to attack. The party ordered to attack the Customs went in bent on death and destruction. They hurled flaming torches at the godowns — many of which were filled with rubber — and started fires which burnt for a week.
Unfortunately, there were no Allied ships in the area, so no help came. The Japanese guard ran frantically down the mole towards the town but found their way blocked by the overland force who had arrived dead on time. The guard perished to a man.
The second group of islanders attacked along Fraser Street where there were many Japanese. These they sought out and killed. Some Japanese fled to the Victoria Barracks at Batu Tiga. These were too strongly held and the guerillas wisely left them alone.
Two Japanese started running and did not stop until they reached safety at Kinarut. One Japanese plunged into the sea and swam to Gaya Island where he hid until the battle was over.
The Japanese Police Chief, Ishikawa, also managed to escape but the Manager of the Japanese Nauri Company and his assistant were not so lucky. Nor was the Japanese Food Controller, who was dragged from his car and beheaded.
The guerillas assumed that anyone in a car or lorry (except their own one-eyed vehicles) was enemy. Unfortunately, the Chinese driver of the Sanitary Board lorry decided to try to escape in his vehicle. He and his newly-married wife were mistaken for Japanese and shot dead. Lieutenant Kwok issued two notices. One was a declaration of war against the Japanese. The other was an appeal to the public to help his men. Among other things, he asked the people not to give his troops strong drink.
He then gave orders for all his men to withdraw from Jesselton. The islanders took to their boats and the rest of the resistance fighters went back by road to Menggatal. They destroyed the bridge at Inanam to delay any pursuit. They need not have done so. The Japanese were so bewildered that they did not know what to do. In all, the whole operation (as the soldiers say) had taken three hours.
These were three hours of black defeat for the Japanese and of glorious victory for the men of Sabah. Next day in Jesselton and on all big buildings as far as Tuaran, flags flew to celebrate the Double Tenth.
They were the Sabah Jack, the Union Jack, the Chinese Flag, and the Stars and Stripes. The people celebrated the feast in freedom. Lieutenant Kwok’s headquarters this day were at Mansiang near Menggatal and here the celebration was gayest of all.
On October 12th a small force under a colourful character called Rajah George set out to capture Kota Belud. George was an ex-school boy of All Saints’ School and their star athlete. At Tenghilan they ran into three Japanese and after a short fight killed them.
One of them was Ishikawa, the Jesselton Police Chief who had escaped on the night of the raid. George telephoned Kota Belud and ordered the Japanese there to be arrested. He then rode into the town clad in Ishikawa’s riding boots and wearing his sword. On his instructions the Japanese police were executed.
On October 13th the Japanese struck back. Troops and planes were rushed to Jesselton and the villages along the Tuaran road were bombed and machine-gunned and later taken over by Japanese troops.
They were after anyone who had helped Kwok and his men but were not too particular about whom they punished. Many people fled in terror only to be rounded up and accused of helping the guerillas, beaten and tortured.
Kwok and his men were forced back beyond the Tamparuli bridge to Ranau-Ranau where they beat off an attack, but had to pull out to new positions.
They kept up the fight but their ammunition stocks were low and they desperately needed supplies from the Philippines. Because they hoped daily that they would have news of this help they could not seek safety in the hills.
By the middle of November some of the band were losing hope and though they knew the terrible danger they would be in if they returned home, they wanted to be back with their families. Kwok allowed them to go and the remainder of the band made their way to Kiangsam near Inanam. Here they were attacked by the Japanese and scattered. Kwok and six others took refuge in the Northern Chinese settlement near Penampang.
Meanwhile the Japanese were taking revenge on the people of Jesselton, Inanam, Menggatal and Tuaran. They made many arrests and beat their prisoners to make them confess their part in the revolt. Kwok in hiding received reports of these happenings and was very much upset by them.
He was being supplied with money and food by Chong Fu Kui, a shopkeeper from Donggongan on the Penampang road. Chong’s messenger was a gambler who could not resist playing for high stakes. He was sent to Kwok with a sum of money but gambled it away. Chong was furious and there was a fierce quarrel between the two men. Unfortunately, a spy overheard them and ran to the Japanese with the news of Kwok’s hideaway.
The area was surrounded and though Lieutenant Kwok and his men were well armed he decided to give himself up hoping that all further bloodshed would cease. In this hope he was disappointed.
This was on December 19th, 1943. Ten days later Lim Keng Fatt arrived off the coast with the arms from Suarez but as Kwok had surrendered he did not land, returning straight to the Philippines. The Japanese had arrested many people, both townsfolk and islanders. On January 21st, 1944 they decided to make an end.
They had about four hundred prisoners in Jesselton. They condemned a hundred and seventy-six of these to death and a hundred and thirty-one they decided to transfer to Labuan — of these only nine remained alive at the end of the war — and the rest were to remain in Batu Tiga gaol in Jesselton. The place of execution was prepared outside the village of Petagas on the railway just south of Jesselton.
At 3 a.m. the victims were pushed into cattle trucks and taken to Petagas. The roads to the village had been blocked for three days to prevent the people from making trouble.
At Petagas Lieutenant Kwok, Charles Peter, Chan Chau Kong, Kong Tse Phui and Li Tet Phui were made to stand in a row and photographed. They were then beheaded. The rest of the doomed men were killed by machine gun fire and their bodies pushed into long trenches already dug in the sand. There is a memorial garden now built on this spot and every year on the anniversary of the executions there is a religious service to honour the memory of these men who died for their country.
Among these were Rajah George, Orang Tua Penglima Ali and Jules Stephens. Musah was condemned to death but he persuaded the Japanese to change his sentence to imprisonment. He could not stand gaol conditions and died three months after being shut up.
The islanders were next to be punished. Their leaders had died at Petagas but that was not enough. Suluk and Danawan were visited by the Japanese and all the men were killed. The women were taken away and forced to work in the rice fields of Bongawan. Udar and Mantanani were attacked and many men killed. There was another mass execution on May 5th, 1944, this time in Batu Tiga gaol.
In all a thousand people were executed or tortured to death. Japanese deaths were eighty-six. The Japanese made light of the affair but it was a severe blow to their pride and they cancelled their plans to conscript Chinese youths and girls, so at least in this the revolt was a success.
Was the Double Tenth Revolt a glorious failure ? It was very costly for the people of Sabah - a thousand lives were lost and many women left without husbands and many children made orphans. But it lit a fire of resistance which kept burning until the Allies drove the Japanese out.
Duallis, the ex-police officer and his Muruts waged a private war on the enemy right to the end. On the east coast attacks on the Japanese became more and more frequent. The people of Sabah showed that they were not beaten, though the revolt of the Kinabalu guerillas had been put down.
Was Albert Kwok a great leader? Perhaps he was or perhaps he was not It is difficult to say. He was unlucky. If he had held out a few days longer he would have received arms from the Philippines and could have fought on. Even without the arms he might have saved himself and his cause if he had not given himself up in the hope that the killing would stop.
This was very noble of him, but a great leader has to be heartless sometimes in order to succeed. As it turned out the killings did not stop. Each of us can have his own views on this subject but whether or not we believe him a great leader, one thing is certain: Albert Kwok was a hero who fought bravely for his country and gave his life so that others could live in liberty and peace.
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