16. Age and Name Change

It was very fortunate too that the register containing all the names of contributors to the Kuomintang, which included the names of our grandfather and father, was destroyed by the local keeper of the register just before the Japanese army took over Taiping. At that time, all Chinese people from Quangdong must contribute part of their monthly earnings to Kuomintang in the war against the Japanese in China. For added security, our grandfather and father had to drop their middle names to hide their identities. Father Chung Chow's full name was Chung Ken Chow. He was 27 years old then.

It was also during the sook ching questioning by the Japanese soldiers that father Chung Chow had to lie that he was 28 years old. Fortunately, there were no identification papers then and any of your elders or neighbours could testified on your behalf. That white lie spared him the horrible fate of  being conscripted into the Japanese army. At that time, young Chinese people were coerced to join the Japanese army and 28 was the cut-off point . Thus, he became older by a year on that day.

Besides the massive screening operations, the Japanese had spies who permeated every walk of life in the community. Father recalled that some of his so-called friends or buddies were spies but they later disappeared, probably kidnapped and killed by the resistance fighters or communists.