Japanese Invasion

The year was 1937 and at that time, newcomers from Southern China often brought tragic news of what was happening in the Northern region especially Manchuria. Suddenly, the other states located in the south became more populated with the northerners. Scraping for a living was already hard and now they had to share a piece their cake with the notherners. Fights, quarrels and a lot of bullying by locals towards the newcomers were often seen. The well-built and stronger northerners were not to be intimidated. Situation back in mainland China was really bad and that was why more and more left to come to Malaya, Borneo or Indonesia.

News of the invasion of Nanjing by Japanese soldiers were on everyone's lips. Sang's mother was using the rosary more than usual. Her eyes had the distant look and his young wife was not any better. Apparently she was in such a daze that many times he saw her walking in and out of the house forgetting this and that. At one time she even added salt to his cup of coffee.
Yes, every Chinese man and woman who had members of the family in China was worried. Some of them had already started to come over. The other day Sang saw some fresh faces from Penang island and they must have just disembarked from the junk from Canton. They were still wearing the familiar looking attire worn by the mainland Chinese. They, like Sang and his family, had taken the cheaper goods junk to travel to Malaya. They all stayed at the lower level of the ship where bags of rice and other dry stuffs from China were kept. All the men, women and children stayed together. They did not stay in separate cabins, only the crew and the captain did. The only difference was Sang's father and his family had run away from Communist rule.
A few years passed by with news that did not get any better.The massacre of Nanjing was still in every one's mind. The atrocities of the Japanese done towards the Chinese rang horror in every Chinese ear. There were speculations of the Japanese intentions to invade Singapura and Malaya as well. It was bad news. Sang's business was at the point of improving day by day, and now, this had to happen. As if with intuition that they might not live long, many Chinese were more willing to spend a little money to buy pork. Better enjoy now than to be killed and die hungry. Not wanting to be a 'hungry ghost' was the joke amidst hard times like this.