If she was to walk about in one of the wet markets here, Lu Chai Ping, 78, would hardly be noticed as she looks like a typical grandmother from a middle-class Chinese family.

However, Lu is neither simple nor ordinary: She travelled to Kuala Lumpur from southern China for the first time in 55 years to share her extraordinary past in a land whose mountains, rivers, towns, villages and jungles she remembers well by their Malay names.

Last Sunday, Lu was invited to publicly recall or reminisce to an 250-strong audience in a shopping mall here about her battlefield experiences in the guerilla war against the Japanese invasion and occupation of Peninsular Malaya and Singapore from 1942 to 1945.

Speaking with in a clear and passionate manner, she recalled how, as a 16-year-old schoolgirl in southern Johor, she was forced by the prevailing circumstances of 1941-42 to cut her hair short, dress, act and speak like a boy to evade being noticed by invading Japanese troops on the "look out for young girls".

Armed propagandist

Soon after the fall of Singapore on Dec 15, 1942, Lu, who was already involved in activities organised by the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), joined the 4th Independent Regiment of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA). She was appointed as an armed propagandist in charge of clandestine political education and information "among the masses".

The 4th Independent Regiment of MPAJA operated in southern Johor, a region where British, Australian and Indian troops fought desperately to defend Singapore before its fall on Feb15, 1942. It has by now been established factually that there were altogether eight independent regiments of MPAJA operating in Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Perak, Kedah, Pahang and Kelantan throughout the occupation from 1942 to 1945.

The CPM-led MPAJA was the largest and most organised guerilla force in Penisular Malaysia during the Japanese occupation, with legendary figures like Abdullah CD, Chin Peng and RG Balan.

"Although I was one of the very few young females in the guerilla camp, I felt safe, respected and valued by my male comrades, and we treated each other as family members; I still remember one of my superiors who took personal care of me like a father when I suffered from high fever once."

"Without his care, I would have died long ago but unfortunately, he later sacrificed his life in Kuala Lumpur after battling Japanese troops; until now, I still remember his face and voice as if he is still alive," recalled Lu.

She appeared calm and composed when recounting the many battles and skirmishes she had participated in. One could also notice a beaming sense of pride on her face.

'Some misunderstandings'

Lu also remembered how the "modern" and "new" weapons air-dropped by the Ceylon-based Southeast Asia Command (SEAC) in 1945 had boosted the morale of her regiment and augmented their fighting power. SEAC was the combined headquarters of the Allied forces under the supreme command of Lord Louise Mountbatten.

In an MPAJA-SEAC Agreement signed on Jan 1, 1944 in a hilltop guerilla camp in central Perak, SEAC agreed to supply weapons, medicine, finance and equipment to MPAJA in return for the latter's close cooperation from behind the enemy lines, in a planned Allied counter-invasion of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore.

Besides supplying MPAJA with finance and materiel, SEAC also operated its own special operations unit known as Force 136 "behind the enemy lines" in occupied Malaya.

In his personal memoirs, My Side of History , the secretary-general of CPM Chin Peng recalled how he and the 5th Independent Regiment of MPAJA in Perak helped to protect agents of Force 136 like Lim Bo Seng, John Davis, Richard Broome, Spencer Chapman and JP Hannah.

Lu, who was also known by her nom de guerre Lu Ming, said that her regiment was supported by all races, including Malays, but unfortunately, there were "some misunderstandings" and "Japanese instigation" when the occupation was nearing its end in mid-1945.

Lu was one of the 100 former MPAJA and CPM members who returned to Kuala Lumpur from Hong Kong and southern China to participate in a series of activities to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Pacific War and Japanese invasion of Penisular Malaysia and Singapore on Dec 7/8 1941.

'Sept 1 matyrs'

Prior to speaking about her experiences, she and her fellow veterans had gathered in Nilai Memorial Park, a Chinese cementary at the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur that morning to pay respect to18 top CPM and MPAJA leaders popularly known as the "September 1 Martyrs".

Among them is her 'father-like' commander in the 4th Independent Regiment.

The 18 were ambushed and massacred by Japanese troops in and around their meeting venue near Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur on Sept 1, 1942. They were later decapitated and their heads were put on public display in marketplaces in Kuala Lumpur.

It has now been established as fact that they were betrayed by none other than the then secretary-general of CPM and their paramount leader Lai Te who called the meeting, informed the Japanese military police and did not attend himself using the excuse of a car accident.

Lai Te, the secretary-general of CPM from 1939 to 1947, was in fact a pre-war British police Special Branch agent infiltrated into CPM in 1934. Before that he worked for the French secret police, Surete in Indochina.

After being captured by the Japanese in Singapore in early March 1942, Lai Te also compromised and agreed to serve as a Japanese agent to inform on his own party and comrades as well as Allied's agents of special operations.

After the liberation of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, Lai Te served British interests once again, but he was exposed and killed later in Bangkok allegedly by Thai communists.

Emotional gathering

The memorial service held in Nilai Park was simple but rather emotional, for the Malayan Campaign (1941-1942) and the subsequent "Resist Japan-Defend Malaya" War of Resistance (1942-1945) had not only witnessed heroism and comradeship, but also betrayal and perfidy.

Above all, for 55 years after the liberation of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore from Japanese occupation, many of those who survived, like Lu, could not publicly speak about their efforts and experiences in the land they shed their blood.

Many of her MPAJA comrades who remained in Malaya were later hunted, killed or detained as "terrorists" and "bandits" by their former allies in another war that soon followed. Lu was exceptional in a sense: she settled in China in 1948.

For some 50 years, the original mass graves of the "September 1 Martyrs" had been neglected and almost forgotten until last year when the remains were removed and re-buried in a newly constructed site at Nilai Memorial Park.

The new site is also complete with a grand monument declaring the 18 as martyrs.

But for many, they also tacitly salute the living legends such as Lu for their immense sacrifices.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM). Wong is a former member of Parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily (now Sin Chew Daily ).