The Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH) is calling for an indoor protest rally on April 24 against Japan's 'distortion' of World War II history in school textbooks and also to oppose the country's attempt to become a permanent member of the United Nations' Security Council.

SCAH chief executive officer Tang Ah Chai told malaysiakini, the meeting will take place at noon within the private compound of the assembly's building in Kuala Lumpur and is open to all.

Tang also said they hope to collect as many signatures as possible from private individuals as well as political parties and civil and non-governmental organisations.

"The protest memorandum will be sent to our Prime Minister's Department and Foreign Ministry as well as the Japanese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and a copy will be deposited with the United Nations as a matter of public record," he added.

Tang said the protest memorandum will also call on Malaysian delegates to the United Nations to cast opposition vote or at least abstain to the proposal of allowing Japan to become a permanent member of the Security Council.

Effigy torched

Small and medium-scale protest gatherings have been held in Penang, Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, Seremban, Muar, Batu Pahat, Segamat and Johor Baru. It is believed that more such gatherings will be held in the coming weeks.

In a protest meeting held yesterday in Ipoh, protestors expressed opposition to the US-Japan security alliance and 'revival of militarism' in Japan. An effigy of an Imperial Japanese soldier was torched in another public protest in Johor Baru earlier.

The series of meetings in Malaysia coincide with similar protest movements in China and South Korea.

In China (photo), the protestors, entering into the third weekend, were angry over a revised Japanese school textbook they say whitewashes atrocities during Japan's 1931-45 occupation of China.

They also oppose Japan's bid to sit in the Security Council.

Large-scale massacre

In the Pacific War, Imperial Japan's 25th Army under the command of Lt-Gen Tomoyuki Yamashita began to invade Peninsular Malaya and Singapore (then known collectively as British Malaya) on the morning of Dec 8, 1941. British troops surrendered at Singapore on Feb 15, 1942.

Sabah and Sarawak were also invaded and occupied.

During the 44-month Occupation in Peninsular Malaysia, the armed resistance was mounted by the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) and its guerrilla forces, the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA).

In a memorial service held in 2003 in Kuala Lumpur to honour the memory of 18 top communist leaders and MPAJA commanders and soldiers killed by Japanese troops in Batu Caves, it was recalled that during the Occupation, about 70,000 people of all ethnic communities were killed and another 80,000 perished results of torture and imprisonment.

It was also recalled that an additional 300,000 died because of malnutrition and physical exhaustion due to force hard labour.

Singapore's Civilian War Memorial records that some 50,000 unarmed Chinese in the city were rounded up and massacred in one operation that began on Feb 18, 1942, three days after the capitulation of British troops. However, no protest meetings in Singapore have been reported so far.