Dad spoke some Japanese after that stint in Singapore. When more securely employed much later, I simultaneously bought a "Honda CBR 600 " 600 cc superbike (BDP 600), and a "Kawasaki Vulcan" 750 cc cruiser (WCR 6600), in 1991, but sold both off in 1996 when I became Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri, Kawasan Senaling, N.S., 1995 - 1999.ĭad bought his first and only car, a "Mazda 1.0" before he retired, and kept it after. It was a black 90 cc motor that stayed a total of 10 years at the University of Malaya - 3 for me, 1 for Padir, and 6 for Din Pendek, both younger brothers. Of course in 1965 I bought a "Honda" motorcycle when at university (BN 3950). I bought a brand-new Austin Mini, instead (RM 5,300 !) - NC 8157. I also saw the first "Honda" car in Alor Gajah, mini sized with the gear shift on the dash-board, a first for me. I was posted to Alor Gajah, and the Chinese salesman came all the way from Melaka town. There was a song with that title in the movie. In 1957 I saw "Sayonara, Japanese Goodbye" starring Marlon Brando. Later of course I learned what a great piece of work "Rashomon" was. But I caught a gist of it - the rape seen from 3 points of view. Being 9 then, and watching a Japanese language movie, it didn't register much at that time. Malim, where every Saturday night was a film show night at the "dewan makan Kolej". In 1954 I saw the famous Japanese film, "Rashomon", directed by the great Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa, at the S.I.T.C. P.Ramlee also sang a bit of it in one of his Shaw Bros films. He used to sing a little bit of it when I was small. There's a War time Japanese tune dad remembered.
The photo is lost now, but I remember seeing the same copy in Cikgu Derus' or Cikgu Taib's house. Everyone was in uniform, with Japanese peak caps. There was a photo of dad with his other Malay-teacher friends taken in Singapore during the Japanese Occupation '41-'43. I located on youtube the late Misora Hibari singing it in her own operatic style, though there are many more "pop" versions around.
I remember that very old Japanese song I used to repeat the title of, and humming the rest of the tune "Shina No Yoru" ("Chinese Night"). Last week I caught Mayumi Itsuwa, the 70-yr old Japanese songstress, on the media because of the hauntingly lovely song "Ribaibaru" that I also caught Jamilah Abu Bakar singing at a wedding function.
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