The ghosts of Japan’s occupation of Malaysia recounts the history of the Japanese occupation in Malaysia during World War II. Consequently, there is a lot of resentment held by the older generations towards the Japanese for what they’ve done. As a means to cope with the reality of their lived histories, they’ve come up with cerita hantu (ghost stories) as a digestible means to share what they experienced. 

My own grandfather was a young boy during the Japanese occupation, and my grandmother had siblings that died at the hands of famine orchestrated by the empire. Often during my childhood, my mother would recount my grandfather telling her and her siblings ghost stories right before bed and finishing them with a simple smile. It’s not as if I can ask my grandfather why he did that now, but it leads me to wonder if his cerita hantu stems from the Japanese occupation. 

Though it’s no secret that Japan occupied southeast Asia towards the end of World war two, many don’t know atrocities committed by the Japanese empire, and how they have continuously impacted many occupied countries to this day. “Japanese military officials frequently subjected civilians to atrocities such as forced labour, imprisonment, torture, rape and murder.”(Abdul Hadi, Ekstrom 2024) Additionally, the empire had tried to assimilate Malaysia, at the time Malaya, into what is essentially a Japanese colony. They even wanted to change the national language from Malay to Japanese–all under the guise of “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” which was sought to be implemented by Hachiro Atara–the Minister for Foreign Affairs in Japan from 1936 to 1940. The image on the left shows Japanese propaganda pushing for Malaysians to learn Japanese. 

Malaysia, being one of the countries that faced relentless brutality from the Japanese, still faces challenges brought on by their historic relationship with Japan that mostly pertains to modern economic and social policy. But despite the violations committed by the Japanese in the past, “Malaysian authorities decided it was in the country’s best interest to prioritize diplomatic engagement with Japan, even if it meant sacrificing justice for Malaysia’s wartime victims. As a result, this policy also silenced official displays of apology and reflection on Japan’s occupation of the country.” (Abdul Hadi, Ekstrom 2024). 

As time progresses, the older generation’s population decreases and we have fewer living accounts of what happened in the past, and the younger generation becomes swayed by increasing popularity of Japanese forms of media and culture.I can’t lie, I also enjoy various forms of Japanese culture, it’s a great bridge the for the social gap and allows us to have repaired relationships with modern day Japan. Perhaps the newer relations that emerge have the ability to exorcize these ghosts that remain to haunt the unknowing younger generation, but we should never forget the violations committed against our ancestors. And these implications should always be remembered and taken into consideration when deliberating foreign policy and relationships with Japan.