the Japanese War Monument at Batu Lintang Kuching

I went to visit the Japanese grave at Batu Lintang, Kuching. This is the place when the Japanese surrender, after the Americans drop two atomic bombs at Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Notice bellow the monument, there is a plate with both Japanese and English writing on it. And this is what it wrote on the plate.

The origin of the monument,
During the second world war when every able bodied man has enlisted in the Japanese war efforts a group of young boys fireherman aged 15 - 16 volunteered their service to help the country by ferrying food supply to Japanese trools of the Southern fronts.

These courageous boys were from the fishing port of Yaizu which was famous in Japan for its plentiful supply for bonito and tuna fishes.

In their tiny 50 tonnes worn out fishing boats the boys began ferrying food supply to the southern battlefronts.

Torward the end of the war, then massive counter attacks by the Americans and the British had cause heavy defeats of the Japanese army, the young Yaizu fisherman took up arms to help defend their country.

The youthful hands which had only held fishing nets and had only been use for making Katuobushi now held gunds and firearms.

Between 1942 - 1945. 81 of the Yaizu boy fisherman lost their lives in the call of their patriotic duty.

On behalf of the war bereaved, we held this service to honor and pay our deepest respect for these brave boys and to pray for their eternal peace. This year of 1991.

(TAIJI SUZUKI) The Chief Priest of Yaizu Shine.

I was told during some day in the year, there are still some Japanese people will come and pay their respect to the people who pass away here. Base on the writing on the monument, the Priest treat these people as a war hero. Base on the stories that my parents and grandma told me, they are more to villain instead of being a hero.