KUCHING: In 1942, British civil servants from Sarawak were among those killed by Japanese troops in an attack on the remote Dutch outpost of Long Nawang in east Kalimantan.
A memorial plaque in their remembrance has now been unveiled at the World War II memorial square at the Batu Lintang Teachers Education Institute here.
For Melissa Murphy, a descendant of one of the Long Nawang victims, the plaque is the culmination of a long-held dream to honour the memory of her grandfather Desmond Vernon Murphy.
“It started from my research about my missing grandfather, who was then serving as the police deputy commissioner.
“No one knew what happened to him. My father was only told that he was missing in action during the war.
“About 18 years ago I started to investigate his disappearance and discovered rumours that he was killed in Long Nawang,” she said after the unveiling ceremony on Thursday (July 21).
Murphy hired a researcher in Britain who eventually found records that her grandfather was among the victims of the Long Nawang massacre.
She also found out that the victims’ remains were reinterred on Tarakan island in north Kalimantan before being transferred again to the Surabaya war cemetery.
“It was closure for our family, especially my father, to finally have confirmation of what happened to my grandfather and his final resting place,” she said.
In the course of her research, Murphy thought about putting up a plaque to commemorate the victims but could not find a suitable location at first.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, she revived the idea and got in touch with Sarawak Tourism Federation heritage adviser Datuk Lim Kian Hock, who suggested the Batu Lintang site.
“I want the next generation to know what happened to the Long Nawang victims. I don’t want them to be forgotten,” she said.
Sarawak Deputy Tourism Minister Datuk Sebastian Ting, who unveiled the plaque, said it was fitting to pay tribute to the memory of the Long Nawang victims.
He related that a group of British officers and their families led by Andrew McPherson, then the Resident of Sibu, fled from the Japanese invasion of Sarawak to Long Nawang, where they arrived on Jan 22, 1942.
In April, 40 Dutch and Indonesian soldiers arrived at Long Nawang, escaping from the Japanese advance.
“On Aug 19 that year, two Kenyah reported that 70 Japanese troops were advancing towards Long Nawang fort. Next morning the Japanese attacked with rifles and light machine guns.
“McPherson and a few others were wounded and put into two cells of the fort for interrogation.
“On Aug 26, the Japanese executed the male prisoners at 5pm. The women and children were held in two houses until Sept 23 when they were taken out and killed,” Ting said, adding that their remains were later found in two mass graves.