When the Japanese surrendered, Ah Lam marched in the Victory Parade in Singapore, and the British who re-occupied our country gave him a medal and three hundred dollars for his gun. But when they began to arrest our comrades here and there, Ah Lam returned Inside.

His soul is steeped in bitterness, for his father and mother have been killed by the Japanese, and his only sister and her three small children were killed by the Malays in a massacre of our people during the re-occupation by the British after the war.

The other comrade is a female, shifted from an estate near Labis, where she had organized the women workers and collected subscriptions. Her Party name is Small Cloud.

10 April The new teacher has arrived. He is thin and suffers from tuberculosis and is always swallowing medicines. He has a shrill, high voice and can be heard very clearly.

Went out with ambush party. Burnt an estate lorry and lectured the workers. Reprimanded two recruits for complaining about the leeches. It is most important not to notice the jungle we live in. To live in it, we must be unaware of it, and walk as if it were the wide streets of a city. That is why the red-haired devils suffer much when they enter it; they notice every patch of swamp, every thorn and leaf, they are frightened of the tangled leaves, the caged-in heat, the caterpillars like moss, and the moss that comes alive under one’s hand. Once we begin to notice the jungle, it is not possible to go on living in it very long.

28 April It will soon be our tremendous anniversary, Workers’ Day, and food is coming in to us from the people outside for a feast. The new recruits are thinking of their homes and telling about what they do at home, what they eat, and so on. Stopped them as it is bad for morale.