I'm 91 years old this year, so I was 9 years old during the war. I stayed at Chin Swee Road in a two-story house, and we occupied just one room. There were nine of us - my paternal grandma, my parents, two elder brothers, and three younger brothers - all staying inside that single room. My father had come from China, and my mother was a Peranakan from Malaya. He worked in an oil factory to support us, and my mother took care of us as a housewife. Being the only daughter in the family, my father doted on me a lot.

​I vividly remember the wartime meals - it was mostly tapioca and porridge. We also ate noodles made from tapioca flour, fried in red palm oil. To prevent them from sticking together, you had to soak the tapioca noodles in palm oil. Before frying, you'd wash away the palm oil and then add some salt after frying. We sometimes added chives to give it some flavor. It wasn't nice to eat, but it was filling.

Pan-cooked noodles made from tapioca flour, fried in red palm oil

Illustrated by Julia Tay

In those days, there was an oil factory located across the road from our house. A bomb was dropped on the factory, but thankfully, it didn't explode. Had it detonated, I might not be here at 91 years old today. We were so terrified that my family sought refuge in a bomb shelter.

During the Japanese Occupation, there was a day when my father and brother were required to register themselves. There was a long queue based on the numbers allocated to them. My brother returned home after the inspection, but my father was stuck in the queue. It was then that the Japanese drove by and started shooting the people in the queue - my father was killed in the gunfire.

​My father's death was incredibly difficult for my mother as she now had to raise five kids on her own. The boss of the oil factory where my father worked took pity on her and offered her a job washing oil barrels. Those barrels were huge, and I saw her cleaning them once. You had to put baking soda and water into the barrel and wash it until all the oil was gone. Life was very tough, but somehow we managed to get by. She continued working there even after the war.

Photograph of The Thian Hock Keng Temple at Telok Ayer Street

Collection of Children’s Museum Singapore; Donated by Prof Cheah Jin Seng

Dated late19th century

Credit: Roots.gov.sg (link)

​The Ma Zu temple at Telok Ayer (Thian Hock Temple, a Hokkien temple dedicated to the Goddess of the Sea) distributed cooked porridge to poor people like us. Every day at 10 pm, we would collect the porridge from the temple. It was very watery porridge with shreds of coconut in it. I would bring the porridge home, and my family would eat it with light soya sauce or dark soya sauce. For lunch, my mother would cook food in the morning before she left for work, and we would have it in the afternoon.

Watery porridge with shredded coconut, drizzled with soya sauce

Illustrated by Julia Tay