24th September 1944
Dear Diary,
The war is still ongoing and I don’t know when or whether the war will ever stop. I live every day in trauma, careful of the words and things I do or say. Anything unpleasant to the ears of the Japanese would mean my head rolling on the ground. It is such a big blessing to be able to write this diary. I don’t know how long more I could continue to write this diary.
Propaganda leaflets could be seen flying around the streets and fellow neighbours are captured and brought to the concentration camp every day. I am praying, praying very hard that my family members would not be the ones being caught as it would be as good as death when being caught.
I go to school every day, learning Japanese, hearing Japanese, writing Japanese and singing Japanese national anthem. In school, I was taught to be loyal to the emperor of Japan, something which I hated the most but I had no choice.
After school, I could only stay at home to help my mother with the housework as Japanese soldiers come to “collect” ration. We could hardly meet ends meet but could not oppose them. We could only taking a day at the time as we try to get through.
I am currently hoping that the war will end soon so that all our sufferings would stop…