Portrait of an anti-fascist, patriotic martyr

In his memoirs, Daripada Perjuangan Bersenjata Kepada Perdamaian (Kuala Lumpur, SIRD, 2006), Pak Rashid Maidin recalls that it was a trilingual Chinese youth Toh Lung San who finally convinced him to join the Communist Party of Malaya in 1941.

To Pak Rashid, Lung San was not only a good personal friend and comrade but also his "true teacher" in politics. To express his gratitude to Lung San, Pak Rashid devotes the entire Chapter 3 of his memoirs to the recollection of his "true teacher".

Toh Lung San (1922-1943) is spelt as Du Lung San in Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History. Chin Peng also honours Lung Shan as "my mentor".

Lung San appears in Chapter 14 of Sybil Kathigasu's No Dram of Mercy as the Cantonese-speaking "Captain" or "Lai Fook" of the MPAJA whom she met in the police lock-up after both of them were severely tortured by the Kempetai.

In her memoirs, Sybil Kathigasu also recorded a brief conversation between her and Lung San in the lock-up. F.Spencer Chapman's The Jungle is Neutral mentions a "Li Fuk" as a "brave" guerilla leader during the Japanese occupation. "Li Fuk" was certainly Toh Lung San.

According to my collection, Toh Lung San is known in different books as Tu Lung Shan, Lai Raifel, Lai Rifle, Li Fuk, Lai Fook and Lai Lai Fook.

The Setiawan-born Lung San was later captured by Japanese troops in Perak and executed by decapitation in Ipoh's Ampang area in 1943 at the age of 21.

I'm still in the process of reconstructing his fuller and more detailed profile from sources of different languages. Meanwhile, if you understand Chinese, please read first my write-up on Toh Lung San on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War, at http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/38536

Merdeka history in new light
http://www.malaysiakini.com/opinionsfeatures/42665

History of the Malay Left
http://www.malaysiakini.com/opinionsfeatures/48827

Memoirs of Ipoh’s WWII heroine being reprinted
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/45452