Forgotten Malaysian victims of Hiroshima atomic bombing

 

The grave of Nik Yusof Nik Ali, one of two Malaysians who died in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. (Aaron Denison pic)

GEORGE TOWN: Every year, when the world mourns the victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug 6, 1945, only a few people remember the three Malaysian victims of the attack.

Two of them lie buried in Japan. A third survived.

The survivor, Abdul Razak Abdul Hamid, is briefly mentioned in a Form 4 history textbook, but there is no mention of Nik Yusof Nik Ali and Syed Omar Syed Mohammad Alsagoff, says Aaron Denison, currently a post-graduate student at Hiroshima University.

“Nik Yusof and Syed Omar should be added to the history textbook in Malaysia,” he said in an interview with FMT. “Also, the Malaysian government should organise a memorial in Malaysia to recognise all three as war victims.”

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Syafiq Faliq Alfan.

Syafiq Faliq Alfan, an assistant language teacher currently based in Kaita, Hiroshima, agreed. He too said that Malaysian victims of the Hiroshima bombing deserved to be better known.

Nik Yusof and Syed Omar were both 17, and Razak, 19, when they were sent to Japan two years earlier under a Japanese programme for people in occupied Southeast Asia.

The three were among 12 young people from Malaya chosen by the occupation authorities. All three, with 17 other foreign students, were enrolled at Hiroshima University to study education after preparatory training in Tokyo.

When the US dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, in the world’s first use of nuclear weapons, the blast levelled the city and killed more than 150,000 people. On Aug 9, 1945, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing more than 220,000 people. Japan surrendered six days later.

Nik Yusof and Syed Omar died from the blast radiation while attempting to leave their campus, which was just 1.5km from Ground Zero, said Denison, citing a book that was written about Nik Yusof.

Malaysian and Japanese volunteers at the grave of Nik Yusof at the Kozenji Temple. (Aaron Denison pic)

He said Nik Yusof was cremated after his body was found near Itsukaichi City and a Buddhist priest later volunteered to bury his remains in an Islamic ceremony at Kozenji Temple.

Syed Omar died in Kyoto Hospital and his remains were buried at Enkoji Temple in Kyoto.

Aaron Denison (left) with Keiko Aoki, author of the book ‘Remembering Nik’. (Aaron Denison pic)

Denison said the book, entitled “Remembering Nik”, was written by a Hiroshima peace volunteer, Keiko Aoki, in which she recounted that a doctor named Hamajima donated his blood to the gravely injured Syed Omar.

Hamajima asked Syed Omar whether he hated the Japanese for the tragedy that befell him and his response was: “Why should I hate you? You and I are brothers because you gave me your blood to try and save my life.”

Memorial services

Aaron Denison.

Denison said Nik Yusof’s grave was the only Muslim one at the temple. A memorial service is held there every year by the temple and a group of volunteers.

Syafiq said Hiroshima University also helped organise the service and would notify Malaysian students and provide transport to the temple, a 90-minute drive away.

He said Nurhaizal Azam Arif, a Malaysian associate professor at Hiroshima City University, would usually assist in the service.

Syafiq said the temple organised an official memorial ceremony in 1964, when the embassy and family members of Nik Yusof were invited.

“This year’s memorial ceremony was interesting since Nurhaizal himself did a presentation on the life of Nik Yusof,” he told FMT.

Memorial services for Syed Omar are carried out by Japanese volunteers at his grave in Enkoji Temple. - FMT