The Second World War had various implications in Asia, with the Imperial Japanese Army invading a number of countries in that greater region alone. One of them was then-British colony and peninsula, Malaya. The Japanese come with stories of recapturing Asia for Asians. In society- and global- scale conflicts, people are under severe duress, and the aspects of the personalities which emerge may be a surprise to the individuals themselves and those around them.
Vanessa Chan’s The Storm We Made follows four main characters of the Alcantara family: Cecily, and her three children, Jujube, Abel, and Jasmin. The children, two daughters and a son, range in age from 15 to 7, respectively, at the opening. Gordon, Cecily’s husband, is a Caucasian official of the British bureaucracy, whose main purpose is the theft of Malaya’s extracted natural resources. Cecily’s lineage is Eurasian, with Portuguese lineage. Cecily’s mother had bragged:
We did not come here as laborers like the Chinese and Indians to work the land and the mines, and we were not conquered like the Malays. We were made by white men, we are Christian, we worship their same gods, and they gave us their names, Rozario, and Oliveiro, and Sequiera.
Cecily, though, is darker than her husband, and the local society prefers the lighter skin color of the British overlords. Racial politics inform the social hierarchy. This historical novel opens in 1945 but flashes back to seminal periods 10 years ago.
While Gordon is an “empire loyalist,” Cecily is secretly rooting for the Japanese in their takeover. She believes that the Japanese will rid Malaya of the opportunistic British colonizers and return Malaya to its peoples. Both spouses have misplaced faith, and their hopes belie the realpolitik. They believe that their efforts may swing the direction of the country. Neither position was sufficiently thought through.
The novel opens with the disappearance of teenaged boys. The oppressed locals are left to speculation and quiet gossip. There is not a clear bureaucracy to reach out to to find out what is happening, under the Japanese leadership. “Choosing life” in a time of chaos is about compromise, to navigate the narrow paths of survival.
A Japanese general, Shigeru Fujiwara, has invaded Malaya with the Japanese military several years prior. The British colonizers were displaced in 7 weeks. Fujiwara was dubbed the Tiger of Malaya. He is a charismatic figure, attractive to the women of Malaya. His vision for Malaya is compelling to various true believers. Cecily falls for the man, and they begin an affair and a spymaster-spy relationship. Cecily uses her position as the wife of a British official to collect and move information. The two are reckless and do little to hide the connection.
While the Japanese were greeted with a welcoming party in Bintang, the local town in the city of Kuala Lumpur, in Malaya. Once they settled into power, the Japanese military engaged in massive killings and brutalities. They set up labor camps. They set up “comfort stations” where local women are used to relieve the sexual appetites of the Japanese. They worked towards subjugating Malaya. Food is rationed and scarce. They set up 8 p.m. curfews.
Malayan society continues apace, with the ladies of higher society gossiping about their respective worlds and assessing the attractiveness of the various men in their social circles. The racist colonialist policies exist for years into the occupation, such as the existence of The Federal, a whites-only country club. As a society in extremis, beneath the surface of civil society and friendships, it is everyone out for themselves. When push comes to shove, people break, and they give up so much of what is (or should be) precious in their lives.
The novel follows the relative experiences of Cecily and each child. Cecily has a taste for danger and a veiled contempt for her spouse, which leads her to major risk-taking. Jujube, the eldest daughter, works at a local teahouse, where she catches the attention of a Japanese teacher. Abel is kidnapped into the Kanchanaburi Labor Camp, on the Burma/Thai border. Jasmine is lured away from her family by her friend, Yuki, who is a pre-teen pressed into service at a comfort station.
The writing is unflinching, finessed, vivid, and brutal. The historical aspects ring true in some aspects. The carrying on of an affair in a society where people are observant of each other is not as believable. The title seems to place blame for the larger events on the local characters, which also does not seem apropos.
Vanessa Chan’s The Storm We Made is a potent novel, written during the pandemic. In the Acknowledgments, Chan describes how this novel was a family affair, with support across generations and shared stories that enabled its writing. A note to readers explains the inspiration for the novel, which includes the realization of just how easily history is lost to present-day memory.
Shalin Hai-Jew has worked in higher education for many years. She has edited dozens of nonfiction educational books and authored a dozen with a number of publishers.
