The Making of Sibu-Shu 志布州 – Sibu Under Japanese Occupation (1942–1945)

Introduction

This historical documentary recreates one of the darkest chapters in the history of Sibu and the Rajang Basin during the Japanese Occupation of Sarawak in World War II.

Through cinematic AI-generated reconstructions, archival-inspired visuals, and historically researched storytelling, this film follows the transformation of Sibu into “Sibu-shu (志布州)” under Imperial Japanese administration — from invasion, military rule, forced labor, fear, bombings, and resistance… to liberation and remembrance.

The 20 minutes documentary covers:

Introduction of Japanese War in Malaya, Miri then Kuching
The Bombing of Sibu by Japanese Planes
The arrival of Japanese forces in Sibu
Establishment of Sibu-shu administration
Kempeitai control and wartime suffering
Teku Airfield constructions and military operations
Allied bombing raids over Sibu
Operation Semut and guerrilla resistance
The surrender of Lieutenant Noda at Bukit Lima
Liberation of Sibu and Sarawak in 1945
Japanese repatriation under Operation Exodus
The modern-day remembrance memorial in Sibu

Many scenes were inspired by real wartime photographs, historical records, survivor accounts, and writings related to Sarawak during WWII.

This film is dedicated to all who endured the occupation, those who never returned, and future generations who continue to remember.

Historical Timeline

1941 — Japanese invasion begins
1942 — Sibu falls under Japanese occupation
1945 — Allied liberation and surrender in Sibu
2025 — 80th Anniversary Memorial unveiled in Sibu

Special Note

This documentary was created using AI-assisted visual storytelling technologies combined with historical research and local Sarawak history preservation efforts. Many of the old photos were from Internet, some with named owner, some unknown, some commonly published, not sure who’s the original owners.

Major Facts Reference

Most of the timeline, detail descriptions on incidents and story characters are fact checked with Bob Reece’s “Masa Japan”
I was lucky to be able to loan a copy from Mr John Ting to continue my findings and finalising all detail timeline, and then work on my storyboards, before commencing on the Ai video production
I had also visited the 砂拉越华族文化协会Sarawak Chinese Cultural Association, to get some info
I had tried to contact a few other local historians / photographers, trying to get some old photos that I needed, some were not available when I made the visit to Sibu
A lot of scene were recreated from old photos, trying to be as close as possible to the environment, buildings, attires and culture at the time of incidents

The book is out of print,
There’s a used book from UK’s OXFAM Shop

Getting The Sibu Surrender Scene Done

In Bob Reece’s Masa Jepun Book, he gave a very detail write-up on the Japanese Surrender in Sibu, which was done around Lanang Road, not the Rejang Riverfront as most people had written about.

In his writing:

Following the arrangement made with Noda, the next morning Sochon and his party walked from the Tai Khun Wharf to an open space in the middle of Lanang Road for the official surrender.
In the meantime, the town had come alive again as people flocked back from the countryside and long-hidden Allied flags were hung from the shop-fronts. Sochon described the simple ceremony that followed:
“With all the dignity that the situation demanded, the two commanders faced each other and Noda handed over his list of weapons, equipment, ammunition and stores. I took it from him and the Japanese stepped back. Saluting smartly, he fumbled at his waist for a moment or two and then, undoing his sash, removed his Samurai sword from his side. Placing it across his two palms, outstretched and upwards, he moved towards me in a final gesture of surrender. Gravely accepting the sword, I waited while Noda stepped back and saluted once more. I returned his salute and the Japanese turned on his heel, marched swiftly to the waiting launch, boarded and snapped out an order to cast off. Without another glance backward he faced the prow of the vessel as it slowly gathered speed and disappeared round the bend of the river to the delighted cheers of the returned populace.”

I managed to get it done in 3 scenes

Major W.L.P. “Bill” Sochon British officer Sibu meeting Noda (the Japanese Command in chief in Sibu) at Lanang Road face to face

Noda handed over his list of weapons, equipment, ammunition and stores. Noda then removed his Samurai sword from his side. Placing it across his two palms, outstretched and upwards, Noda moved towards Sochon in a final gesture of surrender. Gravely accepting the sword

Noda turned on his heel, marched swiftly to the waiting launch, boarded and snapped out an order to cast off. Without another glance backward he faced the prow of the vessel as it slowly gathered speed and disappeared round the bend of the river to the delighted cheers of the returned populace.

Why are there Chinese subtitle this time

As most of the victims and viewership of this video will likely be 60-80 years old, some of them may not be well verse in English, so I am adding hard-coded Chinese subtitle in the video
As this age group may not know how to switch to Youtube’s Chinese Sub-title if I did a multi-lingual subtitle on Youtube, I hard-coded the subtitle inside the video
So must figure out a way to do multi-lingual subtitle for future videos

Some of the scenes were created from a single old photo

This is a photo of the Japanese army using bicycle to advance in Malaya

I use it to create a scene of Japanese army cycling through Malaya’s plantation

This photo was created using Gemini

I get Kling Ai to create the Bomb Shelter scene

The Japanese war plane from Australian war memorial

I use it to produce the Japanese bombing in Sibu

The Sibu main bazaar along Channel Road, which I had used previously in the 1924 Sibu Fire video, I reuse it for multiple scenes

With Japanese planes flying over Sibu, people were looking upward into the sky to find out what’s coming.

It was also turn into a scene where civilians started running upon hearing bomb siren

Later turn into the parade scene when the Allied had liberated Sibu, with most of the buildings already heavily damaged from Allied’s bombing earlier.

I could not locate any photo of The Borneo Company godown, the new one at Island Road was built only after the war, but as the old one was near the wharf, next to Tua Pek Kong temple, so this is the nearest I can find

So I remove the ship at the back and created one

There is a good photo on Sime Darby official site, so I am in luck

I created the looting and riot scene on Sime Darby store

The Sarawak Steamship Company godown is the hardest to find, basically no one I had contacted has any old photo, or recollection on how it looked like, but as it was located near the wharf, next to the Tua Pek Kong temple, and was where the new 80th anniversary memorial monument was established in 2025, so I think it could be the current Rejang Port Authority (RPA) site, so I created one

And done the aerial bombing and on the ground scene

The Sibu-shu offices

As there were 3 different office mentioned in Bob Reece’s Masa Jepun, so I have to look for locations

Bob Reece mentioned the local Shang Tuan (group of businessmen) had allocated a villa (漳泉别墅) to the first arrival Japanese team as temporary office, but looking at the photo above, it did have a 漳泉别墅 on top of the building, but it is more of a shoplot, not a villa

So I created a “villa” building to be used at the scene

The Japanese operation centre is another one, Bob mentioned it is located near the waterfront, and we have this building from an old archive. I think it had been used as the British office, so this could be the one

It was previously a Administrative British office

Which later turn into the immigration office in the 1960-70s, where people go there to apply for ICs

It is now a supermarket.

So I created this new Japanese Operation office

This is Lido cinema in the 1950s

Japanese use it as a warehouse

I found many instances of the the appointment of the new Sibu-shu Residence, when formal administration of Sibu-shu was proclaimed on 8 Augus, 1942, where the visiting general from Kuching doing a Group photo with the new administration.
Original photo from Veronica Chang-Schmid’s post‘ on Facebook

I restored the photo into better and higher resolution

I restored the photo and make it a photo taking session scene

This is the old Bank Street photos

I use it to turn into a Kempei-tai scene, where everyone walked passed avoiding eye contact with the Kempei-tai, that’s the fear under Japanese occupation.

This is a very old photo of the Monument Japanese erected commemorating the establishment of the Japanese military administration in Sibu-shu, August 1942
Photo taken from Bob Reece’s Masa Jepun Book

I managed to do a decent restoration along the river front, there was a scene where the monument was erected, and also a scene where the monument was demolished by a group of angry people after the Japanese surrender

Chua Chong Hian has a post on his Facebook have the old photo of the location of the monument, only the foundation base left, after angry mob demolished the monument after the war.

I had used the photo to recreate the monument demolition scene after the war. If you look at the riverside view of the monument at that time, there was a tree, so I have the tree reinstated beside the monument

This is an unnamed sawmill in Sarawak, not sure where’s the location and name

I used it to create a scene where Japanese forced the laborers to extract and process timber for their constructions

This is quite a blur photo found in Bob Reece’s Masa Jepun, taken during the construction of Sibu Airfield in Teku, near Sungei Merah

I restore it and used it in one of the scene

I found one photo from Chua Chong Hian’s facebook – https://www.facebook.com/chonghian, saying this building used to be the Kempei-tai office during the Japanese occupation

I used the building and it’s surrounding building to create a scene where the Kempei-tai bringing in people for interrogations

I found this on Mike Kueh’s Post facebook, the phamplets that the Allied dropped from the planes to inform civilians that Japanese is losing the war
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1B9MD7dcZJ/

I use the phamplet in one of the scene

This is a very old photo of Tua Pek Kong temple, undated

As the report from multiple sources all saying the the Tua Pek Kong temple was severely damaged, so I use the old photo to created the after bombing scene

I was looking for a surrender scene for a smaller town, this one is for a smaller town in Sabah

I use the above photo to create a similar scene between the Australian commander Sochon and the Japanese commander, Lieut. Noda

This is a photo of the disarmed Japanese soldiers in Jesselton (KK)

I use it to create a similar look when the Japanese solders were marching to the detention holdout camp, waiting to be sent to Kuching.

This is Niran Maru Nai Tokio, I use it to create the big Japanese vessel used to transport the Japanese Soldeirs holdout in Labuan Island back to Japan

This is the scene before boarding.

The monument commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Surrender of the Japanese Imperial Army in Sibu was funded through Senator Robert Lau’s senator grant. And I used the photo posted on his Facebook

To create the scene of current day, where a tour guide was explaining to tourist about the monument, and later pointing to the Rejang River, and that’s where we end the video.

FINAL SCENE — “REMEMBRANCE”
Remembrance, reconciliation, survival and enduring historical memory