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THIS is amazing. Japanese WW2 empire chase made it into as far as obscure Pitas, North Borneo, which you think is a useless, no man’s land, remote, tucked hidden in the Bengkoka Peninsular, unreachable and what good can come out of that.   

But the Japanese Imperial Army begged to differ, for their own strategic reasons. 

They were there, clearly eying rubber from a rich rubber estate – Coleman Rubber Estate, which is little known until now. 

There, they enjoyed the grandiose of Coleman House, residence of an obscure colonial Rubber Estate manager, which they seized, and turned it into their headquarters.

But luxury and comfort didn’t last.

As a great mind and former Greek Finance Minister Dr Yanis Varoufakis once said: “Empires can’t help but over reach and in over reach, they plant the seed of their own destruction.” 

This is a niche story I embark on penning in two series on a small but focussed attack in 1945 illustrate the fate of all empires, especially those that rule with rule with the unkindest force.    

In a short firefight one night 1945, a swift, focussed attack mounted by a small party of covert Aussie operatives from the Z Special Force pumped bullets through the wooden floor, and counted the sleeping dead minutes later. 

This small party of secret agents were inserted into the Bengkoka Peninsular by an American submarine which set sail from Darwin.

To this day, bullet holes and bullet marks fired from Austen submachine guns remain stark evidence of Z Force exploits and Sabah Museum rightly gazetted Coleman House as State Heritage.      

It’s an epic WW2 story yet little told.

But we reserve the drama of this incisive assault to Part 2 of this Special Report.         

Top architect on Coleman House 

By any standard, Coleman House is a heart winning architecture, though simple.

Looking at its pictures, veteran architect Datuk Ho Jia Lit noted: “It looks like a very good and functional colonial design – providing different privacy spaces, rooms such as separate living and big open balcony, dining / kitchen and bedrooms etc via two linking bridges / corridors.”

“Also, the floor is elevated on solid belian iron wood stumps for good ventilation below, avoids flooding, can be used for storage spaces, and also help to avoid snakes, wild animals etc from entering into house.”        

In this Part 1 report, we focus on pictures to illuminate this house. 

Key Timeline of Japan’s invasion of Borneo

The key timeline of Japan’s invasion of and advance in North Borneo indicates how quickly Japan captured and penetrated all districts and towns.   

They invaded Borneo in December 1941, starting with the landings in Miri, Sarawak, on Dec 16, 1941 to seize vital oil resources.

Occupation of Borneo began in January 1942 until the end of the war in 1945.

The Key Timeline is as follows:  

Dec 16, 1941, Japanese forces landed at Miri, Sarawak, historically and currently oil rich, and Seria – centre of oil and gas of Brunei, securing oil fields, marking the start of the Battle of Borneo

No oil and gas industry existed in then North Borneo but strategically vital. 

• Jan 1, 1942 – Japanese landed in Labuan.
• Jan 2, 1942 – Japanese troops landed at Mempakul and Weston. 
• Jan 9, 1942 – Jesselton now Kota Kinabalu was occupied after negotiations to surrender. British North Borneo Chartered Company Government yielded without a fight.  
• Jan 19, 1942 – Japanese forces landed in Sandakan and took control
• Jan 24, 1942 – they landed in Batu Tinagat, Tawau, arrested the British District Officer and occupied Tawau.
• Jan 26, 1942 – Lahad Datu was taken 
• Feb 1, 1942 – Kudat fell, which marked the completion of Japanese control of North Borneo.

Not surprisingly, they must have moved quickly into the Bengkoka Peninsular to capture its rubber resource in Pitas, complete with a master piece Coleman House.

How extreme isolationist Japan humiliated to aggressive expansionist 

A curious question is how a once extremely isolationist, polite Japan became such an aggressive expansionist militaristic empire with such over-reaching ambition that ended in a WW2 disaster.

For example, during the Edo period (1603-1868), the feudalistic  Tokugawa Shogunate embedded with a powerful samurai warrior class enforced a policy called  Sukoka (locked country) to severely restrict foreign contact, ban Japanese travel abroad (with death penalty for returnees) and control trade to the minimum to prevent foreign influence (especially Christianity) and limited trade with foreigners. 

But everything changed when the Americans arrived Yokohama in 1853 with gun boats.

Japanese elites deeply resented high-handed US Commodore 

Like China’s “century of humiliation” (1839-1945), Japan felt deeply humiliated by Commodore Perry  who first arrived Yokohama in 1853 with a squadron of four steam powered ‘Black Ships’ in a show of force  to demand Japan end its isolation open its port for trade and resupply. 

Japan refused. But Perry returned in Feb 1854 with a fleet of nine ‘Black Ships’ bristling with cannons firing intimidating blank salvos designed to force submissions. 

With such a display of overwhelming military force, Perry forced Japan’s hands and compelled it to sign an unequal treaty like the Treaty of Kanagawa that opened Shimoda and Hakodate ports to trade and privileges for the US under threat, thus ended Japan’s centuries old isolation, making the Samurai and military nobility officer caste backed Shogunate feel powerless and backward compared to the Americans, which was deeply resented by Japan’s elites.

That bitter and humiliating experience at the hands of American power woke up Japan which realised that to be backward and fall behind militarily is to be a sitting duck and sparked the famous Meiji Reformation launched in 1868. 

Who may have inadvertently created  a militaristic monster

Good question: Did the American bullying and grand threat of military hardware inspire the birth of a monstrous militaristic Japan later that tormented the world   From all accounts, the Meiji Reformation was the catalyst that launched Japan’s rapid industrial might transforming it from a feudal isolated society into a modern industrial power by dismantling feudalism and adopting modern technology, building infrastructure, centralising government, fostering capitalism to strengthen the nation’s capacity against western imperialism.         

But as the saying goes, every solution creates its own problems.

Japan’s rapid industrialisation created an insatiable demand for raw materials that it lacked, such as coal, oil, iron, rubber and markets, driving its militaristic expansion into Asia to secure colonies like Korea, Taiwan, Manchuria and Southeast Asia for resources, fired up nationalism which eventually clashed with western colonial powers.

Boiling confidence after defeated even Russia 

The industrial and technological might generated by the Meiji Reformation redeemed Japan’s pride and paved its way to conquest and invasion.

Encouraged by its early  victories over China in 1894-5 in the first Sino-Japan war and defeating even white Russian navy in 1904-5, Japan began to believe in its invincible military might that it can stretch its military muscle far and wide.

In 1931, it invaded Manchuria.

In 1937, it mounted a full scale second Sino-Japan war leading to the infamous brutal and barbaric event like the Nanjing massacre.

September 1940, it invaded French Indo China.

Alarmed by perceived threat to its economic interest, America which supplied 80pc of Japan’s oil needs, imposed a crippling oil embargo on Japan.

On Dec 7, 1941, Japan retaliated with the notorious Pearl Harbour suicide attack.    

Defeating Brits and Aussies – SEA falls

Come 1941-2, Japan expanded the war to Southeast Asia, including Malaya, Singapore, Dutch East Indies to seize vital oil, rubber and food supplies, defeating and capturing thousands of British, Australian prisoners of war in the fall of Singapore on February 8, 1942, which led to the infamous Sandakan- Ranau Death March.

So, in the case of Japan, it took only one unforgetable humiliation from the West, which fostered a determined search for industrial might.

But then, it created a dependence that could only be satisfied through imperial conquest, turning Japan’s economic growth into a driver for military aggression across Southeast Asia, with all its attendant barbarism savagery for which it has shown little remorse so far.

And, in Pitas, northern Sabah, the Coleman House still stands as a monument to that traumatic memory.