By Wong Kah Wei 

 

Many would know Elizabeth Choy as Singapore’s war heroine. It is most apt that her biography is titled Elizabeth Choy: More than a War Heroine. Her resilience and courage are often told in the harrowing story of the torture and incarceration she endured during the Japanese Occupation. But in reading the transcript of her oral interview and her lecture tour notes, we discover Elizabeth Choy was truly a heroine of her own right.  

The transcript of an oral history interview Choy gave in 1985, describes her experiences during World War 2 and post-war. Choy overcame the atrocities, attributing her courage to her trust in God because she came from five generations of Christians. While incarcerated, she meditated on a Confucius teaching her father taught her and also what she learnt from Jesus – “What you want others to do to you, you do to others.”  

After the Japanese surrendered, the British asked Choy if she would identify any Japanese who had tortured her so that they could be executed. Choy replied that the war was a wicked thing. But the people were not wicked. They were just doing their duty. They had their own children and families. She had not forgotten the atrocities inflicted on her but she had forgiven the Japanese (Choy, 1985). 

Throughout her life, Elizabeth Choy demonstrated the same magnanimity of spirit and selfless service as a teacher, social worker, nurse, Singapore Volunteer Corps volunteer, and Legislative Councillor (Zhou, 1995).  

In 1951, Choy was nominated by the Governor, Sir Franklin Gimson, as an unofficial member of the Legislative Council (Zhou, 1995). Choy served five years and was the only woman Legislative Councilor (Singapore History Museum, 1997). In 1953, as the first and only woman nominated Legislative Councilor, Choy was invited to attend the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London. While in London, she was invited by the British Foreign Office to go on a lecture tour of North America “to explain the hopes and aspirations of Singapore and Malaya to the people of the United States of America and Canada” (Zhou, 1995). She was to be a goodwill ambassador.  

Zhou’s (1995) biography devotes a chapter on Choy’s lecture tours providing the background to her unpublished lecture notes in our library’s collection. These lecture notes are valuable to show Choy’s perspective on the people, government, health and social issues of Singapore during the 1950s based on the information she gathered to support her points.  

Before embarking on the lecture tour, Choy requested to be given “first hand exposure to life in Peninsula Malaya” to update her knowledge. By the end of 1949, the state of Eemergency had already been imposed in Singapore and the Federation of Malaya. Communities which were scattered in remote areas in the Peninsula were targets for the communist guerillas. So, the “New Villages” were established to gather communities to live in secured compounds with curfews and sentries (Zhou, 1995). Sir Gerald Templer arranged for Choy to visit these villages where she saw the hardships of the villagers. Choy was also introduced to Lady Templer’s Women’s Institute which aimed to improve the lives of the women in the villages through education and entrepreneurship.  

Her experiences, the people she met and the information she gathered gave her all she needed to start on her lecture tour.  

In her lecture notes, Choy described a multi-racial Singapore situated in the tropics. As a teacher and her experiences with people, she engaged her audience with vivid examples of diversity in the ethnic groups, places of worship, colorful costumes, cultural festivals and so on. 

In the lecture entitled Singapore – the Great Meeting Place of Peoples and Culture, Choy opined that Singapore has a “key job” in which East meets West as “residents at work and play” to build “the democratic community with a way and standard of life which modern resources and modern techniques have made possible”. 

Her interest in women’s welfare and her push to free women from the “frightening tangle of submissiveness, lethargy and superstition” was evident in her lecture on Women’s Part in Public Life. Here she expounded on the programmes of the Women’s Institute such as the savings groups, adult education groups, handicraft exhibitions, small businesses, etc. She was confident that the lives of women and their power to influence were increasing with more women voting and becoming teachers, doctors and lawyers.   

Her lecture notes on healthcare in Keeping a City Healthy One Degree from the Equator, detailed healthcare challenges Singapore faced as a country in the tropics which were alien to her North American audiences. With statistics and detailed information on government medical plans and health schemes, Choy described the improved hospital facilities, mobile dental and medical services in rural areas.  

Medical care was a concern which Choy continued to talk about in other lectures such as Women’s Part in Public Life. In this lecture notes, she described the support given by the British Red Cross Society and the Australian Red Cross Society to address the medical care challenges in the new villages in far-flung areas.  

In describing “self-government” in Singapore’s Progress Towards Self-government, Choy detailed governance before the Japanese war and post-war changes, dwelling considerably on the Legislative Council, its powers, membership and so on. As a teacher and a Legislative Councilor, we can see why Choy emphasized the need to learn, to refresh and adjust to improve in the spirit of the community as democrats.  

Choy wrote passionately about her interest in social policy specifically education, social services and the development of the voluntary services in My Work as a Legislator. She felt women have responsibilities in public as well as in the home. As a teacher, she was grateful to be a Legislative Councilor as she would have the opportunity to learn and test ideas.  

The strong, clear voice of Elizabeth Choy resonates in her lecture notes and oral history interview. These unpublished texts presenting a person’s voice, add depth and nuance to what we already know from memoirs and biographies. These ordinary and often ignored volumes of unpublished information, wedged in-between large volumes of hardcovered books, are treasures waiting to be discovered and valuable for in-depth research. 

 

References 

Choy, E. S. (1954). Keeping a city healthy one degree from the equator. E. Choy. 

Choy, E. S. (1954). My work as a legislator. E. Choy. 

Choy, E. (1954). Singapore: the great meeting place of peoples and culture. E. Choy. 

Choy, E. S. (1954). Singapore’s progress towards self-government. E. Choy. 

Choy, E. S. (1954). Women’s part in public life. E. Choy. 

Choy, E. (1985). Oral history interview. Singapore: Oral History Dept. 

Singapore History Museum (1997). Elizabeth Choy: a woman ahead of her time. Singapore: Singapore History Museum. 

Zhou, M. (1995). Elizabeth Choy: more than a war heroine : a biography. Landmark Books.