My Family: Guadeloupe, And World War II

Family is a network of lives consisting of one’s ancestors and their children. Thus families are rooted deep in the past and span over large amounts of land. Therefore, the historory of people’s families are rich with stories that span across time and land. Through the ages, many historical events have taken place that have affected my family such as the French Revolution, cultural and educational revolution in Guadeloupe, and World War II. However, even though my ancestors are separated by decades and thousands of miles, they are intrepid fearless men who are not afraid to do what they feel needs to be done.
Guadeloupe is an Island in the French Caribbean which has a long history of plantations and colonization. Europeans colonized Guadeloupe
When Japan entered the war, they tried to establish a control over South East Asia creating what they called the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Japan not only tried to conquer China, but also went after many small Islands in South Asia. One of these Islands was the English colony and strategic stronghold Singapore. Kim Mong, my great great grandfather, worked in the biggest British Company based in Singapore. He was English educated and was relatively prosperous in his work. However, this all changed on February 8th, 1942 when 5,000 Japanese troops landed on Singapore Island. In the beginning, there were many bombings. My grandma said "There were sirens. The sirens meant there was a bomb coming. The first few months were terrible. You had to hide in your house, underneath the beds and hope the bombs don’t land on your house. I heard of whole families gone because a bomb landed on their house.” Four days after the Japanese landed, all the men have to go and register with the Japanese. Soon after that, the military started to patrol the areas around the Island. They would knock on doors randomly and perform searches, and if they saw young women they would take them and rape them. These women were called comfort women. Because of this, Lim Kim Mong would cut his wife's hair short and also his girl's hair and had them dress up as boys so they would not be taken. Then, the rations started. This made life very tough and starvation was a real issue. Each adult was allowed to eat only 11 pounds of rice a month with no meat of fish available. Because of this lack food, Lim's granddaughter, my grandmother's older sister, died at a very young age from starvation. Every day, Lim was forced to bow to the Japanese flag. The Japanese felt the need to enforce their culture onto Singapore and all the schools became controlled by Japan, where they taught in Japanese. However,