Source: The New Straits Times, 11 March 2007
By: Malina Jeya Palan
HE looks like any other regular elderly Malay gentleman you would see in a neighbourhood like Gombak. Datuk Abdul Razak Hamid personally answered the door bell.
Looking a little embarrassed in his sarong and T-shirt, he gestured to me to come in. "I think I need to change into something a little more formal," he said.
He emerged 10 minutes later wearing a batik shirt, looking pleased and ready for the interview.
This simple outward veneer overshadows the history this man carries with him.
Razak, now 82, was studying in Hiroshima when the Americans dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on the city on Aug 6, 1945.
An estimated 130,000 people died in Hiroshima, which then had a population of about 350,000. Razak was the only survivor among the Malayan students there.
"It was senseless and inhuman to subject innocent people to the barbarism of this form of warfare," said Razak, who was born in Penang in July 1925 to Abdul Hamid, a businessman, and Mak Esah.
"I have seen the horrors of nuclear warfare and I don’t wish it upon anyone."
It has been 62 years since the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaski which brought Japan to its knees, and with it the end of World War Two.
But, he remembers it as if it were only yesterday.
Those were turbulent times. Japan had conquered the region by 1940.
Razak was a trainee teacher posted to Malacca. In 1943, the Japanese selected him for further studies in Japan.
"It was in 1945 and I was in a maths class together with my friend, Pangeran Yusof from Brunei, when we heard the air raid siren."
It was a false alarm and they went back to class. But what happened next, changed his life.
Razak saw a blinding light which was followed by a deafening explosion, unlike anything he had ever heard before.
It was the horrifying atomic bomb and it had detonated 1.5km from where Razak was at the time.
"After I regained consciousness, I realised I was unhurt. There was blood on me but it wasn’t mine.
"I will never forget that experience, the charred bodies and piercing cries."
Razak said other Malayan students were also hit by the blast. One, Nik Yusof, perished in the blast while another, Syed Omar, died three months later from radiation.
"Pangeran Yusof and I were the only ones there who survived."
Razak remembers others were also sent to study in Japan with him at the time, but not to Hiroshima.
They included (former Justice) Eusoffe Abdoolcader from Penang, Ahmad Hassan and Ibrahim Mahmud. They were among the second batch of students sent there to study in 1943.
While Eusoffe was sent to Kyoto to read law, Razak was sent to Hiroshima University to study Japanese. (He could not recollect where Ahmad and Ibrahim were sent.)
Razak said he had not been in touch with Pangeran Yusof for some time.
"I believe he is still alive in Brunei. Whenever he comes over to Kuala Lumpur, I make an effort to see him."
Razak returned to Malaya in 1946, a few months after the atomic blast, and continued his studies at the Sultan Idris Teachers’ Training College in Tanjung Malim.
"I wanted to return to teaching and had to see a British officer."
The officer wanted to know his reasons for studying in Japan. "Why Japan?" he asked me.
Razak told him he went to Japan as he was offered a scholarship to study in Hiroshima.
He said he would have gladly gone to London if the British government had offered him the opportunity.
"I was then given the green light to teach, with no further questions asked."
Razak began teaching at a Malay school in Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur.
In 1949, he met the woman he was to marry. They were both teachers and it was love at first sight. Razak married Zaharah the same year.
He was badly affected when she passed away last year. He brightened up when asked to recollect his years of being married to her.
"We were married for 57 years and have been blessed with three children and nine grandchildren."
His daughter, Dzuredah, 56, is a retired teacher and lives in Malacca with her family.
His eldest son, Dzulkifli, 55, is the vice-chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia, and his youngest son, Dzuljastri, 51, is a lecturer at Universiti Islam Antarabangsa.
His joy was evident when he spoke with pride of his eldest grandson, Ridzal, 30, who is a lawyer.
In spite of moving on with life after the war, this congenial man did not forget his passion for the Japanese language.
He briefly worked at the Japanese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur during his teaching career, teaching the officers Bahasa Malaysia.
In turn, he got to practise his Japanese.
Razak got on well with the Japanese diplomats at that time.
"I would drive their wives over to my house, where my wife would teach them Malay cooking which they liked."
He got more involved with Japan when Malaysia came up with the Look East Policy in 1983.
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed decided to look to Japan and Korea to further develop Malaysia.
Razak was given the task of co-ordinating the Look East Policy Programme at the Centre of Preparatory Education in Institut Teknologi Mara. There, they prepared Malaysian students to be sent to Japan to study and understand Japanese culture and work ethics.
Razak, who did this for 15 years, said Dr Mahathir had personally asked him to handle this job because of his knowledge of Japanese and the people.
"I really enjoyed working on the programme as we achieved so much."
He stepped down in 1997.
These days, Razak keeps himself busy helping charitable organisations and playing an active role at the Asy-Syakirin mosque just next to his house.
"I go there every day. It’s something I look forward to. I work in the administrative section of the mosque."
Razak, who had a side gate specially built at the mosque for him, reads the Quran daily.
An avid reader, he reads all kinds of English books and magazines, as well as those in Japanese.
Fiercely independent, he still drives to run his errands and shop for groceries at the local pasar in Gombak.
But he is not up to cooking or looking after the garden which has a lot of flower pots and shrubs.
A makcik, Kak Nah, who is in her 50s, comes in daily to cook for him and tend to the garden.
Home-cooked food, a pleasant garden, an afternoon nap between 3pm and 4.30pm and tea. Razak has slowed down considerably.
And there is at least one child visiting every week and the grandchildren are always there during the festive occasions and holidays to keep him happy.
