Why this Chinese auntie is the bravest person I've met in my life.

Elizabeth Choy when I met her at Kanji War Memorial, Singapore, 2005. [Photo: Stuart Lloyd]

I’ve been lucky — or nosy — enough to meet astronauts, war heroes, even firemen who’ve run into burning buildings to rescue kids and kittens. Once, I interviewed Gene Cernan, the the first man to walk in space outside his Gemini rocket, and the last man to leave his footprints on the moon. I’ve shaken hands with Victoria Cross recipients and army bomb disposal experts, and daring motorcycle stunt riders.

But none of them — not a single one — can hold a candle to the steely, unshakable bravery of a quietly spoken Singaporean Chinese lady I met one humid morning at Kranji War Cemetery, back in 2005.

Her name was Elizabeth Choy.

And I had no idea who she was.

I was at Kranji that day attending the annual commemoration service for the end of WW2, soaking in the silence and the solemnity among the rows of white headstones and the soaring columns of remembrance.

I noticed her: a petite elderly woman in a boldly colourful floral blouse, wearing sunglasses and a gentle smile. She had a medal on a yellow ribbon around her neck. She didn’t stand out because of any pomp or protocol — she had the kind of aura that drew you in without shouting for attention. My local fixer said:  “That’s Elizabeth Choy." My confused look prompted her to utter further: "Tortured by the Japanese. During the Occupation.”

By then I was already standing in front of her, awkwardly.

We exchanged some small talk. She was warm. Gracious. Invited me to sit down and chat. About what I wasn't sure. But then, like the schoolteacher she formerly was, she soon gave me some real life lessons ...

The very glamorous Elizabeth Choy in her younger days. [Photo: unknown]

The Tenth of October — A Day She Never Forgot

Today, 10 October, is the anniversary of one of the darkest chapters in her life — and in Singapore’s WWII history.

On this day in 1943, the Japanese Kempeitai (military police) began mass arrests following Operation Jaywick — the daring Allied commando raid that sank or damaged seven Japanese ships in Singapore Harbour earlier in September. The Japanese were furious. Suspicious. Brutal.

They suspected locals of collaborating with the enemy. It had to be an inside job. And Elizabeth Choy — along with her husband Choy Khun Heng — was high on their list.

The Choys had been running a canteen at the mental hospital (now Woodbridge), and had been secretly passing food, medicine, and even messages to British POWs interned at Changi. In the eyes of the Japanese, that made them enemies of their emperor.

So they came for her.

The YMCA in Stamford Rd, Singapore, which became the HQ for the dreaded 'Kempetei' military police. [Photo: National Archive of Singapore]

The Woman Who Smiled Through Torture

Elizabeth was detained at the Kempeitai’s infamous headquarters at the old YMCA building on Orchard Road. For 193 days -- six and a half months! -- she endured unspeakable torture.

In her quiet, low, rather husky voice she told me in unvarnished terms how she was repeatedly stripped, beaten, starved. She was forced to kneel on angled wooden and steel bars, while guards put downward pressure on her. Force-filled her stomach with water, then punched or jumped on it, forcing her to vomit.

She continued matter-of-factly with graphic detail of how they attached wires from a battery generator to her nipples. Ran electrical current through her body for 15 minutes at a time. They tried to break her body. They failed to break her spirit. I detect the faintest traces of a proud smile on her thin lips. She wasn't going to rat on anybody. Deny, deny, deny. And so, more punishment, which sometimes they'd bring her husband in to witness. He was released before her.

But she still gave nothing away.

The fact of the matter is she knew absolutely NOTHING of the sabotage operation of ships in the harbour. Because it was a highly secret raid masterminded by special forces operating from Australia on the Krait, a re-purposed fishing boat, who then paddled canoes into Singapore waters and planted limpet mines on target vessels at night. So she couldn't know.

But the Japanese were convinced the plan had come from European POWs within Changi, and she had been linked to smuggling of contraband and radio parts into the jail. So she was seen as the vital communications conduit.

The future Catholic school teacher was guilty of many things, but nothing to do with the raid. She insisted she was just a human helping other humans survive.

After her release, she weighed less than 40 kilograms, losing nearly half her body weight in just months.

How do you even begin to measure a woman like that?

A Life of Service — In and Out of the Classroom

After the war, Elizabeth didn’t retreat into self-pitying obscurity. She went to the UK, studied, and became Singapore’s first and, for some time, only woman to be appointed to the Legislative Council as an unofficial/nominated member in 1951. She taught generations of students at St Andrew’s and later at the Singapore Teachers’ Training College. She painted. She counselled. She stood up for the poor, the voiceless, the underdogs.

And yet, when I met her at Kranji — just two years before she passed away — she was all humility. No entourage. Just a woman who had survived the worst of humanity, and come out the other side with grace and empathy intact.

The Quiet Power of Character

Real courage is quiet. It’s standing up when everyone else sits down. It’s choosing compassion over revenge. It’s surviving 193 days of torture — and coming out smiling.

So next time someone asks me who the bravest person I’ve ever met is — it’s not an astronaut, a firefighter, or a soldier.

It’s a Chinese auntie in a floral blouse: Elizabeth Choy Su-Moi (1910–2007), war heroine, educator, stateswoman.

And, on this day, I hope we never forget her heroism in the face of unimaginable brutality.

PS: For more on her story and Operation Jaywick, I suggest you pick up a copy of Tom Trumble's excellent new book, Survival in Singapore.

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