Cho Huan Lai Memorial, War memorial monument in Keningau, Malaysia
The Cho Huan Lai Memorial is a stele about 4 metres tall with a rectangular cross-section, its wider entrance-facing side slightly concave and bearing large red Chinese characters. A bronze plaque in English and a marble slab with a Chinese inscription are set into the lower block, which rests on a three-tiered square stepped pedestal. It stands opposite the entrance to Keningau's former airfield.
The monument commemorates five individuals, including Chinese Consul General Cho Huan Lai, who were executed by Japanese forces on July 6, 1945. This execution represented one of the most tragic moments of Japanese occupation in Sabah at the end of the Second World War.
The stele carries large red Chinese characters reading as a memorial to Cho, the consul, and his four colleagues, with a marble slab above the English bronze plaque. The plaque names five men of different backgrounds: a consul general, the chief secretary to the Rajah of Sarawak, a Sandakan medical practitioner, a Manila engineer and a Kuching planter. Taiwanese representatives and Keningau MP Joseph Pairin Kitingan visited on 29 July 2017 for the 72nd anniversary.
The stele stands opposite the entrance to Keningau's former airfield, at the execution site itself, roughly two miles from the headquarters of the Japanese commander Abe Keichi. Visitors approach from Keningau town by road; the monument sits on a three-tiered square stepped pedestal, so the bronze plaque and marble slab are read from the wider, concave face bearing the red Chinese characters.
The bronze plaque names the five executed men with their posts: Cho Huan Lai, Consul General of the Republic of China; Cyril Drummond Le Gros Clark, Chief Secretary of the Rajah of Sarawak; Valentine A. Stokes, medical practitioner of Sandakan; Henry William Webber, engineer of Manila; and Donald Macdonald, planter of Kuching. Above it, a marble slab carries a Chinese inscription.
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