Professor Danny Wong Tze Ken can attest to this: not only is he the dean of Universiti Malaya’s Arts and Social Sciences faculty, he is also an award-winning author.

And while the subject of his book, “One Crowded Moment of Glory”, is intriguing in its own right, the 56-year-old historian has a personal connection to it.

“To the memory of my grandfather, the late Wong Boo Choon, medic for the Kinabalu Guerillas,” reads the dedication page.

As it turns out, Wong’s own family had been involved in the Jesselton Revolt, a valiant but ill-fated act of resistance by the people of present-day Kota Kinabalu against their occupiers.

The uprising against the Japanese, which lasted for over three months, was a rare moment of open civilian resistance against the brutal military occupation in Malaysian history.

Whilst oft-overlooked by West Malaysians, the revolt that kicked off on Oct 9, 1943 is still commemorated by Sabahans, including Wong.

Speaking with FMT Lifestyle, Wong shared how he had learnt of his family’s history and how important the Jesselton Revolt is to Sabahan identity.

Boo Choon, a hospital assistant, had initially been uninvolved with the uprising. But when some guerillas were wounded during the fighting, he tended to their wounds.

After the revolt was violently suppressed, he was spared by the Japanese, who valued his medical expertise.

In a bitter twist of fate, Boo Choon would be killed one month before the war’s end by an Australian aerial bombardment.

Before learning about his grandfather’s role, Wong had not had much to work with, apart from brief mentions in other books.

“My father was very proud that his father’s name was mentioned in these books,” Wong said. “Later, I started looking for information.”

His search was extensive, involving sources as far away as Japan and the United Kingdom. He also interviewed survivors of the uprising.

All this led to the writing of “One Crowded Moment”, which tells the story of not only his grandfather but the uprising as a whole.

In contrast to anti-Japanese movements in Malaya, Wong pointed out that the Sabahan resistance hadn’t involved the communists.

“It was purely formed by locals whose livelihoods had been threatened. They wanted to push out the Japanese and, thus, formed a movement called the Kinabalu Guerillas.”

The resistance was multi-ethnic, with Bajau, Kadazan, Chinese, Eurasian and Sikh members working together. There was also cross-border assistance, with the Sabahans exchanging food and funds for weapons from their Filipino counterparts.

But why rebel? Aside from heavy-handed Japanese rule and a dismal economy, “the Japanese had wanted to conscript men to fight for the army, and to take on girls to become comfort women”, Wong revealed.

“This was something that Sabahans could not accept.”

Many Sabahans supported the uprising by donating funds, but far fewer dared to take up arms against the Japanese.

“There were also those who warned the resistance not to act in haste, that the Japanese were still too strong,” Wong added.

A 22-year-old named Albert Kwok would come to lead the Kinabalu Guerrillas. According to Wong, the Kuching-born Teochew had been an interesting figure, even if his actual military experience – “he styled himself as a ‘special agent’ from the Chinese government – was iffy at best.

On the day of the uprising, the outgunned resistance succeeded in overwhelming the small Jesselton garrison, though the victory was short-lived.

Japanese retribution was swift and bloody, with thousands of civilians massacred indiscriminately in the days afterwards.

To stop the bloodshed, Kwok and his co-leaders surrendered and were executed together with 175 innocents at Petagas.

So, was it all worth it? While some survivors didn’t think so, others believed they’d done the right thing.

“They were proud of being able to do something against tyranny, against a common enemy,” Wong said.

And while the uprising ultimately failed, it still succeeded in its own way: “It became part of the local consciousness, part of the land and the Sabahan identity.”

Today, Wong remains proud that the people of Sabah did not take tyranny lightly. “They took things into their own hands and fought against it,” he concluded.

‘One Crowded Moment of Glory: The Kinabalu Guerrillas and the 1943 Jesselton Uprising’ is available from UM Press and major bookstores.