---
title: Painted wall sign with Jawi inscription and Japanese soldier, Kuching, Sarawak (photographed 14 September 1945)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/japanese-sign-kuching-sarawak-1941/
description: Black-and-white photograph of a large mural painted on the curved wall of a public building.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Painted wall sign with Jawi inscription and Japanese soldier, Kuching, Sarawak (photographed 14 September 1945)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/japanese-sign-kuching-sarawak-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/japanese-sign-kuching-sarawak-1941.jpg)

# Painted wall sign with Jawi inscription and Japanese soldier, Kuching, Sarawak (photographed 14 September 1945)

Black-and-white photograph of a large mural painted on the curved wall of a public building. A soldier in a field cap and uniform, a pole in his left hand, extends his right arm toward a man in a songkok-style cap at lower right; a Jawi (Arabic-script Malay) inscription runs across the top. The words 'Ya Allah' and 'tentera Jepun' (the Japanese army) share one sentence, so an appeal to God in the readers' own script is attached to the army.

- **Date:** December 1941
- **Period:** [Second World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwii)
- **Made by:** Japanese occupation authorities, Kuching, Sarawak (painter not recorded); photographed by Keith Carr Rainsford for the Australian War Memorial
- **Region:** [East Asia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=east-asia)
- **Country:** [Empire of Japan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=empire-of-japan)
- **Medium:** [Signs and banners](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=sign-banner)
- **Issuer type:** [Military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=military)
- **Regime:** [Showa Japan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=showa-japan)
- **Leader:** [Hideki Tojo](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=hideki-tojo)
- **Audience:** [Foreign public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=foreign-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Religion](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=religion), [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism)
- **Event:** [World War II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-ii)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Regime:** [Empire of Japan, 1937 to 1945](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/showa-japan/)
- **Leader:** [Hideki Tōjō](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/showa-japan/#hideki-tojo)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (from the Australian War Memorial collection)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Japanese_Propaganda,_Kuching,_Sarawak_(AWM_118699).JPG), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (AWM: 'Copyright expired - public domain'; Commons: PD-Australia) Photograph by Keith Carr Rainsford, 14 September 1945, Australian War Memorial 118699; via Wikimedia Commons. A 1945 photograph's Australian term had expired before 1 January 1996, so US copyright was not restored (URAA).

## Text on the object

Original (Malay (Jawi script)) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
يا الله !
[illegible] كامي اوله تنترا جفون دري [illegible]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
O God!
[illegible] us by the army of Japan (tentera Jepun) from [illegible]
```

One curved line of Jawi runs right to left across the top of the mural. Read from a 960 px rendering of a 624 by 640 px original; the words between 'Ya Allah' and 'kami' and the words after 'dari' are not legible at this resolution and are marked [illegible] rather than guessed. Romanisation of the legible words: ya Allah; kami; oleh; tentera; Jepun; dari. Translation is a literal machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.

[← 中日基本條約簽訂一週年來矣！ (The Sino-Japanese Basic Treaty's first anniversary has come!), four-panel leaflet for Hankou](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hankou-basic-treaty-anniversary-leaflet-1941/) [Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant (British leaflet to Italy) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ave-caesar-morituri-te-salutant-pwe-leaflet-1942/)

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- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (Byzantine Empire · 0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
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- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (Spanish Netherlands · 1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
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