28
The world changed again for Evie in December 1941, with the news of the bombing of Pearl Harbour by the Japanese. Nerves among the expatriate community had been taut since the summer, when the Americans had initiated an embargo of Japanese oil and implemented sanctions and, thanks to Vichy France, the Japanese now had air bases in Indo-China, so the threat had moved dangerously close to Malaya. But with Pearl Harbour and the simultaneous amphibious landings at Kota Bharu on the north east Malay coast near the Thai border, all pretence that the Japanese were not to be taken seriously disappeared. Both the USA and Britain were at war with Japan.
Earlier in the war, the British had been clear that, in theory, the priority for defence after Britain itself, was Malaya with its mineral and
