Salina Christmas

Also known as Arshad son of Abdullah. Yamashiro lives as a Malaccan Malay elder of Japanese origin with a hidden past. After his mother’s death, the schoolboy Yamashiro was considered another mouth to feed to his relatives. He was sent to Malaya as a conscript towards the end of World War Two. The boy was frightened, but grateful that his destination was Malaya, not Burma, or worse, the Nakajima aircraft squad. The only keepsake he took to the volatile Malayan land was his late mother’s prayer beads. Fate saw him become the sole survivor and witness of the massacre of soldiers by a mysterious were-tiger. And yet, the Tiger-Man recognises something in him, like an old accomplice from the past, and lets him off. Under his new identity, the old Yamashiro, or Haji Arshad, leads a quiet life with his wife and five kids. He still, occasionally, dreams of the Tiger-Man.