The contributions made by the Japanese during WWII

In 2003 I interviewed many elderly people in Negeri Sembilan to find out what happened during World War 2, i.e. the Japanese Occupation Period of Malaysia. They told me that,

.....in the villages, the Japanese army undertook some measures to continue rice production by installing irrigation and drainage for the sawah to ensure continuous supply of their staple food, rice. They introduced a variety of rice, which the villagers aptly called padi Jopun (Japanese rice), for the villagers to plant.

The Japanese rice variety had shorter stalks than the local varieties, therefore the villagers had to adopt the long-handle sickle (sabit). Before the Japanese, the villagers used the traditional hand-sickle (tuai) to harvest the local rice varieties....