J URNAL THE SARAWAK MUSEUM 21 DECEMBER 2023 The Sarawak Museum Journal, LXXXVI (107) (2023) (21-32) FOUR PLAQUES COMMEMORATING SEMUT OPERATIONS IN BORNEO ABSTRACT A plaque commemorating the Allied Z Special operatives in Borneo and their local counterparts during the Japanese Occupation of Sarawak 1941-1945, is now on display at the Borneo Cultures Museum. A replica of this plaque was placed in Bario in 2013. Two other wooden plaques were made as memorials of operations of the Z Special Unit working behind Japanese lines training local guerrillas during the Japanese Occupation. This paper traces the background and history of each of these four plaques, which were erected at a time when there was no circulation of written print in the interior of Sarawak. Keywords: Object history, Japanese Occupation, Semut Operations, Tom Harrisson, Kelabit highlands Valerie Mashman Institute of Borneo Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak. mashmanval@gmail.com