In 1943, Mount Kinabalu Anti-Japanese guerillas led by Guo Yinan (Kuok Aik Nam) inBritishNorthBorneoseized Jesselton and killed more than60Japanese soldiers.
Fort Defiance, a few blocks north, serves up fresh pasta, small plates like chicken liver pate with bacon-onion jam, and historically-inspired cocktails like the Colonial Cooler, a twist on the Pimm's Cup that was first mixed in BritishNorthBorneo in the 1920s.
The conflict is a relic of the colonial era when the Sultans of Sulu "leased" what used to be NorthBorneo to the British government for an annual sum of 5, 300 Mexican gold pieces.