 In 1937, Wee and his family fled to Kuching in Borneo to escape the Sino-Japanese War.He lived with the family of his father's first wife for about a year before moving to Singapore, where he attended Gong Shang Primary School and The Chinese High School.His education was disrupted by the Japanese invasion of Singapore and Malaya, and Wee spent most of the Japanese Occupation with his family in Karimun in Indonesia.