End of the Japanese Occupation of Singapore (15 Aug 1945)

15 Aug 1945 was the day of rejoice and celebration with the Japanese defeat after allied forces dropped 2 devastating nuclear bombs code named  Little Boy and Fat Boy on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
When the news was spread about the surrender of Japan to Singapore, people under the occupation rejoiced and celebrated the whole day when the Japanese were leaving Singapore.

The allies sent forces to check on the P.O.W in terms of health and made arrangements to send them home.
The Japanese surrendered on 15 Aug 1943 at City Hall followed by a celebration at Padang.
The citizens of Singapore under the occupation were especially the ones who rejoiced the most because they were under the suffering of the Japanese for more then 3 years and they took this opportunity to loot the Japanese and revenge kill them for doing what they done to them.

After 10 posts about my life under the Japanese, I was fortunate that today I am living a happy life in Singapore.

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_Singapore (Source)

Date accessed: 18 Feb 2013

                                     

Double Tenth Incident (10 Oct 1943)

The "Double Tenth Incident" or "Double Tenth Massacre" occurred on 10 October 1943, during the Second World War Japanese occupation of Singapore. The Kempeitai – Japanese Military Police – arrested and tortured fifty-seven civilians and civilian internees on suspicion of their involvement in a raid on Singapore Harbour that had been carried out by Anglo–Australian commandos from Operation Jaywick. Seven Japanese ships were sunk, but none of those arrested and tortured had participated in the raid, nor had any knowledge of it. Fifteen of them died in Singapore's Changi Prison.
After the war ended, twenty-one of the Kempeitai involved were charged with war crimes. Eight received the death sentence, seven were acquitted, and the remainder were given prison sentences varying from one year to life.

In 1943, a special branch of the Kempeitai under Lieutenant Colonel Haruzo Sumida was charged with finding the culprits responsible for acts of sabotage in Singapore, mainly the cutting of telephone lines and the burning of warehouses. Sumida strongly suspected that the saboteurs were being organised by internees in Changi Prison, and made preparations for a raid on the prison to catch the ringleaders. Sumida's chief suspect was British barrister Rob Heeley Scott, a prominent Foreign Office employee who had previously been detained for his anti-Japanese propaganda, released by the Kempeitai, and then later sent to Changi Prison.
However, neither Scott nor anyone else in Changi was involved in the sabotage, or with the raid that led to serious repercussions on 10 October – 'The double tenth'. On 28 September, Scott received a message from one of his contacts in the city, telling him that on the previous morning six Japanese ships had been blown up in Singapore Harbour (now Keppel Harbour). This was the first major sabotage since the Japanese had captured the island. The loss of ships in such an important place was an enormous blow to Japanese prestige. Scott and his fellow internees supposed that the saboteurs must have been Chinese guerrillas who had slipped across the straits from their base in Malaya. Sumida, however, believed that Scott and his associates had planned the operation from Changi Prison.

On the day before the Double Tenth, internees were ordered to parade in the open at nine o'clock the next morning. No explanation was given. When the parade had assembled, the camp commandant came out with a number of Kempeitai and troops, who closed all the exits. While the names of a few men were called out for immediate arrest, the Kempeitai conducted a thorough search of the entire prison. After incriminating evidence including diaries of war news compiled from the BBC's radio broadcasts, self-made radios, and a tin box containing a substantial amount of money belonging to an ex-banker were unearthed, several more arrests were made, mostly of people who had been involved in monitoring news broadcasts and running a secret information service throughout the prison. This started a period of terror that lasted for several months. Suspects were hauled from their homes and places of work. Internees were taken to the Kempeitai interrogation chambers, where they were subjected to torture and starvation to make them confess to acts of sabotage and treason. As none of the suspects had even heard of Operation Jaywick, let alone been part of it, any confessions they made were meaningless, lacking any information about the raid itself, how it had been organised, or where the explosives had been obtained

Innocent victims
Seven days after the Double Tenth, Bishop John Wilson of St Andrew's Cathedral was taken to the YMCA, and placed in the cell next to Elizabeth. He was severely beaten for three days before the Japanese accepted that he was not one of the ringleaders in their imagined conspiracy. One night Elizabeth saw Rob Scott, by then badly disfigured as a result of the beatings and water tortures that he had been subjected to. At the end of one session Scott was told that he had been sentenced to death, and was forced to write a farewell letter to his wife. He was later sentenced to six years' imprisonment in Outram Road Prison instead, the site where convicted sepoy mutineers had been detained and executed by the British Army in 1915.
Elizabeth was held in the YMCA for nearly 200 days, during which time the Kempeitai meticulously followed up every point in her story, cross-examining people she said she had helped. After a huge dossier of interviews had been compiled, the Japanese concluded that she was telling the truth and set her free. Khun Heng, however, was sentenced to 12 years in Outram Road Prison. People avoided Elizabeth following her release, too terrified to speak to her. Fifteen internees died in the Kempeitai's cells during the Double Tenth inquisition. The suffering spread to the entire civilian population of Changi Prison; rations were cut, and games, concerts, plays and school lessons were forbidden for months.

^{Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Tenth_Incident (Source)}

Operation Jaywick (Sep 1943)

Operation Jaywick was a spec's opp mission undertaken during WW2 (World War 2) consisting of 14 commandos and sailors from the Z special unit raiding the Japanese shipping in Singapore.
Before the Z special unit was formed, Special Operations Australia, a joint military allied organization under the cover name of Inter-Allied Services Department which consists of British SOE soldiers who had escaped from the Japanese Occupation in Singapore and formed the Z special unit.

The Krait, a vessel which carried the men of the Z special unit
on Operation Jaywick after the raid
(Left)




In 1943, 28 year old British officer, Captain Ivan Lyon along with 61 year old Bill Reynolds an Australian civilian planned the attack of several Japanese ships stationed at the habour of Singapore.
The commandos then traveled in a vessel disguised as an Asian fishing boat. They used collapsible canoes to attach mines on the Japanese ships
He then stole a Japanese coastal fishing boat to evacuate refugees out of Singapore (Above), when that boat arrived at India it was then renamed the Krait after a small but deadly Asian snake

Operation Jaywick was a success with 7 Japanese ships being destroyed by the mines implanted by the British soldiers, the Japanese were surprised about the raid as they were no scouts at that night of the raid.

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Jaywick (Source and image)

 Date accessed: 17 Feb 2013

Japanese war crimes in Singapore (16 Feb 1942 to 15 Aug 1945)

If you ever think that if you not a Chinese male being targeted by the Japanese and you were not 1 of them.
Think again......seriously. No one in Singapore was safe during the Japanese Occupation because some soldiers or officers at that time would commit crimes against people who have no power against them and took advantage of them.
This includes the following: Looting, mass killings, forced labour, sexual slavery, human experimentation, cannibalism and torture for critical information on Prisoners of War.
During the Japanese Occupation, women especially would be captured and be treated as sex slaves to the Japanese soldiers or officers. My grandmother was young at time and was vulnerable to the Japanese. To prevent herself from being captured, she had to change her name to a boy's name and have to look like a Malay tomboy, this would not let the Japanese from suspecting her as a sex slave or a young healthy Chinese male with information
Forced labour was also common in Singapore, POW's especially were sent to Thailand to work on the infamous Death Railway known as the Burma Railway but rarely sent male Chinese because of the work done by the Sook Ching Operation.

The Burma Railway aka Death Railway (Above)

And lastly 1 of the most cruel war crime that was common was human experimentation. Meaning you used dead or LIVE homo-sapiens (humans) in their own practices or research. Examples include practicing shooting a person's head off, forced taking untested drugs and training of close combat (down below for example) by using a dead person

A Japanese soldier practicing close combat on a dead Chinese male (Above)

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes (Source and image)

              http://world-war-2.wikia.com/wiki/File:History-of-thailand-death-railway-1941.jpg (Image)

Date accessed: 17 Feb 2013

Battle of Kranji (9 Feb 1942)

Remember the battle of Pasir Panjang on my previous post. After the battle of the Sarimbun Beach at Pasir Panjang, the Japanese next objective was to secure a second beachhead which was to breach the Jurong-Kranji defence line to enter the city of Singapore. During the battle of Kranji, the Japanese suffered a heavy lost of soldiers which caused panic and nearly aborted the mission but that doesn't they were willing to give up easily. Despite heavy losses, they have a strategic mind and were able to over coming British due to the British having some miscommunications with their allies which the Japanese took advantage and took them all down and this led to the fall of Singapore.

Map of events that happened during the battle of Kranji (Above)

When the Japanese landed on 9 Feb 1942, their objective was to capture Kranji village so they would be able to repair the causeway linked from Malaya to Singapore so that warfare vehicles such as tanks and supplies can enter Singapore because the British blew up the causeway to delay the Japanese some time to plan their counterattack.

On 10 Feb 1942, the day where the Japanese suffered the heaviest of men while crossing the Kranji River to reach Singapore where the British heavily fire at the Japanese and also set-up oil slicks on the river to burn up the Japanese to death while crossing the river. Supposedly the Japanese wanted to abort but because of the miscommunications that the British were suffering, they took advantage and were able to capture Woodlands and began repairing the causeway

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kranji (Source and image)

 Date accessed: 17 Feb 2013

Heroes during the Japanese Occupation (15 Feb 1942 to 15 Aug 1945)

When we talk about heroes, what do they mean? Heroes like Batman or Spiderman in the comics but we are talking about heroes of WW2 (World War 2) during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore.

One example of a hero during the Japanese Occupation was Elizabeth Choy. She along with a husband Choy Khun Heng supplied medicine, money and messages to affected British civilians interned at Changi Prison during the Japanese Occupation in World War 2. Unfortunately her actions soon got caught up by the Japanese and was captured. She was tortured by the Japanese for critical information at Kempeitai headquarters in Stamford Road for 193 days. Her compassion for the British civilians was recognized by the British Empire and awarded he the Order of the British Empire (OBE)

                                                                Elizabeth Choy (Above)

Another hero during the Japanese Occupation whose deeds proved useful was Mamoru Shinozaki.

Despite being once a spy for the Japanese, we was imprisoned by the British till the Fall of Singapore to the Japanese. He then joined the Japanese army as the 1st adviser in Singapore under the Japanese but he was not like the other Japanese soldiers who were cruel. His single act of mercy was that he issued a huge number of good citizen pass to the Chinese and Eurasians so they would not be affected by the Sook Ching Operation which killed a lot of innocent Chinese men and torture of innocent men for critical infomation.

Mamoru Shinozaki (Above)

Lim Bo Seng (Above)

And of cause who can we forget the hero who never gave out critical information who was none other then Lim Bo Seng. Whom was captured by the Japanese and was tortured for information about his squad till his death and people of Singapore recognized him as a hero.

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lim_Bo_Seng (Source and image)

              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinozaki_Mamoru (Source and image)

              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Choy (Source and image)

             (All webs accessed on 17 Feb 2013)

Battle of Bukit Timah ( 11 Feb 1942) and Pasir Panjang ( 13 Feb 1942 to 14 Feb 1942)

Before the Japanese claimed Singapore, two major battles happened in Singapore between the British and the Japanese but the British were outnumbered and lacked of resources so the Japanese took advantage and took every single of the British soldiers life away living no survivors. The first battle that took place when the Japanese landed on Singapore was Bukit Timah on 11 Feb 1942. The battle took place at night, the British soldiers being surrounded by the Japanese whom were also supported by tanks. At first, the British soldiers used an anti-tank gun to destroyed 1st Japanese tank but it was useless. With 50 Japanese tanks at full force, the British soldiers left no other choice but to charge at the Japanese army. The Dalforce, a resistance full of ethnic Chinese men from Singapore also joined the battle in Bukit Timah but were unable to defeat the Japanese and got killed due to being poorly trained at handling weapons and they only used parangs, grenades, rifles and shotguns normally used for hunting but not warfare.

                                          Parang (Above left) and a hunting shotgun ( Above right)

After that night, the British launched a counterattack but failed by mid-day as the Japanese force was too strong.

On 13 Feb 1942 and 14 Feb 1942, the Japanese made landing on the northwest part of Singapore and had started to advance south towards Pasir Panjang. With a strength of 13000 Japanese troops being deployed for the battle of Pasir Panjang. The battle between the Malay Regiment and Japanese at Pasir Panjang started on 13 Feb 1942 around 2 p.m. attacking the southwestern coast along Pasir Panjang Ridge and astride Ayer Rajah Road. On 14 Feb 1942 around 8:30 a.m., the Japanese launched a heavy attack supported by intense mortal and artillery fire at Bukit Chandu and succeeded with ease. At the last stand of the Malay Regiment, the Japanese launched an  all-out banzai charge in great numbers that overwhelmed the Malay Regiment and soon Pasir Panjang was under the Japanese control. With a total number of 159 casualties in the Malay Regiment, the surviving 600 settled at the Keppel  Golf Link area and that concludes the Malay Regiment's defeat over Pasir Panjang

                                                       Battle of Bukit Chandu video (Above)

Website: http://www.knivesbynick.co.uk/tools.htm ( Parang image)
              http://79.170.44.156/keensecom.com/product_info.php?cPath=13_445_80_142&products_id=1058 (Shotgun image)
                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OStIT7CgMk ( Video source)
            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pasir_Panjang ( Info Source)
             http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bukit_Timah (Info Source)