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The British had begun building a
naval base at Singapore in 1923, partly in response to Japan's
increasing naval power. A costly and unpopular project,
construction of the base proceeded slowly until the early 1930s
when Japan began moving into Manchuria and northern China. A major
component of the base was completed in March 1938, when the King
George VI Graving Dock was opened; more than 300 meters in length,
it was the largest dry dock in the world at the time. The base,
completed in 1941 and defended by artillery, searchlights, and the
newly built nearby Tengah Airfield, caused Singapore to be
ballyhooed in the press as the "Gibralter of the East." The
floating dock, 275 meters long, was the third largest in the world
and could hold 60,000 workers. The base also contained dry docks,
giant cranes, machine shops; and underground storage for water,
fuel, and ammunition. A self-contained town on the base was built
to house 12,000 Asian workers, with cinemas, hospitals, churches,
and seventeen soccer fields. Above-ground tanks held enough fuel
for the entire British navy for six months. The only thing the
giant naval fortress lacked was ships.
The Singapore naval base was built and supplied to sustain a siege
long enough to enable Britain's European-based fleet to reach the
area. By 1940, however, it was clear that the British fleet and
armed forces were fully committed in Europe and the Middle East
and could not be spared to deal with a potential threat in Asia.
In the first half of 1941, most Singaporeans were unaffected by
the war on the other side of the world, as they had been in World
War I. The main pressure on the Straits Settlements was the need
to produce more rubber and tin for the Allied war effort. Both the
colonial government and British military command were for the most
part convinced of Singapore's impregnability.
Even by late autumn 1941, most Singaporeans and their leaders
remained confident that their island fortress could withstand an
attack, which they assumed would come from the south and from the
sea. Heavy fifteen-inch guns defended the port and the city, and
machine-gun bunkers lined the southern coast. The only local
defense forces were the four battalions of Straits Settlements
Volunteer Corps and a small civil defense organization with units
trained as air raid wardens, fire fighters, medical personnel, and
debris removers. Singapore's Asians were not, by and large,
recruited into these organizations, mainly because the colonial
government doubted their loyalty and capability. The government
also went to great lengths to maintain public calm by making
highly optimistic pronouncements and heavily censoring the
Singapore newspapers for negative or alarming news. Journalists'
reports to the outside world were also carefully censored, and, in
late 1941, reports to the British cabinet from colonial officials
were still unrealistically optimistic. If Singaporeans were
uneasy, they were reassured by the arrival at the naval base of
the battleship Prince of Wales, the battle and four destroyers
cruiser Repulse, on December 2. The fast and modern Prince of
Wales was the pride of the British navy, and the Repulse was a
veteran cruiser. Their accompanying aircraft carrier had run
aground en route, however, leaving the warships without benefit of
air cover.
The Japanese Malaya Campaign
On December 8, 1941, the Japanese troops of two large convoys,
which had sailed from bases in Hainan and southern Indochina,
landed at Singora (now Songkhla) and Patani in southern Thailand
and Kota Baharu in northern Malaya. One of Japan's top generals
and some of its best trained and most experienced troops were
assigned to the Malaya campaign. By the evening of December 8,
27,000 Japanese troops under the command of General Yamashita
Tomoyuki had established a foothold on the peninsula and taken the
British air base at Kota Baharu. Meanwhile, Japanese airplanes had
begun bombing Singapore. Hoping to intercept any further landings
by the Japanese fleet, the Prince of Wales and the Repulse headed
north, unaware that all British airbases in northern Malaya were
now in Japanese hands. Without air support, the British ships were
easy targets for the Japanese air force, which sunk them both on
December 10.
The main Japanese force moved quickly to the western side of the
peninsula and began sweeping down the single north-south road. The
Japanese divisions were equipped with about 18,000 bicycles.
Whenever the invaders encountered resistance, they detoured
through the forests on bicycles or took to the sea in collapsible
boats to outflank the British troops, encircle them, and cut their
supply lines. Penang fell on December 18, Kuala Lumpur on January
11, 1942, and Malacca on January 15. The Japanese occupied Johore
Baharu on January 31, and the last of the British troops crossed
to Singapore, blowing a fifty-meter gap in the causeway behind
them.
Singapore faced Japanese air raids almost daily in the latter half
of January 1942. Fleeing refugees from the peninsula had doubled
the 550,000 population of the beleaguered city. More British and
Commonwealth of nations fleets and armed foces were brought to
Singapore during January, but most were poorly trained raw
recruits from Australia and India and inexperienced British troops
diverted from the war in the Middle East. Singapore's Chinese
population, which had heard rumors of the treatment of the Malayan
Chinese by the invading Japanese, flocked to volunteer to help
repel the impending invasion. Brought together by the common
enemy, Guomindang and communist groups banded together to
volunteer their services to Governor Shenton Thomas. The governor
authorized the formation of the Chung Kuo Council (China National
Council), headed by Tan Kah Kee, under which thousands volunteered
to construct defense works and to perform other essential
services. The colonial government also reluctantly agreed to the
formation of a Singapore Chinese Anti-Japanese Volunteer
Battalion, known as Dalforce for its commander, Lieutenant Colonel
John Dalley of the Federated Malay States police force. Dalley put
his volunteers through a ten-day crash training course and armed
them with basic weapons, including shotguns, knives, and grenades.
From January 1-8, 1942, the two armies faced each other across the
Johore Strait. The Japanese stepped up their air raids, bombing
the airfields, naval base, and harbor area. Bombs also fell in the
commercial and residential sections of the city, causing great
destruction and killing and wounding many civilians. With their
mastery of the skies, the Japanese could choose the time and place
for invasion and maintain an element of surprise. Yamashita,
however, had only 30,000 troops and limited ammunition available
to launch against a British force of about 70,000 armed personnel.
As the General Officer Commanding Malaya, Lieutenant General
Arthur E. Percival commanded the defense of Singapore under the
direction of General Archibald Wavell, the newly appointed
commander in chief Far East, who was headquartered in Java.
Percival's orders from British prime minister Winston Churchill
through Wavell called for defending the city to the death, while
executing a scorched-earth policy: "No surrender can be
contemplated . . . . every inch of ground . . . defended, every
scrap of material or defences . . . blown to pieces to prevent
capture by the enemy . . . ." Accordingly, the troops set about
the task of destroying the naval base, now useless without ships,
and building defense works along the northern coast, which lay
totally unprotected.
On the night of February 8, using collapsible boats, the Japanese
landed under cover of darkness on the northwest coast of
Singapore. By dawn, despite determined fighting by Australian
troops, they had two divisions with their artillery established on
the island. By the next day the Japanese had seized Tengah
Airfield and gained control of the causeway, which they repaired
in four days. The British forces were plagued by poor
communication and coordination, and, despite strong resistance by
Commonwealth troops aided by Dalforce and other Chinese
irregulars, the Japanese took Bukit Timah--the highest point on
the island--on February 11. The British forces fell back to a
final perimeter around the city, stretching from Pasir Panjang to
Kallang, as Yamashita issued an invitation to the British to
surrender. On February 13, the Japanese broke through the final
perimeter at Pasir Panjang, putting the whole city within range of
their artillery.
As many as 2,000 civilians were killed daily as the Japanese
continued to bomb the city by day and shell it at night. Governor
Thomas cabled London that "there are now one million people within
radius of three miles. Many dead lying in the streets and burial
impossible. We are faced with total deprivation of water, which
must result in pestilence...." On February 13, Percival cabled
Wavell for permission to surrender, hoping to avoid the
destruction and carnage that would result from a house-to-house
defense of the city. Churchill relented and on February 14 gave
permission to surrender. On the evening of February 15, at the
Japanese headquarters at the Ford factory in Bukit Timah,
Yamashita accepted Percival's unconditional surrender.
Shonan: Light of the South
The Japanese occupied Singapore from 1942 until 1945. They
designated it the capital of Japan's southern region and renamed
it Shonan, meaning "Light of the South" in Japanese. All European
and Australian prisoners were interned at Changi on the eastern
end of the island--the 2,300 civilians at the prison and the more
than 15,000 military personnel at nearby Selarang barracks. The
600 Malay and 45,000 Indian troops were assembled by the Japanese
and urged to transfer their allegiance to the emperor of Japan.
Many refused and were executed, tortured, imprisoned, or sent as
forced laborers to Thailand, Sumatra, or New Guinea. Under
pressure, about 20,000 Indian troops joined the Japanese-sponsored
Indian National Army to fight for India's independence from the
British.
The Asian civilian population watched with shock as their colonial
rulers and supposed protectors were marched off to prison and the
Japanese set about establishing their administration and
authority. The Chinese were to bear the brunt of the occupation,
in retribution for support given by Singapore Chinese to China in
its struggle against Japan. All Chinese males from ages eighteen
to fifty were required to report to registration camps for
screening. The Japanese or military police arrested those alleged
to be anti-Japanese , meaning those who were singled out by
informers or who were teachers, journalists, intellectuals, or
even former servants of the British. Some were imprisoned, but
most were executed, and estimates of their number range from 5,000
to 25,000. Many of the leaders of Singapore's anti-Japanese
movement had already escaped, however, and the remnants of
Dalforce and other Chinese irregular units had fled to the
peninsula, where they formed the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese
Army.
The harsh treatment by the Japanese in the early days of the
occupation undermined any later efforts to enlist the support of
Singaporeans for the Japanese vision of a Greater East Asia
CoProsperity Sphere, which was to comprise Japan, China,
Manchuria, and Southeast Asia. Singapore's prominent Chinese
leaders and businessmen were further disaffected when the Japanese
military command bullied them into raising a S$10 million "gift"
to the Japanese as a symbol of their cooperation and as reparation
for their support for the government of China in its war against
Japan. The Chinese and English schools were pressured to use
Japanese as the medium of instruction. The Malay schools were
allowed to use Malay, which was considered the indigenous
language. The Japanese controlled schools concentrated on physical
training and teaching Japanese patriotic songs and propaganda.
Most parents kept their children at home, and total enrollment for
all the schools was never more than 7,000. Although free Japanese
language classes were given at night and bonuses and promotions
awarded to those who learned the language, efforts to replace
English and Chinese with Japanese were generally unsuccessful.
Serious disruption of not only the economy but the whole fabric of
society marked the occupation years in Singapore. Food and
essential materials were in short supply since the entrap trade
that Singapore depended on to provide most goods was severely
curtailed by the war. Chinese businessmen collaborated with
corrupt Japanese officials to establish a flourishing black market
for most items, which were sold at outrageous prices. Inflation
grew even more rampant as Japanese military scrip flooded the
economy. Speculation, profiteering, bribery, and corruption were
the order of the day, and lawlessness against the occupation
government almost a point of honor.
As the war wound down and Japanese fortunes began to fade, life
grew even more difficult in Shonan. Military prisoners, who
suffered increasing hardship from reduced rations and brutal
treatment, were set to work constructing an airfield at Changi,
which was completed in May 1945. Not only prisoners of war but
also Singapore's unemployed civilians were impressed into work
gangs for labor on the Burma-Siam railroad, from which many never
returned. As conditions worsened and news of Japanese defeats
filtered in, Singaporeans anxiously awaited what they feared would
be a bloody and protracted fight to reoccupy the island. Although
Japan formally surrendered to the Allies on August 15, 1945, it
was not announced in the Singapore press until a week later. The
Japanese military quietly retreated to an internment camp they had
prepared at Jurong. On September 5, Commonwealth troops arrived
aboard British warships, cheered by wildly enthusiastic
Singaporeans, who lined the five-kilometer parade route. A week
later, on the steps of the municipal building, the Japanese
military command in Singapore surrendered to the supreme Allied
commander in Southeast Asia, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten.
Source: U.S. Library of Congress
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