Sook Ching massacre
Encyclopedia
The Sook Ching massacre was a systematic extermination
of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore
by the Japanese military
during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore
, after the British
colony surrendered
on 15 February 1942 during the Second World War. Sook Ching was later extended to include Chinese
Malayans
as well. The massacre
took place from 18 February to 4 March 1942 at various places in the region.
The term Sook Ching means "a purge through cleansing" in Chinese and it was referred to as the Kakyōshukusei , or "purging of Chinese") by the Japanese. The Japanese also referred to it as the Shingapōru Daikenshō , lit. "great inspection of Singapore".
Although the term "Sook Ching" appeared as early as 1946, it was not commonly used in the Chinese press
or other publications until the 1980s. The National Heritage Board of Singapore uses this term in its publications.
The memories of those who lived through war years have been captured at exhibition galleries in Memories at Old Ford Factory, the site of the former factory where the British surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February 1942.
The current Japanese term for the massacre is Shingapōru Kakyōgyakusatsujiken , literally "(the) Singapore Chinese massacre".
There is no dispute in scholarly circles that the massacre took place. However, Japanese and Singaporean sources disagree about the death toll. According to Hirofumi Hayashi
(see next section), the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs "accepted that the Japanese military had carried out mass killings in Singapore...During negotiations with Singapore, the Japanese government rejected demands for reparations but agreed to make a “gesture of atonement” by providing funds in other ways."
occupied Singapore, they were aware that the local ethnic Chinese
held strong loyalty to either Britain
or the Republic of China
. Some wealthy Chinese had been financing the Chinese National Revolutionary Army
led by Chiang Kai-Shek
in the Second Sino-Japanese War
through a series of fund-raising propagandist events. The Japanese military authorities, led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita
, decided on a policy of "eliminating" those who harboured strong anti-Japanese sentiment
s.
The Japanese military authorities defined the following as "undesirables":
Gen. Yamashita instructed the Syonan garrison to cooperate with the Syonan Kempeitai
, the Japanese military police
to "punish hostile Chinese severely".
as the Kempeitai East District Branch. The Kempeitai prison was in Outram
with branches in Stamford Road, Chinatown
and the Central Police Station
. A residence at the intersection of Smith Street
and New Bridge Road
formed the Kempeitai West District Branch.
Under Lieutenant-Colonel Oishi's command were 200 regular Kempeitai officers and another 1000 auxiliaries who were mostly young and rough peasant soldiers. Singapore was divided into sectors with each sector under the control of an officer. The Japanese set up designated "screening centers" all over Singapore to gather and "screen" all Chinese males between the ages of 18 and 50.
Those who were thought to be "anti-Japanese" would be eliminated. Sometimes, women and children were also sent for inspection as well.
The following passage is from an article from the National Heritage Board:
According to the A Country Study: Singapore published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress:
The ones who passed the "screening" would receive a piece of paper bearing the word "Examined" or have a square ink mark stamped on their arms or shirts. Those who failed would be stamped with triangular marks instead. They would be separated from the others and packed into trucks near the centers and sent to the killing sites.
, Punggol
Beach and Sentosa
(or Pulau Blakang Mati). The Punggol Beach Massacre cost the lives of 300 to 400 Chinese, who were shot at Punggol Beach on 28 February 1942 by the Hojo Kempei firing squad. The victims were some of the 1000 Chinese males detained by the Japanese after a door-to-door search along Upper Serangoon
Road. Several of these men had tattoo
s, a sign that they could be Triad members.
The current site of the popular Changi Beach Park was the site of one of the most brutal killings in Singapore's history. On 20 February 1942, 66 Chinese males were lined up along the edge of the sea and shot by the military police. The beach was the first of the killing sites of the Sook Ching massacre, with another one at Tanah Merah
. Another site was Berhala Reping at Sentosa Beach (now Serapong Golf Course after land reclamation
). Surrendered British
gunners awaiting Japanese internment buried some 300 bullet-ridden corpses washed up on the shore of Sentosa. They were civilians who were transported from the docks at Tanjong Pagar
to be killed at sea nearby.
In a quarterly newsletter, the National Heritage Board of Singapore published the account of the life story of a survivor named Chia Chew Soo whose father, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters were bayoneted one by one by Japanese soldiers in Simpang Village.
This is a strong testimony that many killings by the Japanese were indiscriminate.
, the Japanese High Command's Chief of Planning and Operations, Sook Ching was extended to the rest of Malaya, particularly Penang
. However, in these rural areas the population was less concentrated and hence the Japanese lacked sufficient time and manpower to conduct a full "screening" of the Chinese population. The Japanese still proceeded with a widespread indiscriminate massacre of the Chinese population though. The killings ceased on 3 March.
, the founding Prime Minister who ruled Singapore from 1959 to 1990, said in a Discovery Channel programme that the estimated death toll was, "Somewhere between 50,000 to 100,000 young men, Chinese".
In an interview on 6 July 2009 with National Geographic, Lee Kuan Yew said:
Hirofumi Hayashi in another paper says that the death toll "needs further investigation".
Having witnessed the brutality of the Japanese, Lee made the following comments: "But they also showed a meanness and viciousness towards their enemies equal to the Huns'. Genghis Khan and his hordes could not have been more merciless. I have no doubts about whether the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary. Without them, hundreds of thousands of civilians in Malaya and Singapore, and millions in Japan itself, would have perished.
In 1947, after the Japanese surrender, the British authorities in Singapore held a war crime
s trial for the perpetrators of the Sook Ching Massacre. Seven Japanese officers - Lieutenant-General Takuma Nishimura
, Lieutenant-General Saburo Kawamura, Lieutenant-Colonel Masayuki Oishi, Lieutenant-Colonel Yoshitaka Yokata, Major Tomotatsu Jo, Major Satoru Onishi and Captain Haruji Hisamatsu were charged with the execution of the massacre.
Kawamura and Oishi received the death penalty while the other five received life sentences
(Nishimura was later convicted for his role in the Parit Sulong massacre
by an Australian military court and was sentenced to death). The court accepted the defense statement of "just following orders" by those put on trial. . The condemned convicts were hanged on 26 June 1947. The British authorities allowed only six members of the victims' families to witness the executions of Kawamura and Oishi despite calls for the hangings to be made public .
When Singapore gained full self-government from British colonial government in 1959, waves of anti-Japanese sentiment
s brewed within the Chinese community and they demanded reparations and an apology from Japan. The British colonial government had demanded only war reparations from Japan for damage caused to British property during the war before Singapore's independence. The Japanese Foreign Ministry
denied Singapore's request for an apology and reparations in 1963, stating that the issue of war reparations with the British had already been settled in the San Francisco Treaty in 1951 and hence with Singapore as well, which was then still a British colony.
Singapore's Prime Minister
Lee Kuan Yew
responded by saying that the British colonial government did not represent the voice of Singaporeans. In September 1963, the Chinese community staged a boycott of Japanese goods but it lasted only seven days. With Singapore's full independence from Malaysia on 9 August 1965, the Government of Singapore
made another request to Japan for reparations and an apology. On 25 October 1966, Japan agreed to pay $50 million in compensation, half of which as a grant and the other half as a loan. Japan did not make an official apology.
The remains of the victims of the Sook Ching Massacre have been unearthed by locals decades after the massacre. The most recent finding was in late 1997, when a man looking for earthworm
s to use as fishing bait
found a skull, two gold teeth, an arm and a leg. The massacre sites of Sentosa, Changi and Punggol were marked as heritage sites by the National Monuments of Singapore
in 1995 to commemorate the end of the Japanese Occupation.
said on the Discovery Channel programme, "It was the catastrophic consequences of the war that changed the mindset, that my generation decided that, 'No...this doesn't make sense. We should be able to run this [island] as well as the British did, if not better.'" "The Asiatics had looked to them for leadership, and they had failed them."
Germaine Foo-Tan writes in an article carried on the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) website:
Singapore°N date=June 2009°W
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore
Chinese in Singapore
Chinese Singaporeans are people of Chinese ethnicity who hold Singaporean nationality. As of 2010, Chinese Singaporeans constitute 74.1% of Singapore's resident population, or approximately three out of four Singaporeans, making them the largest ethnic group in Singapore...
by the Japanese military
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore
Japanese Occupation of Singapore
The Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II occurred between about 1942 and 1945 after the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. Military forces of the Empire of Japan occupied Singapore after defeating the combined Australian, British, Indian and Malayan garrison in the Battle of Singapore...
, after the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
colony surrendered
Battle of Singapore
The Battle of Singapore was fought in the South-East Asian theatre of the Second World War when the Empire of Japan invaded the Allied stronghold of Singapore. Singapore was the major British military base in Southeast Asia and nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East"...
on 15 February 1942 during the Second World War. Sook Ching was later extended to include Chinese
Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
Malayans
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
as well. The massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
took place from 18 February to 4 March 1942 at various places in the region.
The term Sook Ching means "a purge through cleansing" in Chinese and it was referred to as the Kakyōshukusei , or "purging of Chinese") by the Japanese. The Japanese also referred to it as the Shingapōru Daikenshō , lit. "great inspection of Singapore".
Although the term "Sook Ching" appeared as early as 1946, it was not commonly used in the Chinese press
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
or other publications until the 1980s. The National Heritage Board of Singapore uses this term in its publications.
The memories of those who lived through war years have been captured at exhibition galleries in Memories at Old Ford Factory, the site of the former factory where the British surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February 1942.
The current Japanese term for the massacre is Shingapōru Kakyōgyakusatsujiken , literally "(the) Singapore Chinese massacre".
There is no dispute in scholarly circles that the massacre took place. However, Japanese and Singaporean sources disagree about the death toll. According to Hirofumi Hayashi
Hirofumi Hayashi
is a historian, an authority on modern Japanese history, and is currently a professor of politics at the Kanto Gakuin University. He has been conducting research on the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia, Japanese war crimes, and war crimes trials including the subject of comfort women.-...
(see next section), the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs "accepted that the Japanese military had carried out mass killings in Singapore...During negotiations with Singapore, the Japanese government rejected demands for reparations but agreed to make a “gesture of atonement” by providing funds in other ways."
Planning of the massacre
Hayashi Hirofumi is professor of politics at Kanto-Gakuin University and the Co-Director of the Center for Research and Documentation on Japan’s War Responsibility. He writes that the massacre was planned beforehand, and that "the Chinese in Singapore were regarded as anti-Japanese even before the Japanese military landed." It is also clear from the passage below that the massacre was to be extended also to the Chinese in Malaya.
the purge was planned before Japanese troops landed in Singapore. The military government section of the 25th Army had already drawn up a plan entitled, "Implementation Guideline for Manipulating Overseas Chinese" on or around 28 December 1941.[9] This guideline stated that anyone who failed to obey or cooperate with the occupation authorities should be eliminated. It is clear that the headquarters of the 25th Army had decided on a harsh policy toward the Chinese population of Singapore and Malaya from the beginning of the war. According to Onishi Satoru,[10] the Kempeitai officer in charge of the Jalan Besar screening centre, Kempeitai commander Oishi Masayuki was instructed by the chief of staff, Suzuki Sosaku, at Keluang, Johor, to prepare for a purge following the capture of Singapore. Although the exact date of this instruction is not known, the Army headquarters was stationed in Keluang from 28 January to 4 February 1942...
Clearly, then, the Singapore Massacre was not the conduct of a few evil people, but was consistent with approaches honed and applied in the course of a long period of Japanese aggression against China and subsequently applied to other Asian countries. To sum up the points developed above, the Japanese military, in particular the 25th Army, made use of the purge to remove prospective anti-Japanese elements and to threaten local Chinese and others in order to swiftly impose military administration.
Definition of target group
After the Japanese militaryImperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
occupied Singapore, they were aware that the local ethnic Chinese
Ethnic Chinese
Ethnic Chinese may refer to:*Han Chinese, the dominant ethnic group in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Macao, the Republic of China and Singapore....
held strong loyalty to either Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
or the Republic of China
History of the Republic of China
The History of the Republic of China begins after the Qing Dynasty in 1912, when the formation of the Republic of China put an end to over two thousand years of Imperial rule. The Qing Dynasty, also known as the Manchu Dynasty, ruled from 1644 to 1912...
. Some wealthy Chinese had been financing the Chinese National Revolutionary Army
National Revolutionary Army
The National Revolutionary Army , pre-1928 sometimes shortened to 革命軍 or Revolutionary Army and between 1928-1947 as 國軍 or National Army was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule...
led by Chiang Kai-Shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
in the Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
through a series of fund-raising propagandist events. The Japanese military authorities, led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita
Tomoyuki Yamashita
General was a general of the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. He was most famous for conquering the British colonies of Malaya and Singapore, earning the nickname "The Tiger of Malaya".- Biography :...
, decided on a policy of "eliminating" those who harboured strong anti-Japanese sentiment
Anti-Japanese sentiment
Anti-Japanese sentiment involves hatred, grievance, distrust, dehumanization, intimidation, fear, hostility, and/or general dislike of the Japanese people and Japanese diaspora as ethnic or national group, Japan, Japanese culture, and/or anything Japanese. Sometimes the terms Japanophobia and...
s.
The Japanese military authorities defined the following as "undesirables":
- Activists in the China Relief Fund.
- Wealthy men who had contributed generously to the Fund.
- Adherents of Tan Kah KeeTan Kah KeeTan Kah Kee was a prominent businessman, community leader, and philanthropist in colonial Singapore, and a Communist leader in the People's Republic of China.- Early years :...
, leader of the Nanyang National Salvation Movement. - HainanHainanHainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, of its land mass is Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
ese, perceived to be communists. - China-born Chinese who came to Malaya after the Second Sino-Japanese War.
- Men with tattooTattooA tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
s, perceived to be Triad members (Chinese gangsters) - Chinese who joined the Singapore Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Volunteer ArmyDalforceDalforce, or the Singapore Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army was an irregular forces/guerrilla unit within the British Straits Settlements Volunteer Force during World War II. Its members were recruited among the ethnic Chinese people of Singapore...
. - Civil servants and those who were likely to sympathise with the British, such as Justices of the PeaceJustice of the PeaceA justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
, and members of the Legislative CouncilLegislative CouncilA Legislative Council is the name given to the legislatures, or one of the chambers of the legislature of many nations and colonies.A Member of the Legislative Council is commonly referred to as an MLC.- Unicameral legislatures :...
. - People who possessed arms and were likely to disrupt public security.
Gen. Yamashita instructed the Syonan garrison to cooperate with the Syonan Kempeitai
Kempeitai
The was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945. It was not an English-style military police, but a French-style gendarmerie...
, the Japanese military police
Military police
Military police are police organisations connected with, or part of, the military of a state. The word can have different meanings in different countries, and may refer to:...
to "punish hostile Chinese severely".
The "screening"
After the fall of Singapore, Lieutenant-Colonel Masayuki Oishi, commander of No. 2 Field Kempeitai, set up his headquarters in the YMCA Building at Stamford RoadStamford Road
Stamford Road is a one-way road in Singapore within the planning areas of Downtown Core and Museum. The road continues after the traffic light junction of Nicoll Highway, Esplanade Drive and Raffles Avenue towards Orchard Road. It then ends at the junction of Fort Canning Road, Bencoolen Street...
as the Kempeitai East District Branch. The Kempeitai prison was in Outram
Outram, Singapore
Outram is a district in Singapore, within the Central Area, relatively near the prominent city centre and financial districts, but is nearer the border of the Central Area, and outside the Downtown Core. Outram is served by extensive public transport, including SBS Transit and a Mass Rapid Transit ...
with branches in Stamford Road, Chinatown
Chinatown, Singapore
Singapore's Chinatown is an ethnic neighbourhood featuring distinctly Chinese cultural elements and a historically concentrated ethnic Chinese population. Chinatown is located within the larger district of Outram....
and the Central Police Station
South Bridge Road
South Bridge Road is a road south of Singapore River in Chinatown, Singapore which starts from Elgin Bridge and ends at the junction of Neil Road, Tanjong Pagar Road and Maxwell Road....
. A residence at the intersection of Smith Street
Smith Street, Singapore
Smith Street is a small street running through the heart of the Chinatown district in Singapore. The only road in the area to be named after an European, it commemorates the hugely popular Sir Cecil Clementi Smith, then Governor of the Straits Settlements and High Commissioner in 1887 to 1893, who...
and New Bridge Road
New Bridge Road
New Bridge Road is a one-way road located within the Central Area in Singapore.New Bridge Road starts at the Coleman Bridge to the south of the Singapore River and extends into Chinatown within the Outram Planning Area, before joining with Eu Tong Sen Street and Kampong Bahru Road within the Bukit...
formed the Kempeitai West District Branch.
Under Lieutenant-Colonel Oishi's command were 200 regular Kempeitai officers and another 1000 auxiliaries who were mostly young and rough peasant soldiers. Singapore was divided into sectors with each sector under the control of an officer. The Japanese set up designated "screening centers" all over Singapore to gather and "screen" all Chinese males between the ages of 18 and 50.
Those who were thought to be "anti-Japanese" would be eliminated. Sometimes, women and children were also sent for inspection as well.
The following passage is from an article from the National Heritage Board:
The inspection methods were indiscriminate and non-standardised. Sometimes, hooded informants identified suspected anti-Japanese Chinese; other times, Japanese officers singled out “suspicious” characters at their whim and fancy. Those who survived the inspection walked with “examined” stamped on their faces, arms or clothing; others were issued a certificate. The unfortunate ones were taken to remote places like Changi and Punggol, and unceremoniously killed in batches.
According to the A Country Study: Singapore published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress:
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.
The ones who passed the "screening" would receive a piece of paper bearing the word "Examined" or have a square ink mark stamped on their arms or shirts. Those who failed would be stamped with triangular marks instead. They would be separated from the others and packed into trucks near the centers and sent to the killing sites.
Execution
There were several sites for the killings, the most notable ones being Changi Beach ParkChangi Beach Park
The Changi Beach Park is a beach park located at the northeastern tip of Singapore.The 28-hectare Changi Beach Park is one of the oldest coastal parks in Singapore, retaining the "kampung" or village atmosphere of the 60's and 70's...
, Punggol
Punggol
Punggol, or Ponggol, is a neighbourhood in northeastern Singapore. Presently, much of Punggol is undeveloped, although plans to turn the area into a residential new town under the "Punggol 21" initiative have begun to take place in the south-eastern parts of the area bordering neighbouring...
Beach and Sentosa
Sentosa
Sentosa, which translates to peace and tranquility in Malay , is a popular island resort in Singapore, visited by some five million people a year...
(or Pulau Blakang Mati). The Punggol Beach Massacre cost the lives of 300 to 400 Chinese, who were shot at Punggol Beach on 28 February 1942 by the Hojo Kempei firing squad. The victims were some of the 1000 Chinese males detained by the Japanese after a door-to-door search along Upper Serangoon
Serangoon
Serangoon is town situated in the central part of the city-state of Singapore, within the North-East Region. The Housing and Development Board housing estate of Serangoon New Town in Serangoon is one of the smaller new towns. Its town centre is known as Serangoon Central, and is the target of...
Road. Several of these men had tattoo
Tattoo
A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
s, a sign that they could be Triad members.
The current site of the popular Changi Beach Park was the site of one of the most brutal killings in Singapore's history. On 20 February 1942, 66 Chinese males were lined up along the edge of the sea and shot by the military police. The beach was the first of the killing sites of the Sook Ching massacre, with another one at Tanah Merah
Tanah Merah
Tanah Merah is a territory and town in the state of Kelantan in northeast Malaysia.The capital and main town is Bandar Tanah Merah where is situated nearby Sungai Kelantan.It is bordered by Pasir Mas in the north, Machang to the East, Kuala Krai to the South East, Jeli to the South West and...
. Another site was Berhala Reping at Sentosa Beach (now Serapong Golf Course after land reclamation
Land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...
). Surrendered British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
gunners awaiting Japanese internment buried some 300 bullet-ridden corpses washed up on the shore of Sentosa. They were civilians who were transported from the docks at Tanjong Pagar
Tanjong Pagar
Tanjong Pagar is a historic district located within the Central Business District in Singapore, straddling the Outram Planning Area and the Downtown Core under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's urban planning zones....
to be killed at sea nearby.
In a quarterly newsletter, the National Heritage Board of Singapore published the account of the life story of a survivor named Chia Chew Soo whose father, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters were bayoneted one by one by Japanese soldiers in Simpang Village.
This is a strong testimony that many killings by the Japanese were indiscriminate.
Extension to Malaya
At the behest of Lieutenant-Colonel Tsuji MasanobuTsuji Masanobu
was a tactician of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second World War and later a politician. While he was never indicted for war crimes after World War II, subsequent investigations have revealed that he was involved in war crimes throughout the Pacific war including the massacre of Chinese...
, the Japanese High Command's Chief of Planning and Operations, Sook Ching was extended to the rest of Malaya, particularly Penang
Penang
Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. It is bordered by Kedah in the north and east, and Perak in the south. Penang is the second smallest Malaysian state in area after Perlis, and the...
. However, in these rural areas the population was less concentrated and hence the Japanese lacked sufficient time and manpower to conduct a full "screening" of the Chinese population. The Japanese still proceeded with a widespread indiscriminate massacre of the Chinese population though. The killings ceased on 3 March.
Death toll
The figures of the death toll vary. Official Japanese statistics show fewer than 5000 while the Singaporean Chinese community claims the numbers to be around 100,000. Lee Kuan YewLee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH is a Singaporean statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, governing for three decades...
, the founding Prime Minister who ruled Singapore from 1959 to 1990, said in a Discovery Channel programme that the estimated death toll was, "Somewhere between 50,000 to 100,000 young men, Chinese".
In an interview on 6 July 2009 with National Geographic, Lee Kuan Yew said:
I was a Chinese male, tall and the Japanese were going for people like me because Singapore had been the centre for the collection of ethnic Chinese donations to Chongqing to fight the Japanese. So they were out to punish us. They slaughtered 70,000 - perhaps as high as 90,000 but verifiable numbers would be about 70,000. But for a stroke of fortune, I would have been one of them..TRANSCRIPT OF MINISTER MENTOR LEE KUAN YEW’S INTERVIEW WITH MARK JACOBSON FROM NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ON 6 JULY 2009 (FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE JAN 2010 EDITION)
Hirofumi Hayashi in another paper says that the death toll "needs further investigation".
According to the diary of the Singapore garrison commander, Major General Kawamura Saburo, the total number reported to him as killed by the various Kempeitai section commanders on 23 February was five thousand. This was the third day of mop-up operations when executions were mostly finished. It is said in Singapore that the total number killed was forty or fifty thousand; this point needs further investigations.
Having witnessed the brutality of the Japanese, Lee made the following comments: "But they also showed a meanness and viciousness towards their enemies equal to the Huns'. Genghis Khan and his hordes could not have been more merciless. I have no doubts about whether the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary. Without them, hundreds of thousands of civilians in Malaya and Singapore, and millions in Japan itself, would have perished.
Aftermath
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s trial for the perpetrators of the Sook Ching Massacre. Seven Japanese officers - Lieutenant-General Takuma Nishimura
Takuma Nishimura
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He was later tried by the Allies for war crimes, and was executed. Nishimura was a native of Fukuoka prefecture.-Early military career:...
, Lieutenant-General Saburo Kawamura, Lieutenant-Colonel Masayuki Oishi, Lieutenant-Colonel Yoshitaka Yokata, Major Tomotatsu Jo, Major Satoru Onishi and Captain Haruji Hisamatsu were charged with the execution of the massacre.
Kawamura and Oishi received the death penalty while the other five received life sentences
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
(Nishimura was later convicted for his role in the Parit Sulong massacre
Parit Sulong Massacre
On January 23, 1942, the Parit Sulong Massacre was committed against Allied soldiers by members of the Imperial Guards Division of the Imperial Japanese Army...
by an Australian military court and was sentenced to death). The court accepted the defense statement of "just following orders" by those put on trial. . The condemned convicts were hanged on 26 June 1947. The British authorities allowed only six members of the victims' families to witness the executions of Kawamura and Oishi despite calls for the hangings to be made public .
When Singapore gained full self-government from British colonial government in 1959, waves of anti-Japanese sentiment
Anti-Japanese sentiment
Anti-Japanese sentiment involves hatred, grievance, distrust, dehumanization, intimidation, fear, hostility, and/or general dislike of the Japanese people and Japanese diaspora as ethnic or national group, Japan, Japanese culture, and/or anything Japanese. Sometimes the terms Japanophobia and...
s brewed within the Chinese community and they demanded reparations and an apology from Japan. The British colonial government had demanded only war reparations from Japan for damage caused to British property during the war before Singapore's independence. The Japanese Foreign Ministry
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)
The is a cabinet level ministry of Japan responsible for the country's foreign relations.The ministry is due to the second term of the third article of the National Government Organization Act , and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Establishment Act establishes the ministry...
denied Singapore's request for an apology and reparations in 1963, stating that the issue of war reparations with the British had already been settled in the San Francisco Treaty in 1951 and hence with Singapore as well, which was then still a British colony.
Singapore's Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Singapore
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore is the head of the government of the Republic of Singapore. The President of Singapore appoints as Prime Minister a Member of Parliament who, in his opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of a majority of MPs.The office of Prime Minister...
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH is a Singaporean statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, governing for three decades...
responded by saying that the British colonial government did not represent the voice of Singaporeans. In September 1963, the Chinese community staged a boycott of Japanese goods but it lasted only seven days. With Singapore's full independence from Malaysia on 9 August 1965, the Government of Singapore
Government of Singapore
The Government of Singapore is defined by the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore to mean the Executive branch of government, which is made up of the President and the Cabinet of Singapore. Although the President acts in his personal discretion in the exercise of certain functions as a check...
made another request to Japan for reparations and an apology. On 25 October 1966, Japan agreed to pay $50 million in compensation, half of which as a grant and the other half as a loan. Japan did not make an official apology.
The remains of the victims of the Sook Ching Massacre have been unearthed by locals decades after the massacre. The most recent finding was in late 1997, when a man looking for earthworm
Earthworm
Earthworm is the common name for the largest members of Oligochaeta in the phylum Annelida. In classical systems they were placed in the order Opisthopora, on the basis of the male pores opening posterior to the female pores, even though the internal male segments are anterior to the female...
s to use as fishing bait
Bait (luring substance)
Bait is any substance used to attract prey, e.g. in a mousetrap.-In Australia:Baiting in Australia refers to specific campaigns to control foxes, wild dogs and dingos by poisoning in areas where they are a problem...
found a skull, two gold teeth, an arm and a leg. The massacre sites of Sentosa, Changi and Punggol were marked as heritage sites by the National Monuments of Singapore
National Monuments of Singapore
National Monuments of Singapore are buildings and structures in Singapore that have been designated by the Preservation of Monuments Board as being of special historic, traditional, archaeological, architectural or artistic value....
in 1995 to commemorate the end of the Japanese Occupation.
Legacy
The massacre and its post-war judicial handling by the colonial British administration incensed the Chinese community. The Discovery Channel programme commented about its historic impact on local Chinese: "They felt the Japanese spilling of so much Chinese blood on Singapore soil has given them the moral claim to the island that hasn't existed before the war". Lee Kuan YewLee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH is a Singaporean statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, governing for three decades...
said on the Discovery Channel programme, "It was the catastrophic consequences of the war that changed the mindset, that my generation decided that, 'No...this doesn't make sense. We should be able to run this [island] as well as the British did, if not better.'" "The Asiatics had looked to them for leadership, and they had failed them."
Germaine Foo-Tan writes in an article carried on the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) website:
While the speedy defeat of the British in Singapore was a shocking revelation to the local population, and the period of the Japanese Occupation arguably the darkest time for Singapore, these precipitated the development of political consciousness with an urgency not felt before. The British defeat and the fall of what was regarded as an invincible fortress rocked the faith of the local population in the ability of the British to protect them. Coupled with the secret and sudden evacuation of British soldiers, women and children from Penang, there was the uneasy realisation that the colonial masters could not be relied upon to defend the locals. The Japanese slogan "Asia for Asians" awoke many to the realities of colonial rule, that "however kind the masters were, the Asians were still second class in their own country"(5). Slowly, the local population became more aware of the need to have a bigger say in charting their destinies. The post-war years witnessed a political awakening and growing nationalistic feelings among the populace which in turn paved the way for the emergence of political parties and demands for self-rule in the 1950s and 1960s.
The war and the Japanese Occupation will always remain etched in our memories that just as we must ourselves defend our homeland, only we can chart our own future.
See also
- Japanese Occupation of SingaporeJapanese Occupation of SingaporeThe Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II occurred between about 1942 and 1945 after the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. Military forces of the Empire of Japan occupied Singapore after defeating the combined Australian, British, Indian and Malayan garrison in the Battle of Singapore...
- Japanese war crimesJapanese war crimesJapanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities...
- Kempeitai East District BranchKempeitai East District BranchThe Kempeitai East District Branch was the headquarters of the Japanese military police force, the much feared Kempeitai during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. It was located at the old YMCA building, at the present site of Singapore's YMCA on Stamford Road...
Further reading
- Akashi, Yoji. "Japanese policy towards the Malayan Chinese, 1941-1945". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 1, 2 (September 1970): 61-89.
- Blackburn, Kevin. "The Collective Memory of the Sook Ching Massacre and the Creation of the Civilian War Memorial of Singapore". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic SocietyJournal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic SocietyThe Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society is a scholarly journal published by the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society or MBRAS. The journal covers topics of historical interest concerning peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak, Labuan and Singapore...
73, 2 (December 2000), 71-90. - Blackburn, Kevin. "Nation-Building, Identity And War Commenmoration Spaces In Malaysia And Singapore", Southeast Asian culture and heritage in a globalising world: diverging identities in a dynamic region Heritage, culture, and identity eds. Brian J. Shaw, Giok Ling Ooi. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009. Chapter 6 pp. 93-111.
- Kang, Jew Koon. "Chinese in Singapore during the Japanese occupation, 1942-1945." Academic exercise - Dept. of History, National University of Singapore, 1981.
- Seagrove, Sterling. Lords of the Rim
- Turnbull, C. M. A History of Singapore: 1819-1988. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1989, Chapter 5.
- National Heritage Board (2002), Singapore's 100 Historic Places, National Heritage Board and Archipelago Press, ISBN 981-4068-23-3
- Singapore - A Pictorial History
External links
- "The Battle of Singapore, the Massacre of Chinese and Understanding of the Issue in Postwar Japan" Hayashi Hirofumi, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus
- Hayashi Hirofumi's Homepage on Modern History and Japan's War Responsibility
- Hayashi Hirofumi 日本の現代史と戦争責任についてのホームページ
- National Archives of Singapore's account on the Sook Ching Massacre.
- Discovery Channel programme, History of Singapore (available on Youtube)
- History Of Singapore 新加坡的歷史 (II) Part 2 History Of Singapore 新加坡的歷史 (II) Part 3
Singapore°N date=June 2009°W