Wednesday, June 24, 2009

How the locals were treated by the Japanese

During the Japanese occupation, the locals, especially the chinese, were cruelly and brutally treated by the Japanese. They had a grudge against the Chinese as they had helped China in their fight with the Japanese. This “favouritism” is evident throughout the whole of the occupation, but mostly so with the system called Sook Ching, or purge through purification.
The Japanese used Sook Ching to “purify” the locals so as to not have anyone daring to go against them. Secret informers were all over the island, ready to offer up their fellow people to the Japanese just so that they could keep their heads. Chinese men between 18 and 50 years of age were called to report to mass screening centers. When the informers were asked by the Japanese to point out traitors, they would randomly point their accusing finger at anyone. Those selected would then be rounded up and led to a deserted place, where they would be made to dig a hole, which would serve as their grave when they were shot. Those Chinese who were very desperate to save their own lives disguised themselves as Malays or Indians to avoid the scrutiny of the Japanese. Eventually, the Sook Ching massacre of ethnic Chinese claimed between 25,000 and 50,000 lives in Malaya and Singapore.
Compared to the Chinese, the Indians and Malays had had a much easier time with the Japanese, though those who the Japanese thought to be going against them were also dealt with severely. Thus, the locals lived in fear and distrust at that time. This was because they could not be sure of who was working for the Japanese and who was not.
The locals also faced a shortage of food and other necessities like medicine as the Japanese also took over most of the foodstuffs and other goods for the use of their army. Due to the food shortage, ration cards were distributed in order to limit the amount of food each person could buy each month. As the war progressed, the amount of food one could get each month decreased. In order to make up for the lack of rice as a staple, tapioca, sweet potatoes and yam were used as substitutes. They could be grown in gardens, and soon consumed during breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, many people still suffered from malnutrition and diseases as they did not have well-balanced meals.
Transport was another big problem for the local people during the occupation. The amount public vehicles dwindled and cars ceased to be available except for the Japanese as there was a lack of good quality petrol to run the vehicles. Bicycles soon became the preferred and most common mode of transport.
There was also widespread propaganda towards the local population. Schoolchildren with young, tender and impressionable minds were taught Japanese and made to sing the Japanese national anthem. They tried to remove the western influences and promote the Japanese cultures and values.
The Japanese usually had very harsh answers to those who were caught committing crimes. For instance, thieves were shot or beheaded, and their heads were put on display at public areas to serve as warnings to potential law-breakers. Anyone passing by a Japanese soldier would have to bow and show their respect towards them. Even children were not spared, for those who forgot to do so would be hit in the forehead by the Japanese.
However bad the Japanese occupation was, though, it was instrumental in Singapore’s push for independence. Due to the abandonment of the British, Singaporeans were forced to live the next three and a half years of their lives in hardship, terror, distrust, poverty, hunger and darkness. Perhaps, if the Japanese had not attacked, we might still have been a British colonial state. We might still be in danger of being deserted and left to fend for ourselves, without any proper means of defense. Thus, we are now independent due to the years if darkness spent as “The light of the South”, or Syonan-To.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

The Kempeitai

The Kempeitai were the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army. A Kempeitai corp was referred to as a "kempei", from "ken" meaning law and "hei" meaning soldier. During the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, there were 200 regular kempei in Singapore. 1000 auxiliaries were also recruited from the army. During the occupation, the old YMCA building served as the headquarters of the Kempeitai East District Branch, while the West District Branch was located at a former residence at Smith Street in Chinatown.

Incidentally, the Kempeitai did maintain order in Singapore during the Japanese Occupation--to an extent. It was simply that people were just scared out of their wits--they did not dare to commit any crimes while the Kempeitai were around. For example, before the Japanese occupied Singapore, the island was full of looters who simply stole anything they could. When the Japanese came, however, they shot the unfortunate criminals who had misfortune to be caught. Then the Japanese beheaded them and displayed their heads at Dhoby Ghaut, Anderson Bridge and Kallang Bridge. Needless to say, the gruesome display instantly deterred people from looting.

But the Kempeitai was also responsible for demolishing any anti-Japanese activities. The Kempeitai made use of spies and informers recruited from the community, who gave information to the Kempeitai in return for various rewards and privileges. Most of the informers came from dubious backgrounds--there were prostitutes, secret society members, and even people with criminal records. These people just wanted to save themselves from the punishments like torture and execution, and thus freely gave information to the Kempeitai. The secret spies and informers were everywhere, and thus the people living at that time did not know who they could trust. Many innocent people were taken away mysteriously, and a cloud of suspicion and fear hung over Singapore.

Those that were identified by the informers and spies and who were suspected of being anti-Japanese were arrested, where they would be incarcerated in tiny cells and forced to be absolutely motionless and silent. The Kempeitai would then torture them ruthlessly until they revealed the information they wanted, "confessed" to committing a crime or told them the names of anti-Japanese accomplices. Anyone who was identified as a "subersive force" by the prisoner would be sentenced to death or imprisonment.

The Kempeitai used many methods of torture to get the information they wanted. These methods include:

Water treatment: The prisoner would have water forced down his throat until his stomach becomes bloated. Then, the water would be forced out again by jumping on his stomach until he faints. He is revived, and the terrible process repeated.

Corporal Beatings Treatment: Exactly what the name implies. Metal bars, sticks, bamboo, wet knotted ropes, belts with buckles and revolver butts were all used to hit prisoners.

Burning and electric shock treatment: 'Live' electric wires, candles, lighted cigarettes, boiling oil or boiling water were applied to sensitive parts of the prisoner's body to cause him great pain.

Breaking fingers treatment: Sticks would be placed in between the prisoner's fingers and then squeezed, and this would fracture the bones.

The fingernails and toenails of the prisoner were also torn out, causing the poor victim unbearable pain.

Body suspension treatment: The prisoner's body would be suspended by the wrists or neck, or he would be hung upside-down by his legs. Interrogators would then pull the victims' joints from their sockets.

Eardrum piercing treatment: The victim's eardrums would be pierced by sharp pencils.

Sun-bathing: This was not an enjoyable pastime to the people who lived through the occupation, no matter what you may think. The victim's were made to kneel in the sun for very long periods, even until the sun had set. This would cause his skin to peel.

Whipping: The victim would be tied down and whipped by a Japanese Officer.

Boiling: The victim would be bound tightly and immersed in a pot of water, which was boiled gradually. If the victim fell unconscious, he would be taken out of the pot and revived. Then, if he still did not confess, the process would be repeated until he confessed or died--depending on which came first.

All these tortures sound as painful as they were. None of us can ever imagine how it felt to those who were tortured. We must never forget the pain our forefathers went through.

Friday, June 19, 2009

The Sook Ching Massacre

“Sook Ching” is actually Chinese for “a purge through cleansing”. And that’s exactly what it was—a purge. Sook Ching took place from February 18 to March 4 1942, and was carried out at many places, one of them being the Punggol beach.
Soon after occupying Singapore, the Japanese realized that the ethnic Chinese were very loyal to either the United Kingdom or China, and wealthy Chinese in Singapore were even financing China to help their home country to resist the Japanese after they had invaded China in July 1937. The military authorities, led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita, decided they had to get rid of the anti-Japanese elements.
Sook Ching was the systematic killing of Chinese in Singapore whom the Japanese believed to be “hostile” or “undesirables”. Such people included people who had been actively contributing to the China Relief Fund, which was used to help China’s war effort against the Japanese, and the Hainanese, whom the Japanese believed to be Communist. The Japanese also targeted men with tattoos, whom the Japanese believed to be members of secret societies, and people who had fought against the Japanese alongside the British. People who were likely to be pro-British and those who possessed guns were also singled out. Basically, all whom the Japanese believed to be a threat to them were taken to be exterminated.
The Kempeitai, the Japanese military police, played a key role in the massacre. Singapore was separated into different sections, each controlled by a Kempeitai officer. “Screening centres” were established all over the island, to gather and “examine” the Chinese men aged 18 to 50. Sometimes, women and children were sent to be screened. The people who passed the “screening” would be given a slip of paper with the word “Examined” stamped on it, or they would have a square mark of ink stamped on their arms or their shirts. But as for those who did not pass the screening, they would be given a triangular stamp. Then, they would be sent by truck to remote places like Changi and Punggol, where they would be executed—they were thrown off boats to drown, stabbed with bayonets, or simply shot to death. The executions at this particular site—Punggol Beach—took place on the 28th of February, 1942, and 300 to 400 Chinese were killed. The screenings were unfair and non-selective, and thus many innocent people’s lives were wasted for no reason at all.
But there were still survivors of this atrocity. One such man is none other than the founder of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. At the time, he was just a young man, still in his early twenties. He was singled out and asked to join a group of people that had been “selected” to be taken to one of the killing sites, though he was obviously not told this. He instinctively felt he was in trouble, and thus asked to go back to the collection centre to retrieve his “other important things”. He was allowed to go. Those who were collected never came back. Mr Lee said that it was his “good luck to be allowed to go back to collect his things.” Another man, Chua Choon Guan, had been held at the Jalan Besar Football stadium concentration centre. They selected him to be executed because of his physique. "They had a liking for those who were well built and they took us all out," Choon Guan said later. At Tanah Merah Besar, he was pushed up to the water’s edge, where the Japanese opened fire. As he had been knocked unconscious during the shooting, he collapsed with machinegun wounds to the side and legs. His fellow prisoners, who had not been so fortunate as to survive, fell on his body and concealed him from the Japanese soldiers who were finishing off any survivors with bayonets. When he finally awoke, it was dark. He crawled out from under the corpses, cut his bonds on a sharp rock, and escaped safely.
But these were just the fortunate minority. Many more innocents were still killed. The Japanese state that the total death toll was less than 500, but the Chinese community of Singapore claims that about 100,000 people were brutally slaughtered. The accurate number is more likely to be around 25000 to 50000.
Now, Punggol Beach is being preserved as a National Heritage site. We must never forget our forefathers, who died at the hands of Japanese in this terrible massacre. Those who survived, emerged stronger and more resilient. More importantly, we can learn a valuable lesson from this—we must never depend on another country to defend us.