The document summarizes British defenses and the fall of Singapore to Japanese forces in 1942. It then discusses life under Japanese occupation, including the suffering of POWs, mass killings of Chinese civilians, harsh conditions, and underground resistance. It conveys lessons about the need for self-governance following foreign domination during the war.

2. British Defence in Singapore
• Building of the naval base
- Docking of British ships
- Sending ships to other parts of Asia in the
event of an attack
A ship at the naval
base

3. British Defence in Singapore
• Installing 15-inch guns
- To repel any attacks from the sea

4. British Defence in Singapore
• Building of military airfields
- Tengah and Sembawang
Sembawang Air Force
Base

5. British Defence in Singapore
• Building of underground bunkers
- Fort Canning, Labrador, Sembawang
-entrance to the
underground bunker at
Fort Canning

6. British Defence in Singapore
Singapore – An “impregnable”
fortress

7. Major areas of attack : Tengah
Airfield, Kranji, Bukit Timah, City
areas
Surrender of the British
15 Feb 1942 – "Black Sunday"

8. NAVAL BASE
SURRENDER
PERIMETER
MANDAI/NEE SOON
BUKIT TIMAH
PASIR PANJANG
15 FEB 1942
TENGAH
SELETAR
SEMBAWANG
2
1
3
4

10. SINGAPORE DURING
THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION
• Coming under New Masters
• Meeting Their Fates
• Living the Days of Darkness
• Fighting against the Japanese
• Lessons from the Japanese Occupation

11. COMING UNDER NEW MASTERS
• Singapore – Renamed ‘Syonan-To’
• Syonan = Light of the South
• People suffered great hardships
• Lived in constant fear of the Japanese

12. MEETING THEIR FATES
• The Allied POWs
• The Local Civilians

13. • The Allied POWs
– British, Australian and Allied
Europeans, including women and
children, were imprisoned
– became POWs
– Changi Prison, Selarang Barracks
– numbered more than 50,000
MEETING THEIR FATES

14. • The Allied POWs
– Indians soldiers and Gurkhas
– asked to pledge loyalty to Japan
– asked to join the Indian National
Army (INA)
– set up by CPT Mohan Singh, a
surrendered officer from the British
Indian Army
– those who refused were
tortured, imprisoned or killed
MEETING THEIR FATES

15. THE INA MONUMENT

16. • The Local Civilians
– Japanese took action to place locals under
control
– determined to wipe out those who might
threaten their rule
– The Chinese became the main target
– Wipe out all those considered to be anti-
Japanese
– Operation Sook Ching
MEETING THEIR FATES

18. Singapore Under Japanese Rule

19. Singapore Under Japanese Rule

20. Japanese soldiers using a
prisoner as a live target to
practise bayonet fighting
A Japanese soldier torturing a prisoner

21. THE PRICE OF PEACE

22. THE WATER TREATMENT
“…..our captors beat us up,
subject us to electric shocks
and pumped us up with water
as part of the interrogation
routine.
The feeling of having one’s belly
pumped full of water and then
seeing the water gushing out of
the body was hardly bearable.”

23. ELECTRIC SHOCKS
“…..when my interrogators could
not get information out of me,
they dragged my husband from
Outram Prison, tied him up
and made him kneel beside me.
Then, in his full view, they
stripped me to the waist and
applied electric currents to
me.”

24. “…..the electric shocks sent my
whole body into spasms; my
tears and mucus flowed
uncontrollably. The pain was
indescribable, but it must have
been thousands of times worse
for my husband who had to see
me being tortured.”
“A Shameful Past in Human Memory : A Verbal
Account by Elizabeth Choy” by Jane Thum Soon
Kun in The Price of Peace
ELECTRIC SHOCKS

25. The Japanese regarded the Chinese as
their arch enemies. Why?
1. Strong Chinese resistance during Japanese
invasion of China
2. Chinese in S’pore actively helped China in its
fight against Japan’s attack
3. In the Battle of Bukit Timah, the Chinese
volunteers put up a fierce resistance against the
invading Japanese troops
MEETING THEIR FATES

26. Mass Screening
• All Chinese men 18-50 years old
• report to Mass screening centres
• Questioned by Japanese or singled out by
hooded local informers
• More fortunate ones allowed to go home
– “EXAMINED” stamped on a small piece of paper
– sometimes stamped onto shirts or arms
• Those accused of being anti-Japanese were
brought to remote areas of Singapore and killed
MEETING THEIR FATES

27. MEETING THEIR FATES
Hooded Informers

28. Eurasians
• suffered - related to Europeans
• Japanese thought the Eurasians saw themselves
as superior to the Asians
• Many belonged to the Singapore Volunteer Corps
and fought against the Japanese
• Those suspected of helping the British were shot
• Others were imprisoned
MEETING THEIR FATES

29. Malays and Indians
• Japanese did not see them as a threat
• Tried to win the support of the Malays and
convince them that Japan would free them from
Japanese rule
• Persuaded Indians that Japan would free India
from Britain
• Both races not entirely spared though, esp if they
did not obey Japanese orders
MEETING THEIR FATES

30. FEAR
• Harsh action taken to establish control
• Looters were shot and beheaded, public
display of heads
• Barbed wires to form road blocks
• Bowing as a sign of respect
LIVING THE DAYS OF DARKNESS

31. FEAR
• Close watch over the people
• Documents - work badges, vehicle and
radio passes
• Families had to be registered
• Surprise checks
LIVING THE DAYS OF DARKNESS

32. THE KEMPEITAI
• Most feared of all Japanese
• Spies all over the island
• encouraged people to supply them with
info by giving rewards and privileges
• Anti-Jap suspects beaten and tortured
until they reveal the info the Japs
wanted
• Nobody knew whom to trust
• Anti-Japanese suspects were tortured to
make them confess or to extract
information from them
• Often people were punished for
crimes they did not commit

33. Hardship and Suffering
• Life of POWs in prison camps
• Death Railway
LIVING THE DAYS OF DARKNESS

34. Hardship and Suffering
• Life of POWs in prison camps
LIVING THE DAYS OF DARKNESS

35. Hardship and Suffering
• Death Railway
LIVING THE DAYS OF DARKNESS

36. DEATH RAILWAY

37. Hardship and Suffering
• Local civilians - serious shortage of food
and other goods
• Essential foodstuffs like rice, salt and
sugar were controlled
• Ration cards : Limit amount of food for
each person
• Coping with shortages : Simple diets;
substitutes; improvise
• Malnutrition and diseases
• Shortage of medicine
LIVING THE DAYS OF DARKNESS

38. Black Market
• Not only basic necessities but all sorts of goods
• Because of shortages
LIVING THE DAYS OF DARKNESS

39. LIVING THE DAYS OF DARKNESS
Inevitably, a black market thrived.
Towards the end of the war, a tin of State
Express cigarettes cost $5,000, a bottle of
Johnny Walker whisky cost about
$12,000…….A tin of butter would fetch
$950, a case of powered milk $25,000.
Who operated the black markets? Lots of
people, including retired government
servants, people who disliked working
under the Japanese, former bankers and
newspapermen.
Syonan – My Story
By Mamoru Shinozaki

40. BANANA NOTES (Worthless)

41. RATION CARD
You could not get any provisions
from shops if you did not have
this ration card.
Each adult was given a ration of
4.8kg of rice per month and each
child 2.4kg. This amount was
subsequently reduced to 3.6kg
per month for adults.

42. LIVING THE DAYS OF DARKNESS
A unique feature of the Occupation period
was the making of substitutes. A kind of
chemical oil was developed from coconut oil.
Wheat, flour, butter and milk were sold at
such high prices that the people were forced
to find substitutes. Cakes, bread, cookies
were made with ‘chemical flour’ or sago
flour. Fibre was obtained from the leaves of
pineapples and used for making paper, while
the fibre from coconut husks was used to
make ropes.
Adapted from Malayan Chinese Resistance to
Japan 1937-1945
Selected Source Materials edited by Shu Yun-
Tsiao and Chua Ser Koon

43. Propaganda
• To influence the minds of the people to
show loyalty to Japan
1. Learn the Japanese language
2. Influence school children
3. Controlled radio stations and radio sets
4. Only Japanese movies and propaganda
shown in cinemas
5. Chinese and English newspapers
controlled strictly by Japanese
LIVING THE DAYS OF DARKNESS

44. ANTI-JAPANESE GROUPS
• MPAJA : Malayan People’s Anti-
Japanese Army
– sudden attacks on Japanese
troops
– Hid in the Malayan jungles
– Life was hard there
– tried to stir up anti-Japanese
feelings among the people by
distributing newspapers

45. ANTI-JAPANESE GROUPS

46. ANTI-JAPANESE GROUPS
• Force 136
– Secret British organisation to
organise sabotage activities
– locals were also recruited
– trained secretly in India and sent
to Malaya to help MPAJA
– Lim Bo Seng was one of the
leaders
– Captured in Mar 1944 and tortured
to death

47. ANTI-JAPANESE GROUPS

48. LESSONS
• Defeat of the British
– poor preparations for war
– underestimation of enemy
– always be prepared to defend
one’s country
• Respect for British dipped
after the war
• People’s suffering
– need to rid Singapore of foreign
masters

49. LEE KUAN YEW
“My colleagues and I are of that generation
of young men who went through the
Second World War and the Japanese
Occupation and became determined that
no one - neither the Japanese nor the
British - had the right to push and kick us
around. We were determined that we
could govern ourselves and bring up our
children in a country where we can be a
self-respecting people.”

50. CHANGI PRISON CHAPEL

51. CHANGI MURALS

52. WAR MEMORIAL

53. WAR MEMORIAL SERVICE

54. WAR MEMORIAL SERVICE

55. WAR MEMORIAL SERVICE