Lieutenant Adnan Saidi

Adnan bin Saidi, (1915 - 14 February 1942), was a Malayan soldier of the 1st Infantry Brigade which fought the Japanese in the Battle of Singapore. He is regarded by Malaysians and Singaporeans today as a hero for his actions on Bukit Chandu.
Adnan led a 42-strong platoon from the Malay Regiment in the defense of Singapore against the invading Japanese. The soldiers fought at the Battle of Pasir Panjang, at Pasir Panjang Ridge in the Bukit Chandu (Opium Hill) area on 12–14 February 1942. Although heavily outnumbered, Adnan refused to surrender and urged his men to fight until the end. They held off the Japanese for two days amid heavy enemy shelling and shortages of food and ammunition. Adnan was shot but carried on fighting until he succumbed to his injury. After the battle was lost, the Japanese soldiers tied his body to a cherry tree and bayoneted it.

Because of his actions Adnan is currently considered by Malaysians and Singaporeans today as a hero. In their textbooks, he is also credited as the soldier who caught the disguised "Indian troops" marching error in four abreast (Japanese marching style) instead of a line of three (British style of marching). 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_bin_Saidi 

Picture from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRiaqFpxZVpcHvYPz_Q8q07XxWM0ATt3Whvm8PfOjp1wI7TXt2OcGJC053UaewXKaEQseq0A7rf1Eol17o4yD3Oe7Oyh_WhnoQr18eNfr-CMUOM-f4ixPXOouDrkjyM8ZNelkeDV_P1SHt/s1600/adnan+.jpg

                                             This video is about Bukit Chandu. 

Date acccessed: 17 February

Elizabeth Choy

Elizabeth Choy-Yong Su-Moi (Chinese: 蔡杨素梅)was a Singaporean war heroine, educator and councillor. Along with her husband, Choy Khun Heng, she supplied medicine, money and messages to British civilians interned in Changi Prison during the Second World War.

During the Japanese invasion of Malaya, Choy became a volunteer nurse with the Medical Auxiliary Service. After the fall of Singapore in 1942, the Choys set up a canteen at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital, after all the patients and doctors had been moved from the Miyako Hospital (formerWoodbridge Hospital), where they soon started a regular ambulance run for British civilian internees. The couple helped the Changi prisoners-of-war (POW) by passing on cash and parcels containing such things as fresh clothing, medicine and letters during their deliveries, and incurred further risk by sending in radio parts for hidden receivers until the Japanese crackdown following Operation Jaywick.

During the subsequent Double Tenth Incident, an informant told the Kempeitai that the Choys were involved in smuggling money into Changi Prison, and Khun Heng was arrested. After several days, Elizabeth went to the Kempeitai East District Branch at the YMCA building on Stamford Roadto inquire about her husband. The Japanese denied all knowledge of him, but lured her back to the YMCA three weeks later and confined her with other Chinese and Changi prisoners. She was imprisoned and subjected to torture. Mr R. H. Scott, a former Director of the British Ministry of Information (Far Eastern Branch) and principal witness at the War Crimes Court in Singapore, had witnessed Choy being stripped and severely beaten "on at least one occasion".^[1]

At the Japanese surrender in Singapore in September 1945, Choy was invited by Lady Mountbatten to witness the official ceremony, where she was escorted by the governor, Sir Shenton Thomas, and his wife, to whom she had sent medicine in Changi. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Choy

Pictures from: http://singaporeheroes.weebly.com/uploads/5/9/8/0/598061/7547969.jpg

http://a2o.nas.sg/a2o/public/html/etc/images/elizabethchoy.jpg

http://singaporeheroes.weebly.com/uploads/5/9/8/0/598061/662824.jpg

Mr Tan Chong Tee

Mr. Tan Chong Tee, popularly being known as Singapore James Bond, was a spy for the anti-Japanese group-force 136.

He was captured on March 26, 1944 by the Japanese during a crackdown of underground espionage organizations in Ipoh.

Despite being slapped, whipped, punched, kicked and clubbed for two hours by two stick-wielding Japanese soldiers, Mr. Tan still adamantly refuse to divulge any information about Force 136 as he knows that being captured by the Japanese is a death route regardless of whether he cooperates with them or not and what inspired him was just a thought to stay alive so that he could tell others about Mr. Lim Bo Seng’s heroism, after witnessing the Japanese torturing him to death, and to seek justice for those comrades who had perished under the Japanese rule. 

As Mr. Tan was an important prisoner, the Japanese did not kill him. 

After the surrender of the Japanese to the British, Mr. Tan was released on two conditions that he change his name and severed all ties with his past and he must also promise to never return to Malaya.

The Japanese knew that they had to destroy evidence relating to the espionage case as they would soon be tried for their war crimes.

Mr. Tan accepted the terms but while he was being brought to a new life in Japan, he escaped when his train stopped at Ipoh. There Mr. Tan became a businessman and raised a family but till this day his wartime experiences are still vividly carved onto his mind.

http://www2.hci.edu.sg/y09hci0003/content.html
Date accessed: 17 February

Lim Bo Seng

Lim Bo Seng

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Lim Bo Seng was a staunch anti-Japanese even before the war had started. He was also an active contributor of the China Relief Fund and was later made the Director of the Labour Service Department in the newly formed Singapore Chinese Mobilization Council. Certain that he would be a target of reprisals for the Japanese, he was compelled to flee Singapore just before it capitulated.



He managed to reach Sumatra where he then made his way to Colombo and finally to Calcutta in India where he met a British officer, Basil Good fellow, who persuaded him to join the British efforts in setting up a joint China-Britain network in Malaya. This resistance force was then known as force 136.

http://www2.hci.edu.sg/y09hci0003/content.html

 Date accessed: 17 February

The British surrendered

The British surrendered to the Japanese at Singapore

The British "surrender team" (or "surrender party') in 1942 was made up of four British military officers; led by Lieutenant-General Arthur E. Percival, the rest were Brigadier K. S. Torrance, Brigadier T. K. Newbiggings, and Captain Cyril H. D. Wild. On 15 February, 1942, when the "battle for Singapore" reached its zenith, the British delegation was ordered to be at Ford Factory in Bukit Timah, to meet Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki Yamashita, head of the invading Japanese forces. He fiercely demanded the unconditional surrender of Singapore, and Percival signed the Singapore Surrender Document. 

HistoryOn 15 February 1942, the fierce "battle for Singapore" reached its peak when Yamashita led his Japanese Imperial Army and captured Bukit Timah. He made the Ford Factory his headquarters. He had demanded specifically to see Percival.

The British delegation arrived at the Ford Factory building after 4:00 pm, led by Percival, together with Brigadier K. S. Torrance, Brigadier T. K. Newbigging carrying the Union Jack flag, and Captain Cyril Wild carrying the white surrender flag, and Lieutenant-Colonel Sugita. The meeting took place in the boardroom where Yamashita demanded from the British,an unconditional surrender of Singapore, to take effect from 8:30 pm that day. The British, with Cyril Wild as interpreter, was under heavy-pressure from Yamashita. The British broke down during negotiation. Percival on behalf of the British capitulated and signed the Singapore Surrender Document.

Winston Churchill who was convinced that Singapore was "an invincible fortress", called the fall of Singapore, "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history".

http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_525_2005-01-25.html
Picture from: http://ww2history.com/key_moments/Pacific/Singapore_surrenders/
Date accessed: 17 February

Battles of Singapore & Malaya (1942-1945)

The Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II occurred between 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. The occupation was to become a major turning point in the history of several nations, including that of Japan, Britain and the then-colonial state of Singapore. Singapore was renamed to Syonanto (昭南島 Shōnantō), which means "Southern Island gained in the age of Shōwa". The name is frequently mistranslated as "Light of the South", even in Singaporean textbooks.

Singapore was officially returned to British colonial rule on 12 September 1945, following the formal signing of the surrender instrument at the Municipal Building.

The Japanese 25th Army invaded Malaya from Indochina, moving into northern Malaya and Thailand by amphibious assault on 8 December 1941.^[5] This was virtually simultaneous with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which was meant to deter the US from intervening in Southeast Asia. Japanese troops in Thailand coerced the Thai government to let the Japanese use Thai military bases for the invasion of other nations in Southeast Asia and then proceeded overland across the Thai–Malayan border to attack Malaya. At this time, the Japanese began bombing of strategic sites in Singapore, and air raids were conducted on Singapore from 29 December onwards, although anti-aircraft firekept most of the Japanese bombers from totally devastating the island as long as ammunition was available.

The Japanese 25th Army was resisted in northern Malaya by III Corps of the Indian Army. Although the 25th Army was outnumbered by Allied forces in Malaya and Singapore, Japanese commanders concentrated their forces. The Japanese were superior in close air support, armour, coordination, tactics and experience. Moreover, the British forces repeatedly allowed themselves to be outflanked, believing—despite repeated flanking attacks by the Japanese—that the Malayan jungle was impassable. The Imperial Japanese Army Air Force was more numerous, and better trained than the second-hand assortment of untrained pilots and inferior allied equipment remaining in Malaya, Borneo and Singapore. Their superior fighters—especially the Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero—helped the Japanese to gain air supremacy. The Allies had no tanks and few armoured vehicles, which put them at a severe disadvantage.

The battleship HMS Prince of Wales, the battlecruiser HMS Repulse and four destroyers (Force Z) reached Malaya before the Japanese began their air assaults. This force was thought to be a deterrent to the Japanese. Japanese aircraft, however, sank the capital ships, leaving the east coast of the Malayan peninsula exposed and allowing the Japanese to continue their amphibious landings. Japanese forces quickly isolated, surrounded, and forced the surrender of Indian units defending the coast. They advanced down the Malayan peninsula overwhelming the defences, despite numerical inferiority. The Japanese forces also used bicycle infantry and light tanks allowing swift movement through the jungle.Although more Allied units—including some from the Australian 8th Division—joined the campaign, the Japanese prevented the Allied forces from regrouping, overran cities, and advanced toward Singapore. The city was an anchor for the operations of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM), the first Allied joint command of the Second World War. Singapore also controlled the main shipping channel between the Indian and the Pacific Oceans. On 31 January, the last Allied forces left Malaya and Allied engineers blew up the causeway linking Johor and Singapore. Japanese infiltrators—many disguised as Singaporean civilians—crossed the Straits of Johor in inflatable boats soon afterwards.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Singapore
Picture from: http://library.thinkquest.org/10414/media/japattack.gif
Date acessed: 17 February

How did the Japanese treat us

Japanese treated us absolutely horribly. With extreme cruelty, barbarity and savagery. The men were sometimes forced to work for the Japanese as slave laborers. Women were raped and then killed, or forced to be "comfort women" (prostitutes) for the Japanese Army, in Army-operated brothels. At least they were not murdered immediately. Everybody else in Asia despises the Japanese to this day, not just for what they did, but for the fact that they won't admit it, and see nothing wrong in what they did. See the "Rape of Nanking", where Japanese troops were allowed free rein for six weeks after capturing that Chinese city. 300,000 Chinese civilians died in those next six weeks in Nanking.

  

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_did_the_Japanese_treat_the_people_they_conquered

Pictures belongs to :  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/LeonardGSiffleet.jpg 

http://www.spingola.com/power_4.jpg
Date accessed: 13 & 17 February