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
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