Sook Ching

Part of a series on the
History of Singapore
show Early history (pre-1819) Srivijaya 650–1377 Temasek, Long Ya Men, Ban Zu c.14th century Kingdom of Singapura 1299–1398 Malacca Sultanate 1400–1511 Johor Sultanate 1528-1819
show British colonial era (1819–1942) Founding 1819–1826 Straits Settlements 1826–1867 Crown colony 1867–1942
show Japanese Occupation (1942–1945) Battle of Singapore 1942 Sook Ching 1942
show Post-war period (1945–1962) First Legislative Council 1948–1951 Maria Hertogh riots 1950 Second Legislative Council 1951–1955 Anti-National Service Riots 1954
show Internal self-government (1955–1963) Hock Lee bus riots 1955
show Merger with Malaysia (1963–1965) Singaporean referendum 1962 Operation Coldstore 1963 Race riots in Singapore 1964 MacDonald House bombing 1965
show Republic of Singapore (1965–present) ASEAN Declaration (ASEAN) 1967 1969 race riots of Singapore 1969 Singaporean haze crisis 1972–present Laju incident 1974 Operation Spectrum 1987 1997 Asian financial crisis 1997 Embassies attack plot 2001 SARS outbreak 2003 H1N1 pandemic 2009-2010 Little India riot 2013 2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit 2018 Coronavirus pandemic 2020–present
show By topic Timeline Riots
Singapore portal
v t

Part of a series on the
History of Malaysia
show Prehistoric Malaysia Prehistoric Malaysia –6th century
show Early kingdoms Gangga Negara 2nd–11th century Langkasuka 2nd–14th century Chi Tu 2nd–6th century Pan Pan 3rd–5th century Kedah Tua 5th–9th century Pahang Tua 5th–15th century Melayu 6th century Kota Gelanggi 7th–9th century Srivijaya 650–1377 Majapahit 1293–1500
show Rise of Muslim states Kedah Sultanate 1136–present Samudera Pasai Sultanate 1267–1521 Brunei Sultanate 1368–present Malacca Sultanate 1402–1511 Sulu Sultanate 1450–1899 Pahang Sultanate 1470–1623 Aceh Sultanate 1496–1903 Pattani Sultanate 1516– 1902 Perak Sultanate 1528–present Johor Sultanate 1528–present Sarawak Sultanate 1599–1641 Selangor Sultanate 1745–present Besut Kingdom 1780–1899 Setul Kingdom 1808–1916 Reman Kingdom 1810–1902 Kubang Pasu Kingdom 1839–1864 House of Jamalullail 1843–present
show Colonial era Portuguese Malacca 1511–1641 Dutch–Portuguese War 1601–1661 Dutch Malacca 1641–1824 Pahang Kingdom 1770–1881 Straits Settlements 1786–1946 Siamese invasion of Kedah 1821–1826 Anglo-Dutch Treaty 1824 Burney Treaty 1826 Naning War 1831–1832 Kingdom of Sarawak 1841–1946 Crown Colony of Labuan 1848–1946 Pahang Civil War 1857–1863 Larut Wars 1861–1874 Klang War 1867–1874 Pangkor Treaty 1874 Perak War 1875–1876 British Malaya / Borneo 1874–1946 Jementah Civil War 1879 North Borneo 1882–1946 Federated Malay States 1895–1946 Anglo-Siamese Treaty 1909 Unfederated Malay States 1909–1946 Battle of Penang 1914 Kelantan rebellion 1915
show World War II Japanese occupation of Malaya / of Borneo 1941–1945 Malayan campaign 1941–1942 Battle of Muar 1942 Parit Sulong Massacre 1942 Battle of Singapore 1942 Sook Ching 1942 Syburi 1942 Sandakan Death Marches 1942–1945 Si Rat Malai 1943–1945 Jesselton revolt 1943–1944
show Formative era BMA of Malaya/Borneo 1945–1946 Crown Colony of N. Borneo 1946–1963 Crown Colony of Sarawak 1946–1963 Anti-cession movement 1946–1963 Malayan Union 1946–1948 Federation of Malaya 1948–1963 Malayan Emergency 1948–1960 Baling Talks 1955 Malayan Independence 1957 Singapore Self-governance 1959 North Borneo Self-governance 1963 Konfrontasi 1963–1966 Sarawak Self-governance 1963 Formation of Malaysia 1963 Singapore in Malaysia 1963–1965 ASEAN Declaration 1967 Second communist insurgency 1968–1989 New Economic Policy 1971–1990 Peace Agreement of Hat Yai 1989
show Barisan Nasional era Federal Territory of KL 1974 Pedra Branca dispute 1979–present South China Sea dispute (Spratly Islands) 1980–present Federal Territory of Labuan 1984 Memali incident 1985 Operation Lalang 1987 Constitutional crisis 1987–1988 National Development Policy 1990–2000 Vision 2020 1991–2020 Royal Immunity Amendments 1993 Financial crisis 1997–1998 1998 Commonwealth Games 1998 Reformasi Movement 1998–present Malaysia Nipah virus outbreak 1998–1999 Twin Towers Grand opening 1999 Federal Territory of Putrajaya 2001 H1N1 pandemic in Malaysia 2009–2010 1Malaysia Concept 2009–2018 1MDB scandal 2015–present Malaysian Citizens' Declaration 2016
show Pakatan-Perikatan era GE14 – Change of government 2018 Singapore Water Conflict 2018 ICERD protest 2018 Bornean States status bill 2019 Abdication of Muhammad V 2019 Vote18 amendment 2019 Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 2019–2030 COVID-19 pandemic 2020–present Sheraton Move 2020–present Movement Control Order 2020–present 2020 Sabah Dispute 2020 Sabah Snap election 2020 2021 State of Emergency 2021–present COVID-19 vaccination 2021–present
show Incidents Brunei revolt 1962–1966 North Borneo dispute (Philippine militant attacks) 1962–present Singapore race riots 1964 Brunei's Limbang claim 1967–2009 Penang Hartal riot 1967 13 May incident 1969 Ligitan and Sipadan dispute 1969–2002 Malaysian haze crisis 1972–present AIA building hostage crisis 1975 National Monument bombing 1975 Campbell Shopping Complex fire 1976 Sabah Air GAF Nomad crash 1976 MH653 incident 1977 Kelantan Emergency 1977 Dawn Raid 1981 1985 Lahad Datu ambush 1985 Memali Incident 1985 Sabah Emergency 1986 Ming Court Affair 1987 1989 Taufiqiah Al-Khairiah madrasa fire 1989 Tropical Storm Greg 1996 Al-Ma'unah incident 2000 2001 Kampung Medan riots 2001 2004 tsunami in Malaysia 2004 Murder of Altantuyaa 2006 Bersih rally 2007–2016 HINDRAF rally 2007 Anti ISA rally 2009 2010 attacks against places of worship in Malaysia 2010 2013 People's Uprising Rally 2013 Black-Out rally 2013 Lahad Datu standoff 2013 MH370 incident 2014 MH17 incident 2014 2014–15 Malaysia floods 2014–2015 2015 Sabah earthquake 2015 Malay Dignity Rally 2015 Movida Bar grenade attack 2016 Assassination of Kim Jong-nam 2017 Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah madrasa fire 2017 Sri Maha Mariamman Temple riot 2018 ICERD protest 2018 2020–21 Malaysian floods 2021 Undi-18 protest 2021 LRT train collision 2021
show By topic Communications Economic Military
Malaysia portal
v t

The Sook Ching (simplified Chinese: 肃清; traditional Chinese: 肅清; pinyin: Sùqīng; Jyutping: suk1 cing1; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Siok-chheng, meaning 'purge through cleansing') was a systematic purge of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese Malayans and the Chinese in Singapore by the Japanese military during the Japanese occupation of Singapore and Malaya, after the British colony surrendered on 15 February 1942 following the Battle of Singapore. The purge took place from 18 February to 4 March 1942 at various places in the region. The operation was overseen by the Imperial Japanese Army's Kempeitai secret police and subsequently extended to include the Chinese population in Malaya.

Scholars agree the massacre took place, but Japanese and Singaporean sources disagree about the number of deaths. The official death toll from the massacre remains contested: Japan alleged that fewer than 5,000 deaths occurred, while Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first prime minister alleged that "verifiable numbers would be about 70,000", including in Malaya. The Japanese also killed about 150,000 Tamil Indians in Thailand and Burma.

Following the discovery of mass graves in 1962, Singaporeans lobbied for the Singapore government to demand the Japanese government for compensation for the massacre.^[1] Finally on 25 October 1966, the Japanese government agreed to pay S$50 million in compensation, half of which was a grant and the rest as a loan.^[2] However, the Japanese government refused to accept legal responsibility for the massacre, to carry out a survey of the deaths, and to make an official apology.^[3]

According to Hirofumi Hayashi, 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."^[4] However, the Japanese government was motivated to provide compensation to Singapore because of the potential economic damage to Japan as a result of a boycott or sabotage by the local Chinese should Singapore’'s demands be rejected.^[5]

The memories of those who lived through that period have been captured at exhibition galleries in the Old Ford Motor Factory at Bukit Timah, the site of the factory where the British surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February 1942.^[6]

The Japanese referred to the Sook Ching as the Kakyō Shukusei (華僑粛清, 'purging of Overseas Chinese') or as the Shingapōru Daikenshō (シンガポール大検証, 'great inspection of Singapore'). The current Japanese term for the massacre is Shingapōru Kakyō Gyakusatsu Jiken (シンガポール華僑虐殺事件, 'Singapore Overseas Chinese Massacre'). Singapore's National Heritage Board uses the term Sook Ching in its publications.^[7][8]

Planning of the massacre[]

According to postwar testimony taken from a war correspondent embedded with the 25th army, Colonel Hishakari Takafumi, an order to kill 50,000 Chinese, 20 percent of the total, was issued by senior officials on Yamashita's operations staff, either from Lieutenant Colonel Tsuji Masanobu, Chief of Planning and Operations, or Major Hayashi Tadahiko, Chief of Staff.^[9][10][11]

Hirofumi Hayashi, a professor of politics at a university and the co-director of the Center for Research and Documentation on Japan's War Responsibility, writes that the massacre was premeditated, 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 to the Chinese in Malaya as well.

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. This guideline stated that anyone who failed to obey or co-operate 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, the Kenpeitai officer in charge of the Jalan Besar screening centre, Kenpeitai commander Oishi Masayuki was instructed by the chief of staff, Sōsaku Suzuki, 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... 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. 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 to swiftly impose military administration.^[12]

After the Japanese military occupied Singapore, they were aware that the local Chinese population was loyal to the Republic of China. Some Chinese had been financing the National Revolutionary Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War through a series of fund-raising propagandist events.

Targeted groups[]

The Japanese military authorities defined the following as "undesirables":^[13]

• Activists in the China Relief
• Wealthy philanthropists who had contributed generously to the China Relief Fund, such as modernist architect, , who designed and built many houses of note in Singapore for the wealthy Chinese community of the time.
• Adherents of Tan Kah Kee, leader of the
• Hainan people, who were perceived to be communists
• Chinese-born Chinese who came to Malaya after the Second Sino-Japanese War
• Men with tattoos, who were perceived to be triad members
• Chinese who joined the Singapore Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army
• Civil servants and those who were likely to sympathise with the British, such as the Justices of the Peace and members of the legislative council
• People who possessed weapons and were likely to disrupt public security

Purge[]

"Screening"[]

After the fall of Singapore, , commander of No. 2 Field Kenpeitai, set up his headquarters in the YMCA Building at Stamford Road as the Kenpeitai East District Branch. The Kenpeitai 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 Kenpeitai West District Branch.

Under Oishi's command were 200 regular Kenpeitai 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 centres" all over Singapore to gather and "screen" Chinese males between the ages of 18 and 50.^[14][15] 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; some were issued a certificate. The unfortunate ones were taken to remote places like Changi and Punggol, and unceremoniously killed in batches.^[8]

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.^[16]

The ones who passed the "screening"^[14] received a piece of paper bearing the word "examined" or have a square ink mark stamped on their arms or shirts. Those who failed were stamped with triangular marks instead. They were separated from the others and packed into trucks near the centres and sent to the killing sites.

Execution[]

There were several sites for the killings, the most notable ones being Changi Beach, Punggol Point and Sentosa (or Pulau Belakang Mati).

In a quarterly newsletter, the National Heritage Board 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.^[18]

Extension to Chinese community of Malaya[]

At the behest of Masanobu Tsuji, the Japanese High Command's Chief of Planning and Operations, Sook Ching was extended to the rest of Malaya. However, due to a far wider population distribution across urban centres and vast rural regions, the Chinese population in Malaya was less concentrated and more difficult to survey. Lacking sufficient time and manpower to organise a full "screening", the Japanese opted instead to conduct widespread and indiscriminate massacres of the Chinese population.^[19][20] The primary bulk of the killings were conducted between February to March, and were largely concentrated in the southern states of Malaya, closer to Singapore.

Specific incidents were Kota Tinggi, Johore (28 February 1942) – 2,000 killed; Gelang Patah, Johor (4 March) – 300 killed; Benut, Johor (6 March) – number unknown; Johore Baharu, Senai, Kulai, Sedenak, Pulai, Renggam, Kluang, Yong Peng, Batu Pahat, Senggarang, Parit Bakau, and Muar (February–March) – estimated up to 25,000 Chinese were killed in Johor; Tanjung Kling, Malacca (16 March) – 142 killed; Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan (15 March) – 76 killed; Parit Tinggi, Negeri Sembilan (16 March) – more than 100 killed (the entire village);^[21] Joo Loong Loong (near the present village of Titi) on 18 March (1474 killed, entire village eliminated by Major Yokokoji Kyomi and his troops);^[22][23] and Penang (April) – several thousand killed by Major Higashigawa Yoshimura. Further massacres were instigated as a result of increased guerilla activity in Malaya, most notably at Sungei Lui, a village of 400 in Jempol District, Negeri Sembilan, which was wiped out on 31 July 1942 by troops under a Corporal Hashimoto.

Extension to the Indians of Malaya and Singapore[]

The Japanese also killed about 150,000 Tamil Indians in Thailand and Myanmar during the war, although it is believed that the true number of deaths is much higher for the Tamil Indians. It excludes the death toll of the Malayali Indians. The Indians came from Singapore or Malaysia under Japanese supervision.^[24]

Japanese camp guards frequently killed entire Indian families or the entire Indian population of whole camps. They also killed Indian families or camps that were infected with typhus, sometimes for sadistic reasons.^[25] Aside from killing the Indians, Japanese soldiers often gang raped Tamil women after which they would force other Indian coolies to rape the Indian women.^[26]

Death toll[]

Due to the lack of written records, the official death toll remains unknown.^[27] According to official Japanese statistics, the number was below 5,000, while the Singaporean Chinese community initially alleged 100,000. Recent research narrowed down the official deathtoll to 10,000 to 25,000 at maximum.^{[citation needed]}

According to Lieutenant Colonel Hishakari Takafumi, a newspaper correspondent at the time, the plan was to kill 50,000 Chinese and that half that number had been reached when the order was received to stop the operation.^[28]

Hirofumi Hayashi wrote in another paper 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 Kenpeitai section commanders on 23 February was five thousand. This was the third day of mop-up operations when executions were mostly finished. It is alleged by Singapore that the total number of innocent Chinese and Perankan civilians killed was forty or fifty thousand; this point needs further investigations.^[29]

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.^[30]

Prominent victims[]

Chinese film pioneer Hou Yao moved to Singapore in 1940 to work for the Shaw brothers. Because Hou had directed and written a number of "national defence" films against the Japanese invasion of China, he was targeted by the Japanese and killed at the beginning of the Sook Ching massacre.^[31][32]

Aftermath[]

The Sook Ching Centre site memorial stands at in Chinatown.

Masanobu Tsuji

In 1947, after the Japanese surrender, British authorities in Singapore held a war crimes trial for the perpetrators of the Sook Ching. Seven Japanese officers: Takuma Nishimura, , , , , , and , were charged with conducting the massacre. Staff officer Masanobu Tsuji was the mastermind behind the massacre, and personally planned and carried it out, but at the time of the war crimes trials he had not been arrested. As soon as the war ended, Masanobu Tsuji escaped from Thailand to China. The accused seven persons who followed Tsuji's commands were on trial.^[11]

During the trial, one major problem was that the Japanese commanders did not pass down any formal written orders for the massacre. Documentation of the screening process or disposal procedures had also been destroyed. Besides, the Japanese military headquarters' order for the speedy execution of the operation, combined with ambiguous instructions from the commanders, led to suspicions being cast on the accused, and it became difficult to accurately establish their culpability.

Nishimura Takuma

Sōsaku Suzuki

and received the death penalty while the other five received life sentences, though Takuma Nishimura was later executed following conviction by an Australian military court for his role in the Parit Sulong Massacre in 1951. The court accepted the defence statement of "just following orders" by those put on trial.^[13] The condemned 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.^[33]

The mastermind behind the massacre, Masanobu Tsuji, escaped. Tsuji, later after the trial and the execution, appeared in Japan and became a politician there. Tsuji evaded trial, but later disappeared, presumedly killed in Laos in 1961. Tomoyuki Yamashita, the general from whose headquarters the order seems to have been issued, was put on another trial in the Philippines and executed in 1946. Other staff officers, who planned the massacre, were and Sōsaku Suzuki. But, as was captured in Russia after the war and Sōsaku Suzuki was killed in action in 1945 before the end of the war, they were not put on trial.

The reminiscences of were published in 1952 (after his death) and, in the book, he expressed his condolences to the victims of Singapore and prayed for the repose of their souls.^[11]

Mamoru Shinozaki (February 1908 – 1991), a former Japanese diplomat, has been described as instrumental as key prosecution witness during the Singapore War Crimes Trial between 1946 and 1948.^[34] Shinozaki remains a controversial figure, with some blaming him for saying positive things about the accused (despite being a prosecuting witness);^[35] views on him continue to vary, with opinions ranging from calling him the "wire-puller" of the massacre^[36] or criticizing him for "self-praise" in his autobiography^[37] to calling him a life-saving "Schindler" of Singapore.^[38]

When Singapore gained full self-government from the British colonial government in 1959, waves of anti-Japanese sentiments arose within the Chinese community and they demanded reparations and an apology from Japan. The British colonial government had demanded only war reparations for damage caused to British property during the war. The Japanese Foreign Ministry declined 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 first 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 imports (refusing to unload aircraft and ships from Japan), but it lasted only seven days.^[39][40]

With Singapore's full independence from Malaysia on 9 August 1965, the Singapore government made another request to Japan for reparations and an apology. On 25 October 1966, Japan agreed to pay S$50 million in compensation, half of which was a grant and the rest as a loan. Japan did not make an official apology.

The remains of the victims of the Sook Ching were unearthed by locals for decades after the massacre. The most recent finding was in late-1997, when a man looking for earthworms to use as fishing bait found a skull, two gold teeth, an arm and a leg. The massacre sites of Sentosa, Changi and Punggol Point were marked as heritage sites by the National Monuments of Singapore in 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Japanese occupation.^[41]

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 Yew 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.'"^[42] "The Asiatics had looked to them for leadership, and they had failed them."^[43]

Germaine Foo-Tan writes in an article carried on the Singapore Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) website:^[44]

While the quick 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". 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.

See also[]

• Kenpeitai East District Branch

References[]

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 Society 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
• Shinozaki, Mamoru (1982). Syonan—My Story: The Japanese Occupation of Singapore. Singapore: Times Books International. ISBN 981-204-360-8.
• Tanaka, Hiroshi (1976). Meeting with Asian People (in Japanese). Tokyo: Tabata Shoten. JPNO 72006576.

External links[]

• Discovery Channel programme, History of Singapore History Of Singapore 新加坡的歷史 (II) Part 2 History Of Singapore 新加坡的歷史 (II) Part 3