dnan was shot by the enemy and despite of his injuries,
he continued fighting. In the end, he was captured by the Japanese and been
stabbed to death.
Soon after the Japanese arrived at the Alexandra Hospital. The massacre at the
hospital left no survivals. Soon, the day of the Chinese New Year arrived. A
meeting was held at Fort Canning. General Percival had a discussion with other
generals on how to counter-attack. The other generals were against this idea as
their soldiers were tired and their supplies of food and water were depleting.
In the end, the British decided to surrender.
The period when the Japanese controlled Singapore was known as the Japanese
Occupation. The Japanese Occupation lasted for three and a half years and
Singapore was later named, Syonan-to, which means 'Light of the South' in
Japanese. But this light did not shine brightly as this was the dark period
where many people suffered.
The Japanese imprisoned all the Europeans found in Singapore and they became
the prisoners-of-war (P.O.W.s). The life of the P.O.W.s was tough. Some of them
were sent to Thailand to construct a railroad. They were not given much food to eat and were
made to work long hours. The railroad which was supposed to
take 5 years to complete was forced to be completed in 16 months and this costs
thousands of lives and the railway was known as the Death Railway. The P.O.W.s located
in Singapore did not have a good life either. They were required to clean up the
city, bury the dead bodies and restore water and electricity supplies. The
P.O.W.s had to plant their own vegetables as there was a shortage of food. Due
to the poor health conditions many fell ill and died.
There was no good life for the local citizens as well. They had to bow to the
Japanese soldiers when they came across them. Those who did not do that were
being punished by the Japanese, either beating them up or killed them. The
Japanese were cruel, so cruel that they could throw babies up to the skies and
stabbed them with
their bayonet while they they are falling. Young man were being taken away to construct the Death Railway in
Thailand. Some of the Malays and Indians were also sent to construct the Death
Railway. The Japanese wanted the Indians to join the Indian National Army
(I.N.A) to fight against the British in India. But many of them refused and were
being killed on the spot. The Eurasians who were suspected of helping the
British were being shot.
The Chinese suffered the most in this period of time. The Japanese told all the
Chinese males aged between 18 to 50 to report at certain centres. They were
being "examined" by traitors (known as "han jian" in Chinese), who wore hoods or
masks to prevent people from identifying them. These traitors would point out
whether the Chinese were anti-Japanese. Those who were identified as
anti-Japanese were detained and those who were not were stamped with the word
"Examined" which acted like a pass. Some of the Chinese who were known to be
anti-Japanese were sent to beaches where they got shot by the Japanese. The rest
were sent to the Japanese Military Police, known as Kempeitai, where they were
tortured and beaten up to reveal information the Japanese
wanted. It was also the Kempeitai who caused dispute among the
people. They had spies everywhere who would supply them with
information of people who are unhappy with the Japanese rule.
It was a time when everybody did not know who to trust.
To satisfy the sexual lust of the Japanese Military as well,
many local women and girls as young as 6 to 7 years old were
caught and sent to comfort houses where they would serve as
comfort women. Each day they have to serve as much as 40 to 50
Japanese soldiers. Those who could not satisfy them or made
them happy were killed by shooting in their private parts.
Many women committed suicide because they could not withstand
the horror and shame they were going through.
The Japanese set up schools to teach people the Japanese language and every
morning, the people had to face the direction of Japan and sing the Japanese
National Anthem. Th