By Aya (Aya) (202.156.2.90) on Saturday, June 14, 2003 - 11:29 am:| By Aya (Aya) (202.156.2.90) on Saturday, June 14, 2003 - 11:29 am: |
Execution by decapitation of a POW during the Japanese Occupation.
[Image and caption courtesy of Changi Museum / National Heritage Board, Singapore]
"The bars had run out of beer.
The cinemas were closed.
Women were scarce.
So the Japanese guards found other ways to amuse themselves.
The guards at the prison camps along the Burma railway line never got bored. There was always something to do. Like dousing victims with kerosene and setting them alight. Or making prisoners dig their own graves and listening to their screams as they were buried alive. Most 'entertaining' of all was beheading men in public displys, to the perverse delight of many onlookers.
To learn more about the bravery of those who suffered in the hands of the Japanese Army, read the many personal accounts on display at Changi Museum. Even though many of these men are dead and gone, our wish is to preserve the memory of their courage and sacrifice for all time."
| By Aya (Aya) (202.156.2.92) on Saturday, June 14, 2003 - 11:40 am: |
[Image and caption courtesy of Changi Museum / National Heritage Board, Singapore]
"The Japanese are a small, feeble race with bad eyesight. They pose no threat whatsoever to the British Empire."
- Sgt. J. Ward, British Intelligence Officer
The British would pay dearly for this oversight. They assumed that Singapore, 'The Impregnable Fortress', would only be attacked from the sea and could be easily defended by a series of coastal gun batteries.
The Japanese, however, came through the Malayan jungle from the back of the island. Winston Churchill called the event "The most humiliating defeat in the history of the British Empire".
To learn more about the fall of Singapore and pay tribute to the fallen, visit Changi Museum. The many exhibits on display are a reminder of what so many men gave up for your freedom.
CHANGI MUSEUM
1000 Upper Changi Road North, Singapore
Tel (65) 6214 2451
| By Aya (Aya) (202.156.2.90) on Saturday, June 14, 2003 - 12:03 pm: |
From http://worldatwar.net/biography/y/yamashita/
Biography: General Tomoyuki Yamashita
Tomoyuki Yamashita was born November 8th, 1885 in Kochi, Japan. After graduating from the Army Academy in 1905 and the Army war College in 1916, he was posted to the General Staff where he rose papidly through the ranks becoming the highest ranking general of its air force.
Yamashita was an able strategist and tactician and was responsible for training the Imperial Army in the arcane arts of jungle warfare and helped to concieve the invasion of Malaya in December, 1941. In the course of a two and a half month campaign his forces overran all of Malaya and forced the surrender of the British fortress and naval base of Singapore on February 15th, 1942. This earned Yamashita the nickname of the "Tiger of Malaya ". Soon afterward Yamshita was retired by order of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo with whom he had professional differences, some dating as far back as the 1920's. He would not see active service again until after the fall of Tojo in 1944 when he was sent to conduct the defense of the Philippines. He was badly defeated in both the Leyte and Luzon campaigns but continued to hold out until the general surrender of Japanese forces in August, 1945. Yamashita was tried and convicted of war crimes for which he may not have been responsible and was eventually hanged.
Yamashita was one of the most effective commanders in the Army and inspired strong loyalty and affection of his men with whom he endured the risks of combat, going ashore for example with the first wave during the landings in Malaya.
For more on the Tiger of Malaya, pls visit also http://www.knowledgenet.com.sg/singapore/SG/BI/BIYAM001.asp?next=0
| By Aya (Aya) (202.156.2.92) on Saturday, June 14, 2003 - 12:22 pm: |
From my old 1990 school History textbook. Picture not credited.
| By Aya (Aya) (202.156.2.90) on Saturday, June 14, 2003 - 12:29 pm: |
A simple map of the Japanese invasion of Malaya - I can't quite find a more detailed version.
From my old 1990 school History textbook. Picture not credited.
| By Marigold Papa (Marigold) (203.160.183.79) on Sunday, June 15, 2003 - 09:08 am: |
Aya, thanks for sharing all those with us. Some of the stories are gruesome but they really are very informative. Once again, thank you...
gold
| By Aya (Aya) (202.156.2.91) on Saturday, June 21, 2003 - 02:07 am: |
Gold - no problem.
I have read other discussions on the site where guests and regulars talked about various forms of torture and punishmente meted out by the Nazis in WW2, if Hitler had really gone insane, etc, amongst other things. There are tonnes of info and images from the North American continent and Europe throughout the site, but I didn't quite see specifically anything else on what had happened during that black period in our neck of the woods, i.e. the Asia-Pacific region. It's like a tight slap across the face for me personally; our Western / European friends have contributed so much, spent so much time sharing what they can offer to the best of their knowledge, I'm greedily lapping it all up and now it's our turn we've got nothing? There CAN'T be nothing. I may have not lived through that period but NO ONE should come up to me and tell me the Japanese Occupation was NOTHING.
My neighbour's granduncle didn't have his thumb seared and torn through in half with hot wire mesh by the Japanese soldiers for nothing. Another neighbour's late grandaunt wasn't raped and left to die in the gutter by Japanese soldiers on her arrival from China for nothing - apparently she was only 16 yrs old then. My own maternal grandfather wasn't stopped dead in his tracks and questioned by the Kempeitai (Japanese secret police) for hours before he was deemed "clean" and released. For nothing? They watched him like vultures for 2 months and he didn't even have what they'd wanted. One of my elderly uncles is pure Japanese although he was brought up as a local; we've never questioned his origins (I can't go right up to him and ask him how he was conceived - at his age now, I could give him a freaking heart attack), we've always known he was adopted as a child.
There were a LOT of things. Even my former schoolmate's grandmother can tell me she used to be a geisha (not a comfort woman, though), brought here by the Japanese Army, then somehow she'd managed to flee during an air raid here, was taken in and sheltered by a Chinese family, and she's been happily married to one of that family's sons till this day and age. But personal accounts aside, where are our facts?
This site was started in memory of Eugene Roe and dedicated to the men of Easy Company. If we wanted to share anything on WW2 that is not Western/European oriented, can we do that here? I may have phrased that last statement wrong, but perhaps readers would get the drift.
So I wrote to Derek Tircuit offline in mid-Feb this year, requesting his permission for me to post whatever info and images which I may have on the Japanese Occupation. He'd kindly given me the green light and to quote him: "...It's amazing that what started as a way for me to simply share photos of the trip with the rest of the family has become such a huge resource and meeting site for the entire world.... Your information contribution will be there forever to help others learn just as you (and I, and quite literally, 10's of thousands of visitors) have..."
[Thanks very much, Derek.]
My email to Derek was entitled "Japanese Occupation", but I've entitled this thread "POWs" instead because on hindsight, I strongly feel that potential discussions here should not be limited to just events during the Japanese Occupation, and / or POWs in Asia. There are the atrocities the people around here have had to endure - or SURVIVE, for that matter - and then there are the individual accounts I've heard of 1 or 2 Japanese soldiers who prefer to be seen playing cards peacefully with locals, because they didn't want to have anything to do with any killing if they could have helped it, even if they were fiercely loyal to their Emperor. But we would also need the people who were not locals here but who were stationed here in those days. Malaya was quite the melting pot of cultures local and foreign. Chinese. Malays. Indians. Arabs. British. Australians. Gurkhas. Who else? They must all have had something to say about WW2 and especially the Japanese Occupation in Asia.
There's a lot of room for this thread to grow and I truly hope it will. With that said I sincerely hope others from Asia like yourself, Gold, and even those in Australia, New Zealand, and UK who are familiar with their forefathers' history of WW2 in Asia, will come forward and share with the rest of the world Asia's WW2 "legacy". Anything you may have, do share with our Western counterparts.
Aya
| By Marigold Papa (Marigold) (203.160.183.79) on Wednesday, June 25, 2003 - 08:27 pm: |
Wow Aya, that was amazing. Don't worry, if I can gather up information about the Japanese Occupation here in my country during WW2, i would gladly share them with you all. LIke you, i hope others would do the same 
gold
| By Aya (Aya) (202.156.2.91) on Sunday, July 06, 2003 - 12:57 pm: |
Something To Read
"One Fourteenth of An Elephant - A Memoir of Life & Death On The Burma-Thailand Railway"
by Ian Denys Peek
ISBN 707-14B 971384
[Hope I got the ISBN No. right!]
| By Susan Lentz (Susan) (68.52.78.181) on Wednesday, July 09, 2003 - 08:35 pm: |
Hi. I have been visiting this site for years, and have enjoyed all your posts. I haven't felt like I had anything worthwhile to contribute - and might be right! - but wanted to pass along another site I have just discovered. It is called "Dad's War" and I wonder if it might have something to offer Aya. I have barely had time to touch on most of the information, but noticed an article on the Nanjiing massacre, as well as topics concerning Australia. It looks to be a bit more diverse than most of the information sites I have found, and I thought it might be worth a few minutes to check it out. Hope it helps, Susan
| By Debbie Gib (Dogpower) (165.21.154.10) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 09:22 am: |
The civilians were probably those who suffered during the Japanese Occupation. My grandmother once told me how she almost got caught by a couple of Japanese soldiers who searched her house for food. Thankfully, she had been at the well giving the chicken a bath, and while returning had seen them and quickly hidden. There was a war raging in Europe, but there was a holocaust here in Asia too. I remember a scene from a short video we watched on the Japanese Occupation in Singapore (hi, Aya). A family was being rounded up by the Japanese; the men were taken away to be shot and the women were crying and struggling. A soldier snatched a baby away from one of them, flung it up in the air and impaled it. I vividly remember the soldier's smile as blood stained his face.
Last year, we had an interview with an ex-POW. I took down notes, but I'll have to go dig up my history notebook. 
But you could, for starters, read the stories of Stanley Warren and Harry Stogden. A good movie on the POWs who constructed the Death Railway is 'To End All Wars'. Mm, yeps, I've rambled long enough... ^_____^
| By Aya (Aya) (202.156.2.91) on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 12:39 am: |
Hey there, Susan and Debbie.
Susan: Thanks very much for the heads up on "Dad's War". I hit on the web-based search engines, found a few, and will try to find some time to go through them one by one. Would you by any chance happen to have the link to that particular site you'd visited?
Debbie: Yep, I saw your post in another thread on "To End All Wars". Will go check that one out. And thanks very much, too, for sharing your grandmother's experience. I take it your grandparents were stationed in Singapore or somewhere in Asia during that period? What about yourself - where are you now? You had an interview conducted with a former-POW? How old is he? My apologies for so many questions! But this is really interesting. Was your interview for a school assignment or an article in your local paper / magazine?
Have not seen recordings of that bit about Japanese soldiers impaling babies with their bayonets, exactly as you had described it, but I sure have heard much about it. From my grandfather, to my late grandmother, to my History teachers and the few elderly folks who would even want to talk about it when I asked them. "Flung it up in the air and impaled it." That was what they had said, too. And apparently the Japanese soldiers had gone a little further than that.
The secondary school I used to attend had its first foundation grounds along Queen's Street in Singapore, just a few kilometres away from the old Kempeitai HQ (now a National Heritage Board site right across the street opposite YMCA on Orchard Road). Those babies and decapitated heads of suspected anti-Japanese spies were reportedly pierced onto the spear-pointed ends of my school's fence, supposedly to serve as warnings to civilians. My school has long since moved a couple of times from its original location on Queen's Street, to "Point A", many years later to temporary "Point B" (school underwent reconstruction at Point A in the late '80s), then when construction was completed sometime '92/'93 it returned to Point A. BUT guess what? On the school's Founders' Day, I popped by for a visit and the first thing my old History teacher did was to drag me back to the front gates, and pointed at something behind a statue in the school garden. It was a solitary length of a repainted, revarnished, old Victorian-styled fence embedded into the walls of a portal type doorway (just think portcullis gate in a medieval doorway - that's what I thought it looked like). She grinned and said, "Know where that came from? Queen's Street."
I checked with various sources, asked around. My old teacher wasn't pulling my leg at all. I wanted to weep. I went home and couldn't sleep on it. I couldn't even find it in myself to do the McCaulay Culkin "Home Alone" reaction. I intensely and inexplicably disliked that thing when I'd first spotted it, which was before she'd told me of its origins. Apparently the school's board thought it fitting to have "part of the school's old history reunited with its modern day look, and into the new millenium." I have absolutely no idea how they had managed to preserve that thing. But talk about "What on earth are you people thinkiiinnngg???"
Anywho... I crossed paths with a Japanese WW2 veteran not too long ago while he was paying his respects at one of Singapore's war memorials. Haven't seen him since but he seemed pretty wracked with grief and full of remorse. Well... maybe "full of remorse" is phrasing it somewhat lightly. I just have no idea how else to describe the rush of emotions I thought I saw on the elderly gentleman's face. It was very hard not to imagine what he was feeling at that time. In any case, wherever he may be now, I pray that he has accomplished what he had set out to do for himself while he was in Singapore a few months ago.
Aya
| By Aya (Aya) (202.156.2.90) on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 12:55 am: |
"SOMETHING TO READ" CORNER
[Some more stuff I found on bookstore shelves while browsing for other materials. The synopsis are taken off the web because I didn't have time to copy it all down while in the stores.]
"Operation Matador: Britain's War Plans Against The Japanese 1918-1941"
by Ong Chit Chung
ISBN 9812100954
Published 1997, Singapore, 1st Edition
(Times Academic Press)
About This Book:
A historical account of British plans made between 1918 and 1941 to counter a possible landward Japanese invasion of Malaya/Singapore. Operation Matador involved pre-emptive action and was never put into effect. This detailed and extensively referenced study sheds clearer light on a subject which is often shrouded in misleading fable.
"The Fall of Singapore"
by Frank Owen
ISBN 0141391332
Published 2001, United Kingdom, 1st Edition
(Penguin Books)
About This Book:
Paperback edition of the generally respected 1960 account by a former British army officer of Singapore's ignominious fall to the invading Japanese forces during the Second World War. The vivid and carefully researched tale of the chaotic two months which led up to 15 February 1942 does not mince words.
Aya
| By Chan Kok Meng (Twobars) (202.156.2.51) on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 10:58 am: |
Hiya Aya,
Nice to see another Singaporean on this site. Niced to know that it is a girl that is interested in soldiers. You know of any more singaporeans here?
| By Debbie (Dogpower) (166.121.36.7) on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 08:32 pm: |
No probs, Aya. My grandparents were in Singapore at that time and I AM still living here. I'm studying at a school just off Orchard... *hint hint* Our school's main gate is also sort of brought over from the old building. Wonder if we could be from the same secondary school...?
My grandmother also recounted a story when the Japanese first bombed Singapore. She was living in the kampong at that time and she and her neighbours saw the Japanese planes bombing town and they thought that there was some airshow or something! *laughs* So the entire lot of them gathered and started 'wowing' away at the "bright lights" in town...
Oh, the POW that I interviewed should be in his 80's by now. I really HAVE to go find that history notebook of mine. *sighs*
| By Chan Kok Meng (Twobars) (202.156.2.51) on Monday, July 14, 2003 - 10:38 am: |
Hi all, I just realized how many Singaporeans are on this site. So far those whom I see are ladies, no offense meant, but that kinda saddens me. Whatever happened to the guys? By any chance any here has been in service? Sorry, I don't really have much WWII stories to contribute... Sufferings of civilians in wartime makes me feel helpless, so I tend to concentrate more on soldiering.
| By Susan (68.52.78.181) on Monday, July 14, 2003 - 11:28 pm: |
Hi Aya. I didn't realize there were so many 'Dad's War' sites - sorry! I had just clicked on the first one. The real name of the site is "Dad's War: Finding and Telling Your Father's WWII Story". (That is a bit misleading though. The site is much broader than that implies, but it can help you do that too,)Try--http://members.aol.com/dadswar/index.htm (Hope I got that all correct.) I browsed through it last night - it appears to be a huge site. Scroll past all the info about how to find out about your 'loved one', and go down to "Telling Someone's WWII Story". Under that, number 1 is People Telling Their Dad's (brother's, uncle's, grandmother's)Story on Web Pages. Keep scrolling and you will see "Pacific and CBI (China, Burma and India)". Under this heading I found "Civilians" and clicked onto "US Minister HK Beaber in Phillipines and Japanese POW Camps". At the end of his story there is a pyramid of titles. I clicked onto "Rising Sun: The Japanese Conquests", and I found it very interesting. I am ashamed to say that I am not very knowledgeable about WWII in your part of the world, so this site may not be as valuable to you as I found it, but I was fascinated by a lot of what I read, and inspired to learn more. Also, it might be of interest to others who post here, as there seems to be a bit of info on Australia and I saw something about the Dutch Stoottroepen that I found interesting. Hope you find something of interest in the site.
Susan
| By Debbie (Dogpower) (165.21.154.13) on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 10:05 am: |
*whoops with joy* I finally found the signature of that POW I interviewed!!! I somehow found it in my old SCIENCE notebook... -_-; And that means the notes I took down at the interview are somewhere on a sheet of foolscap paper... Will go hunt... As for now... 
| By Debbie (Dogpower) (165.21.154.13) on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 08:50 am: |
I went to dig up my old worksheets from last year and, apparently, during the interview I didn't take down any notes except for the no. of casualties in the Death Railway and something about Changi Base. So I'll try rack my brains. I still have a rather fuzzy idea of the main points.
We called him "Uncle Joe". So I'll just stick to that. Well, Uncle Joe had been caught in Singapore at Changi. I can't really remember what his group came here for but I think it was to reinforce the already falling Singapore. So, anyway, they were brought to work on the Death Railway. Life there was extremely harsh (okay... we all know that but I'll still say it) and many died in the process of constructing it. According to the notes I took, Uncle Joe said that about 10000 British and 2000 Australians died. As for others, I'm really not sure. Uncle Joe, too, suffered. One of his legs got bad but it wasn't to the point where it had to be removed. Still, the leg never fully recovered and today, he walks with a bit of a limp. I believe Uncle Joe mentioned something about the infamous shovel incident. After construction of the Death Railway, the shovels were put back and counted. A guard reported a missing shovel. The guards threatened to kill everyone if it wasn't turned in. Then someone stepped out and took the blame. I think the guard killed him, although in the movie "To End All Wars", he just got a bad beating. You might want to double check that too...
I'm afraid that's all I can dig up in my limited memory. The only thing that I remembered him saying about his life after the war was when his wife died some time ago, since he got kind of emotional at that part... Hope this is of some use... As for the picture, I'll try again.
| By Aya (Aya) (202.156.2.92) on Monday, July 21, 2003 - 09:06 pm: |
Hey, everyone.
Kok Meng:
I guess the answer to your very first post in this thread popped by right after you said hello! There's Debbie, me; the remaining Singaporeans here are probably in lurk-mode. Really good to finally see an active uniformed personnel from our very own Lion City posting here. Will you be participating in the National Day Parade in any way this year? It's 2 weeks away. Which unit are you with, and for how long have you been in the service? To echo your sentiment, I was definitely beginning to wonder whatever happened to the guys. Maybe they ARE talking about Band of Brothers, Japanese Occupation, etc., - but not here, anyways.
Don't worry about not having much to contribute on our WWII history. That was what I felt initially but what little you may have is always worth telling (even if it's gibberish, like what I've been doing a LOT around here). Please, do go ahead and share. You're bound to pick up more information along the way, too, which you might want to add on in here.
I've not particularly - or officially - been in service, but off the record... *STICKING OUT MY TONGUE, WICKED GRIN* Cannot and will not say more. My dad is a retired SAF personnel; he was from the very first batch Army (not National Service), trained by the Israeli Army. Too many "army days" stories to recount in an orderly manner; usually I have to quickly absorb whatever he's suddenly talking about, and try to remember to record down later. Any attempts to grab paper and pen when he's in mid-speech will be cut off with a glare and "what's that for?" And then he'll suddenly zip it. MY DAD. Off the top of my just-woke-up head, 1 of the units Dad was attached to was 2 PDF Command. As for me, I know there's this modern day state-of-the-art gadget known as the tape recorder, but ah... heheh. Never mind me.
He wouldn't want to say much at first. Only 3 things will prompt him to start talking about those days:
(1) We ask him 1 or 2 questions, anything to do with the military;
(2) We plonk in war movies in the VCD / DVD player (most of the time it's "Band of Brothers" or "Black Hawk Down");
(3) A relative or family-friend has finally hit late teens / early-20s and has been called by the Government to serve the nation. Then it's immediately: "Done with BMT (Basic Military Training, for the benefit of the non-Singaporeans reading this)? Which unit (are you) attached to now? First Guard? Third Guard? Any island training? Where? Tekong? Sudong? Ho, that island... THAT island!!! (snigger, snigger... while quietly cherishing a memory of that particular place, obviously ... snort ... snigger some more ... chuckle - pulls on serious face) Don't mess around this area, that area... watch out for this swamp, they could never clear it out... that was where the old Japanese bla bla bla was..."
You get the idea. Do you also get that a lot from the older generation who are familiar with the military and our usual local training grounds?
Susan:
Thanks very much for that link! As a matter of fact, that was the third site I visited for a quick run-through after the search engines generated all the "Dad's War" sites. Mighty interesting find. Thanks again. By the way, where are you located? How did you come by Derek Tircuit's site? Any of your family - or even yourself - been in the service?
Debbie:
DEBBIE!!! My peers used to wonder about "the future generation of our alma mater". And here I am talking to part of it now. What are the odds of that ever happening to anyone else? Such a small world.
Thanks very much for sharing Uncle Joe's experience. How did you get to meet Uncle Joe? A couple of years back, my friend and I somehow managed to identify someone as a Samsui woman. He wanted to get some info from her; he tried to talk to her but her dialect was too thickly accented (or perhaps an old wound impeded her speech - seemed like it, judging from the age-old scar on her jaw) and he had difficulties translating. It lasted for only about 10 minutes before she looked like she was remembering something terrible, then waved us off. She wasn't angry although she sure was choking back tears; she didn't yell at us (we got hollered at by another "auntie" Samsui woman when we were kids). She just went quiet as she hobbled off. We felt really bad about it, my friend didn't even know what it was he'd said that might have indirectly caused her to remember what she did, but we haven't seen her around that area ever since. Made me think twice about targetting old folks' homes, if you know what I mean, even if those are the very places we'd probably get what we're looking before it's lost to the rest of modern Singapore.
Alexandra Hospital and old Changi Hospital are other places we might find some things interesting ... although the latter is deserted and um, pretty much desecrated and spooky now. So to speak.
Aya
| By Debbie (Dogpower) (165.21.154.11) on Tuesday, July 22, 2003 - 06:04 am: |
AYA!!! You from RG too? It really IS a small world.. ^_________^ As for Uncle Joe, I'm not sure how the teachers managed to get hold of him, but yes, they simply announced that there would be an interview with a POW during WW2 and so I went, being one of those first-hand information nuts people... I've given up on the image attachment formatting here, so I'll just post up the link to where I've uploaded it:
http://www.freewebs.com/doggypal/powsiggy.jpg
Well, all my dad ever did was National Service, so he doesn't have much to share (or maybe he just can't be bothered to tell us). He went to the Navy... Anyone?
| By Susan (68.52.78.181) on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 12:42 pm: |
Hi Aya. I am finally answering an earlier question -- I have been out of town for a while.
I am in the States (Tennessee), and found this site while looking for more info on BoB. No, I was never in the military, but am the daughter of two WW2 veterans. My father was a flight instructor serving stateside, but my mom was an Army nurse who served in England. She was in Wiltshire, very near where the BOB men were. Watching the series gave me a much clearer idea of where she had been and what it was like for her. (I know the series took many liberties, but not with costumes, sets and all.) Anyway, unlike the men who came home and never spoke of it again, she talked about it constantly - it was the zenith of her life. She served in a General Hospital (the 141st), and I have always wondered if any of the BOB men were ever under her care. General Hospitals (the 'last stop') catered to men who required a stay of 60+ days - burn victims, amputees, the blind, etc. She never gave us the gory details of course, but she spoke of her general experiences often, always refering to soldiers as 'our boys'.
Last year I decided to put some of her story on paper so that it won't be lost forever to all those grandchildren (and great-grands...) who won't remember her. The series has really helped me with that as it visualized so many things for me. My mother spoke of watching tanks move out for the Normandy landing. She said that they stretched as far as she could see, but the statement had little meaning for me until I saw some of the D-Day preparations in BOB and was able to put her memory into that context. So, from an historical point, the series has been a real help. (From the entertainment angle as well, as it is a masterpiece.)
I am now reading "Goodbye, Darkness - A memoir of the Pacific war" by William Manchester. I probably shouldn't recommend a book I have not finished, but since he is my favorite author I will anyway. He was a Marine in the Pacific, and was haunted by nightmares in his later life.(I'm sure most all of them were.) About 1979 he returned to the Pacific to try to exorcise the demons. I am half way through the book, and he has gone back to Hawaii, the Solomons and New Guinea so far. He gives generous credit to the islanders who played such a vital part in the Allied victories. At the time he returned, some of these people were still living, so he was able to talk with people with first hand experiences, as well as revisit one of the locals who was a real hero. Manchester(a one time journalist) has an ability to break a massive amount of information into parts small enough to digest, giving a clearer picture of something that at first seems overwhelming. His writing is so fluid that you don't realize how much you are learning - I have never been able to put down any of his books. At any rate, I highly recommend this for anyone wanting to enlighten themselves. As I am still reading, I don't know that he goes on to Singapore, Aya, and don't know whether you are looking for other information or just things that relate to Singapore. I do know that this is waaaaayyyy too long though, so I'll close. Susan
| By Simon Lim (161.142.78.84) on Sunday, July 27, 2003 - 03:31 am: |
Atrocities committed by Japanese Imperial Army in Malaysia
During the Second World War, after Germany, Italy and Japan formed an alliance, Japan launched the Pacific war. Determined to occupy South East Asia, Japan used brutal force to subdue any opposing elements.
On 8 Dec 1941, Japan invaded Malayan Peninsula of Malaysia and eventually occupied it. For the following 3 years and 8 months, people of Malaya lived under the savagery and brutality of Japanese conqueror. They loot, burn, rape, torture and massacre the people through out the whole of Malayan peninsula.
In the state of Negeri Sembilan alone, the number of Chinese massacred is estimated at least 4,000 persons mainly unarmed innocence working men, women and children.
The single largest massacre took place in Titi within the district of Jelebu, at southern part of Negeri Sembilan, upon which as many as 1,474 were killed within a day.
The second largest massacre took place in Parit Tinggi, Kuala Pilah district whereby at least 675 were killed, wiping out the whole village.
The Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore provide assistance to China to fight the Japanese thus became prime target for reprisal. What the German did to the Jews, the Japanese has done the similar to the Chinese.
Find out more in following website.
www.geocities.com/atrocityinns
| By Simon Lim (161.142.78.84) on Sunday, July 27, 2003 - 03:35 am: |
Atrocities committed by Japanese Imperial Army in Malaysia
During the Second World War, after Germany, Italy and Japan formed an alliance, Japan launched the Pacific war. Determined to occupy South East Asia, Japan used brutal force to subdue any opposing elements.
On 8 Dec 1941, Japan invaded Malayan Peninsula of Malaysia and eventually occupied it. For the following 3 years and 8 months, people of Malaya lived under the savagery and brutality of Japanese conqueror. They loot, burn, rape, torture and massacre the people through out the whole of Malayan peninsula.
In the state of Negeri Sembilan alone, the number of Chinese massacred is estimated at least 4,000 persons mainly unarmed innocence working men, women and children.
The single largest massacre took place in Titi within the district of Jelebu, at southern part of Negeri Sembilan, upon which as many as 1,474 were killed within a day.
The second largest massacre took place in Parit Tinggi, Kuala Pilah district whereby at least 675 were killed, wiping out the whole village.
The Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore provide assistance to China to fight the Japanese thus became prime target for reprisal. What the German did to the Jews, the Japanese has done the similar to the Chinese.
Find out more in following website.
www.geocities.com/atrocityinns
| By susan roe (Frenchroe) (209.178.161.162) on Friday, August 01, 2003 - 06:28 pm: |
Hi Everybody:
No words can express the horror of what the Japanese committed in the Pacific Theater. I hope that I live long enough to see Japan give a formal apology to your people and other of it's Southeast neighbors.
I am half Japanese and the other half is German American (I am a ROE). I have not visited Singapore, Korea or China, but I hope to someday. and I'd love to visit the museum. I have visited the concentration camps in Europe and the ones in the U.S. And, I've been to the war memorial in Hiroshima.
Aya, I am glad you met the old Japanese man. I hope you will find a way to forgive the Japanese.
The rise of Japan occurred following the 1857 opening Japan to the outside world by US Commodor Perry. Following that encounter, Japan sought to become a power like the Western Europeans. Japan saw how the Europeans carved out their hegemony in China. Japan saw itself as the Big Brother of Asia and that it would look after the Asians, rather than the allow the Europeans to do so. By look after, I guess they meant "control"
Japan grew powerful quickly. Following the defeat of the Russians in 1905, the world saw the might of Japan. Japan modeled it's military after the Germans. HEnce, like in Germany, there was a rise in Fascism.
Which brings us to the Japanese Expansion into China and all points south.
What you may not know is that during the war, the US Government rounded up Japanese and Americans of Japanese descent and sent them to concentration camps throughout the interior of the US. The govt feared spies. Although there was NO EVIDENCE of espionage, the govt locked them up anyway and deprived them of their civil rights.
In spite of all this, the Japanese Americans entered the military and joined the 442 regiment/100th battalion. This regiment was one of the most decorated group of soldiers in the war. These brave Americans fought for a country which denied them their equal rights. They fought for a better way for the Japanese Americans. It was not until the 1980s that the US government finally issued an apology. By then, many of the elder Japanese Americans had died. The internment had destroyed a generation of my people.
Racism and war bring out the worst in people. Even the Roe family has had it's problems with racism. When my father married my mother, his Louisiana relatives called her and me "the enemy." Some of them have continued to not acknowledge me, even though I'm a grown woman. By the way, did I tell you that us "Roe"s are German? What enemy are we talking about?