Wednesday, February 15, 2017

[Defending the Lion City] Singapore Falls to the Japanese Imperial Army

Lieutenant-General Percival and his party carry the Union flag on their way to surrender Singapore to the Japanese. Pic: Imperial War Museums


75 years ago, on 15 Feb 1942, Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival met with General Tomoyuki Yamashita at the Ford Factory in Bukit Timah, where the British formally surrendered Singapore to the Japanese.

Singapore had fallen to the Japanese in just over 7 days after the Japanese Army’s initial landing on 8 Feb.




Japanese Troops Marching through Fullerton Square. Pic: Wikipedia 




The surrender was a huge shock to the British as Singapore had long been considered to be an “impregnable fortress” – the “Gibraltar of the Far East”. The forces in Singapore, comprising of British, Indian, Malaya and Australian troops, fought bravely and as best as they could to defend the island but to no avail. 


Generals At War - Battle of Singapore



Singapore was renamed by the Japanese as ‘Syonan-To’ (meaning ‘Light of the South’), thus marked the beginning the Japanese Occupation.

The Japanese Occupation, lasting almost 4 years, would be one of the darkest chapters in Singapore’s history. The populace as well as the captured Allied Forces were brutalized and suffered many atrocities during the Japanese Occupation. The Japanese was estimated to have executed 50,000 civilians as part of their efforts to eliminate any resistance to the Japanese Occupation. 



The Singapore Story (Japanese Occupation of Singapore 1942 - 1945)

Quote: Mr Lee Kuan Yew, speaking on the importance of NS, 21 Feb 1967.








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