During the war life changed for everybody, including children. For most children, the war years were a time of anxiety. For many, it was a period of family separation. For some, it was a time of profound personal loss.
Many children had to grow up quickly during wartime. Many children had to look after themselves and younger siblings while their mothers worked.
Nearly two million children were evacuated from their homes at the start of World War Two. They were evacuated to the countryside to escape the bombing.
Children had labels attached to them, as though they were parcels. They stood at railway station not knowing where they were going nor if they would be split from brothers and sisters who had gathered with them. They felt scared about being away from their families and had to adjust to new schools and make new friends.
I as a chinese who live during the second world war in singapore ,would like to share with you some event that had happened during that time.
DAY 1
On December 8, 1941, Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita's Japanese 25th Army began invading British Malaya from Indochina and later from Thailand. Though outnumbered by the British defenders, the Japanese concentrated their forces and utilized combined arms skills learned in earlier campaigns to repeatedly flank and drive back the enemy. Quickly gaining air superiority, they inflicted a demoralizing blow on December 10 when Japanese aircraft sank the British battleships HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales. Utilizing light tanks and bicycles, the Japanese swiftly moved through the peninsula's jungles.
Though reinforced, Lieutenant General Arthur Percival's command was unable to halt the Japanese and on January 31 withdrew from the peninsula to the island of Singapore. Destroying the causeway between the island and Johor, he prepared to repel the anticipated Japanese landings. Considered a bastion of British strength in the Far East, it was anticipated that Singapore could hold or at least offer protracted resistance to the Japanese. To defend Singapore, Percival deployed three brigades of Major General Gordon Bennett's 8th Australian division to hold the western part of the island.
Lieutenant General Sir Lewis Heath's Indian III Corps was assigned to cover the northeastern part of the island while the southern areas were defended by a mixed force of local troops led by Major General Frank K. Simmons (Map). Advancing to Johore, Yamashita established his headquarters at the Sultan of Johore's palace. Though a prominent target, he correctly anticipated that the British would not attack it for fear of angering the sultan. Utilizing aerial reconnaissance and intelligence gathered from agents that infiltrated the island, he began to form a clear picture of Percival's defensive positions.
DAY 2
On February 3, Japanese artillery began hammering targets on Singapore and air attacks against the garrison intensified. British guns, including the city's heavy coastal guns, responded but in the latter case their armor-piercing rounds proved largely ineffective. On February 8, the first Japanese landings began on Singapore's northwest coast. Elements of the Japanese 5th and 18th Divisions came ashore at Sarimbun Beach and met fierce resistance from Australian troops. By midnight, they had overwhelmed the Australians and forced them to retreat.
Believing that future Japanese landings would come in the northeast, Percival elected not to reinforce the battered Australians. Widening the battle, Yamashita conducted landings in the southwest on February 9. Encountering the 44th Indian Brigade, the Japanese were able to drive them back. Retreating east, Bennett formed a defensive line just east of Tengah airfield at Belim. To the north, Brigadier Duncan Maxwell's 27th Australian Brigade inflicted heavy losses on Japanese forces as they attempted to land west of the causeway. Maintaining control of the situation, they held the enemy to a small beachhead.
The Malayan campaign, 8 December 1941 - 31 January 1942.The invasion of Malaya began shortly after midnight on 8 December 1941. Two hours later, No 1 Squadron RAAF, based at Kota Bahru, in north-east Malaya, was airborne. Soon, two of the Hudson bombers were shot down, and Flying Officer John Dowie, the only survivor of the two crews, became the first Australian prisoner of war captured in Malaya. That same morning, an Australian corvette, HMAS Maryborough, patrolling off south-east Malaya, intercepted a Japanese fishing boat, the Fukuyu Maru, the first Japanese vessel captured by an Allied warship. On the west coast of Malaya, No 21 Squadron RAAF at Sungei Patani suffered devastating air raids and by the evening of 8 December both Sungei Patani and Kota Bharu airfields had been evacuated.
On 9 December, No 8 Squadron, which also had gone into action, was evacuated from Kuantan airfield. On 10 December, the destroyer HMAS Vampire became the first Australian ship in action against the Japanese when HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales were sunk off the east coast of Malaya by enemy aircraft. Vampire and the three other escorting destroyers were able to rescue over 2000 survivors from the two British ships.
On the ground, British and Indian troops were also pushed back during December and early January. Some Australian transport and ambulance drivers saw early action alongside Indian troops, but the first major Australian battle was not until 14-15 January 1942. A company of the 2/30th Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Galleghan, mounted an ambush which cut down hundreds of Japanese soldiers riding bicycles through a cutting and over a bridge on the Sungei Gemencheh river. Their plan was to withdraw and let the main battalion group at Gemas fight the main battle. As the ambush party withdrew, they found themselves encircled by Japanese patrols but most managed to get through. The battle for Gemas raged that night and next day and on the afternoon of 15 January the Japanese called in aircraft and tanks and the Australians withdrew.
DAY 4
On 15 January 1942, the 45th Indian Brigade on the west coast, defending the line of the Muar River, was also involved in a battle with the veteran Japanese Imperial Guards Division. Two battalions from the 8th Australian Division were despatched as reinforcements: the 2/29th and the 2/19th Battalions. The Indian brigade was pushed back towards Bakri where, north of the village, the 2/29th and some gunners of the 4th Anti-Tank Regiment provided blocking action. Japanese forces penetrated between the 2/29th and the 2/19th at Bakri. The 2/29th had to fight their way back to Bakri. The Australians held on to enable some Indian troops to also reach them, but they came under heavy ground and air attacks. Nearly all staff at the 45th Indian Brigade's Headquarters were wounded or killed when a bomb hit their headquarters. Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Anderson, Commanding Officer of the 2/19th Battalion, took command of all troops and decided to withdraw towards Parit Sulong. While he waited for a missing Indian unit, the Australians became heavily engaged front and rear, and on 20 January they had to start fighting their way south through Japanese positions. Anderson's men attacked to re-open their escape route, and by the early morning of 22 January they had reached the village of Parit Sulong, but were in a parlous situation. A strong enemy force blocked their escape route, many of the Australian and Indian troops had been killed or wounded, and a British relief force was blocked. Anderson was forced to order his men to escape in small parties through the countryside, first destroying all guns and vehicles, and had to leave the wounded behind. Just 271 members of the 2/19th and 130 of the 2/29th - less than a quarter of the Australians at the start of the battle - escaped. For his valour and leadership, Lieutenant-Colonel Anderson was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for valour.
HMAS Vampire, seen here before the application of wartime camouflage, saw more action during the Malayan campaign than any other warship.[AWM 044791]The 110 wounded Australians and 40 wounded Indians left behind at Parit Sulong were brutally stabbed and incinerated by the Japanese with just one man, badly hurt, surviving to tell the story at war's end.
Over on the west coast, on the night of 26-27 January, the Australian 2/18th Battalion successfully ambushed a Japanese force at Jemaluang, south of Mersing. Under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Varley, supported by two batteries of the 2/10th Field Regiment, the 2/18th sprang their ambush between 2 am and 3 am. Brigade headquarters ordered Varley to withdraw after first light, after they encountered heavier attacks from the enemy. Nevertheless, the Australian action was a stunning success which turned the Japanese force inland, rather than continue pushing south along the west coast. The 2/18th lost 98 troops killed or missing, but Japanese losses were heavier.
Air and naval forces also continued to be heavily engaged. Hudson bombers of Nos 1 and 8 Squadrons RAAF bombed enemy positions, and patrolled out to sea, and Nos 21 and 453 Squadrons RAAF with Buffalo fighters, outclassed by Japanese 'Zero' fighters, fought on. Other Australians flew in British squadrons, some in outdated Vildebeest biplane torpedo-bombers that lost heavily. On 27 January, HMAS Vampire, together with HMS Thanet, took part in an attack on a superior Japanese surface force off Endau on the east coast. The British ship was lost during the battle and HMAS Vampire only narrowly escaped being sunk. Australian corvettes endured many air attacks escorting incoming convoys, one of which included the cruiser HMAS Hobart.
By 30 January 1942, the Japanese XXV Army had advanced to the Strait of Johore at the southern tip of Malaya. The weary British, Australian and Indian troops made their way over the Causeway to Singapore Island and on 1 February, after the last man had crossed, engineers blew up sections of the Causeway to isolate the island.
(Date accessed:27 JAN 2013)
DAY 5
The fall of singapore marked the beggining of a brief but tumultous chapter of singapore's history.Singapore was renamed as'syonan-to' which meant 'the light of the south' or 'the Radiant South'.
After the British surrender, the Japanese military police,kempeitai,were sent to restore order in Singapore.
The British & Commonwealth forces surrendered at Singapore largely because of the swiftness & surprise in the attacks by the Japanese in the Malay Peninsula. Hugely stretched by the potential war in Europe & the actual war against the Axis in North Africa the British lacked the resources to defend the Far East against Japanese aggression. With hindsight it might be argued that surrender was premature, but even then defeat was surely inevitable in the longer term. Had the Japanese attacks not involved the US, brining them into both the Pacific & European conflicts, then Britain & the Commonwealth are under the sort of pressure which may have become intolerable.
The Japanese actually tricked Singapore by lying that a huge troop of Japanese would come and attack Singapore the next day if the British did not surrender. However, the Japanese actually did not have that big troop of army and their supply of necessities were depleting. If the British did not surrender, the losing side might be the Japanese instead.
DAY 6
Soon after taking control of Singapore,the kempeitai carried out sook ching which means"to purge" or "eliminate" was a massive Japanese exercise to ferret the local Chinese community for anti-Japanese elements, conducted by the 25th Army beginning on 18 February 1942 and resulting in the massacre of thousands of local Chinese.
All Chinese men between 18 and 50 years of age were told to report at certain centres such as theYMCA building at Stamford Road and the Central Police Station at South Bridge Road.They were'examined' by the Japanese.At some centres,informers wearing hoods or masks would simply point out certain people as anti-Japanese elements.The lucky ones who are not identified were given a small piece of paper,with the Chinese word'Examined' rubber-stamped on them.They were then allowed to go home.
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DAY 7
When the Japanese military took control of the island, they had plans to deal with the Allied troops and the people in Singapore. The Japanese interned the British, Australians and Allied Europeans in Singapore, including women and children. Allied soldiers were forced to march from the Padang to Selarang Barracks, which was 22 kilometres away. European civilians were marched to katong first before going to Changi Prison.
The Japanese used fear to rule Singapore. The cruelty of the kempeitai kept people in a constant state of anxiety and fear.
At the slightest offence, punishment was swift and severe. Many anti-Japanese suspects were subjected to terrible torture or decapitation at the kempeitai Centre. On Feb 18, 1942, many Chinese were driven from their homes and assembled at five major "registration camps" to be screened. Many were dragged out of their homes at bayonet point. No standard procedure was followed at the centres. In some centres, women and children were released while the men, and even boys, were herded into trucks and driven away, never to be seen again.
Many Chinese became the victims of Japanese atrocities.The Japanese perceived the chinese as a treat to their rule.This was because when Japan invaved China in 1937,they met with strong Chinese resistance,including those from outside of China.Before the outbreak of war,the Chinese community in Singapore led by tycoon Tan Kah Kee,called for a boycott of Japanese goods and contributed funds to the anti-Japanese war effort in China.Some even returned to China to join in the fight against the Japanese.
The Japanese also punished the Chinese by making them contribute money towards Japan's war effort.The Chinese community were forced to collect and pay Japan $50 million.
VIDEO=http://youtu.be/Ptm8cguMjJU
DAY 8
To remove Western influence,the Japanese promoted the Japanese spirit.Every school,government building and Japanese company began with a morning assembly.Those present at such gatherings had to stand facing the direction of Japan and sing the Japanese national anthem.Taisho or mass drills were made compulsory for students,teachers,staff of compaies and government servants.Teachers had to learn Japanese several times a week.The students received their daily Japanese lesons on the school' broadcasting services.
The Japanese also used others ways to influence the minds of the people in Singapore.Radio stations were controlled by the Japanese and the people could only listen to local broadcasts.Those caught tuning in to foreign broadcasting stations were servely punished or killed.In the cinemas,only Japanese movies and propaganda films were shown.
Other than this,the people in Singapore faced severe food shortages during the Japanese Occupation.This was beacause Singapore's entreport trade was disrupted and all available resources were used to support Japan's war efforts in other parts of Asia.
Rationing was introduced to control the sales of essential items like rice,salt and sugar.Each household was issused with a 'Peace Living Certificate' which entitled them to a number of ration cards to purchase essential goods.Once a month,people would line up at the kumiai shop(distribution association)for hours to purchase whatever rations that were available.
DAY 9
After atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945 respectively, the Japanese surrendered shortly after. The British troops returned to Singapore on 5 September 1945.
On 12 September 1945, huge crowds gathered at the Padang and cheered for the return of the British. In the Municipal Building (now City Hall), Japanese military leaders signed the surrender document which was accepted by the Supreme Allied Commander for Southeast Asia, Lord Louis Mountbatten.
DAY10
The British set up a provisional government called the British Military Administration (BMA) which took charge of governing Singapore until 1 April 1946. It faced the difficult task of rebuilding the country and maintaining law and order.However,
The people faced many problems in post-war Singapore such as overcrowded living conditions, poor sanitation, lack of health services and unemployment. However, the more serious problems were the shortage of food and lack of housing.
There were also shortage of water and electricity, and disruption of telephone services. Streets were filthy, unit and unsafe particularly at night. Japanese prisoners-of-war were put to work to restore electricity, gas and other essential services, and repair the water mains.
To solve the food shortage, the British had to clear the harbor first so that ships transporting foodstuffs could enter the port. They removed the shipwrecks and mines that had been laid in the sea by the Japanese. The docks were repaired and new warehouses were constructed to store commodities that were brought into the port.
Next, the British decided to ration the amount of food given to each people. People’ Restaurant were opened to sell food at reasonable prices. Food supplies slowly increased when trade links between Singapore and other countries were-re-established.
The war had destroyed many houses, living thousand homeless. Rents were very high as a result of the shortage of houses. People who could not afford the high rents had to live in small, overcrowded cubicles and squatters. A law on rent control was introduced to stop landlords from raising the house rents and forcing tenants out. The government also constructed some flats to help alleviate the problem of housing shortage. However, these proved unsuccessful in solving the problem.
