The Chinese Community in Singapore During the Japanese Occupation

This chapter relives the uncertainties, the depravation, the suffering and humiliation experienced by our parents and grandparents during the Japanese Occupation.

It first traces the Chinese antipathy towards the Japanese that originated from China’s defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, and the central role played by Singapore Chinese leaders in the Southeast Asia-wide China relief fund-raising movement to aid China in the Second Sino-Japanese War after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937. The consequence was that many innocent lives were lost during the mopping-up operations organised by the Japanese military police to get rid of anti-Japanese elements in Japanese-occupied Singapore now called Syonan. One of the demands made on the Chinese communities in Syonan and Malaya was the Japanese military’s demand for a “contribution” of $50 million towards Japan’s war efforts.