Sook Ching
Sook Ching was a mass killing that occurred from 18 February to 4 March 1942 in Singapore after it fell to the Japanese. It was a systematic purge and massacre of 'anti-Japanese' elements in Singapore, with the Singaporean Chinese particularly targeted by the Japanese military during the occupation. However, Japanese soldiers engaged in indiscriminate killing and did not try to identify who was 'anti-Japanese.' Singapore was a crucial strategic point in World War II. From 8 February to 15 February, the Japanese fought for control of the city. The combined British and Commonwealth forces surrendered in a stunning defeat to the outnumbered Japanese on 15 February which led to its fall. The loss of Singapore was and still is Britain's largest surrender in history.
Three days later after the fall, on 18 February, the occupying Japanese military began mass killings of a wide range of "undesirables", who were mostly ethnic Chinese, influenced by the events of the Second Sino-Japanese War that was raging simultaneously as far back as 1937. The operation was overseen by the Imperial Japanese Army's Kempeitai, its secret police. Along with Singapore, the Sook Ching was subsequently also extended to include the Chinese population in Malaya, which was also under occupation by the Japanese. Concurrently, non-Chinese individuals were also not completely spared in other parts of Asia under Japanese occupation. The Japanese also brutally subjugated civilians in Burma and Thailand, with estimates of up to 90,000 additional deaths. Many of these victims were also forced to work on the Siam–Burma Railway, infamously known as the Death Railway.
The aim for such a purge was to intimidate the Chinese community, which was considered by the Japanese to be potentially the main centre of resistance to Japanese aims of territorial expansion throughout the Asia-Pacific. The Japanese had also thought of it as a "revenge" for their perceived anti-Japanese activity in the Sinophone regions, such as procuring financial aid for China after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and during the Second Sino-Japanese War. As a consequence, Sook Ching was aimed primarily at Chinese political and social activists, volunteers fighting on the side of the Allies, as well as representatives of Chinese triads. In practice, however, the arrests and executions were carried out by the Japanese in a completely arbitrary manner, with many civilians randomly killed in summary executions even if they took no part in any organised resistance.
After the war, the Japanese authorities acknowledged that the massacre took place, but disagreed about the number of deaths that Japan had caused. Japan alleged that no more "than 6,000 deaths" had occurred, while Singapore's first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, who was himself almost a victim to Sook Ching, stated that verifiable numbers would put it at "about 70,000", including the figures in Malaya. When mass graves were discovered in 1962, Singaporeans heavily lobbied for their government to demand compensation as well as an official apology from the Japanese government. On 25 October 1966, the Japanese government ultimately agreed to reimburse S$50 million in reparations, half of which constituting as a grant and the rest as a loan. However, the wording used for this reimbursement was classified as a "gesture of atonement", with words such as "damages" or "reparations" being avoided by the Japanese. Furthermore, the Japanese government continued to refuse to accept legal responsibility for the massacre, which would include carrying out an official investigation or inquiry of the deaths. No official apology was made.
Remains of Sook Ching victims would subsequently continue to be unearthed by Singaporeans for decades after the massacre. In 1963, the Civilian War Memorial was constructed in memory of the civilians killed during the occupation, including Sook Ching. Remains belonging to some of the victims were also placed in a tomb under the memorial. In 1992, the various Sook Ching massacre sites around the country such as Changi Beach, Katong, Punggol Point, Tanah Merah and Sentosa were designated with historic plaque markers as heritage sites by the Singaporean government's National Heritage Board, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the occupation.
Etymology
Japan
The Japanese referred to the Sook Ching as the Kakyō Shukusei or as the Shingapōru Daikenshō. The current Japanese term for the massacre is Shingapōru Kakyō Gyakusatsu Jiken.Singapore
Singapore's National Heritage Board uses the term Sook Ching in its publications. In Chinese languages, the term means, among other things, "eradication" or "purge".Planning of the massacre
According to postwar testimony taken from a war correspondent embedded with the 25th army, Colonel Hishakari Takafumi, an order to kill 50,000 Chinese, 20 percent of the total, was issued by senior officials on Yamashita's operations staff, either from Lieutenant Colonel Tsuji Masanobu, Chief of Planning and Operations, or Major Hayashi Tadahiko, Chief of Staff.Hirofumi Hayashi, a professor of politics at a university and the co-director of the Center for Research and Documentation on Japan's War Responsibility, writes that the massacre was premeditated, and that "the Chinese in Singapore were regarded as anti-Japanese even before the Japanese military landed". It is also clear from the passage below that the massacre was to be extended to the Chinese in Malaya as well.
Purge
Screening
After the fall of Singapore, Masayuki Oishi, commander of No. 2 Field Kenpeitai, set up his headquarters in the YMCA Building at Stamford Road as the Kenpeitai East District Branch. The Kenpeitai prison was in Outram with branches in Stamford Road, Chinatown and the Central Police Station. A residence at the intersection of Smith Street and New Bridge Road formed the Kenpeitai West District Branch.Under Oishi's command were 200 regular Kenpeitai officers and another 1000 auxiliaries, who were mostly young and rough peasant soldiers. Singapore was divided into sectors with each sector under the control of an officer. The Japanese set up designated "screening centres" all over Singapore to gather and "screen" Chinese males between the ages of 18 and 50. Those who were thought to be "anti-Japanese" would be eliminated. Sometimes, women and children were also sent for inspection as well.
According to Kevin Blackburn, associate professor at Nanyang Technological University:
The following passage is from an article from the National Heritage Board:
According to the A Country Study: Singapore published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress:
The ones who passed the "screening" received a piece of paper bearing the word "examined" or have a square ink mark stamped on their arms or shirts. Those who failed were stamped with triangular marks instead. They were separated from the others and packed into trucks near the centres and sent to the killing sites.
Execution
There were several sites for the killings, the most notable ones being Changi Beach, Punggol Point and Sentosa.| Massacre sites | Description |
| Punggol Point | The Punggol Point Massacre saw about 300 to 400 Chinese shot on 28 February 1942 by the Hojo Kempei firing squad. The victims were some of the 1,000 Chinese men detained by the Japanese after a door-to-door search along Upper Serangoon Road. Several of these had tattoos, a sign that they might be triad members. |
| Changi Beach/Changi Spit Beach | On 20 February 1942, 66 Chinese males were lined up along the edge of the sea and shot by the military police. The beach was the first of the killing sites of the Sook Ching. Victims were from the Bukit Timah/Stevens Road area. |
| Changi Road 8-mile section | Massacre site found at a plantation area contained remains of 250 victims from the vicinity. |
| Hougang 8 ms | Six lorry loads of people were reported to have been massacred here. |
| Katong 7 ms | 20 trenches for burying the bodies of victims were dug here. |
| Beach opposite 27 Amber Road | Two lorry loads of people were said to have been massacred here. The site later became a car park. |
| Tanah Merah Beach/Tanah Merah Besar Beach | 242 victims from Jalan Besar were massacred here. The site later became part of the Changi airport runway. |
| Sime Road off Thomson Road | Massacre sites found near a golf course and villages in the vicinity. |
| Katong, East Coast Road | 732 victims from Telok Kurau School |
| Siglap area | Massacre site near Bedok South Avenue/Bedok South Road |
| Belakang Mati Beach, off the Sentosa Golf Course | Surrendered British gunners awaiting Japanese internment buried some 300 bullet-ridden corpses washed up on the shore of Sentosa. They were civilians who were transported from the docks at Tanjong Pagar to be killed at sea nearby. |
In a quarterly newsletter, the National Heritage Board published the account of the life story of a survivor named Chia Chew Soo, whose father, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters were bayoneted one by one by Japanese soldiers in Simpang Village.