Sook Ching - A Japanese Study of Singapore War Atrocities

Civilian War Memorial in War Memorial Park
Singapore

Quite by chance I came across an interesting article by Hayashi Hirofumi, professor of politics at Kanto-Gakuin University and the Co-Director of the Center for Research and Documentation on Japan’s War Responsibility.

The appalling atrocities committed by the occupying Japanese forces on the citizens of Singapore, goes a long way in explaining why the older Chinese in Singapore do not trust, nor wish to have any contact with, the Japanese.

My interest in this relates to a request for information from the late Dr. Alan Hayton who was the father of my closest high school friend.  He studied medicine in Dunedin with a Dr Ross and the latter was subsequently posted or went to work in Singapore.

Dr Ross has two claims to fame.  The first was that he bravely rescued a person from drowning in the waters off Singapore. This was apparently featured in the Singapore papers of the time.

His second moment in history was a much sadder occurrence.  He was one of the medical staff massacred by the Japanese while staying with his patients in Alexandra Hospital.  Dr Hayton asked me if I could find out any details of this event but alas I could not at the time of my residence in Singapore.

While the oppression of Europeans has been well recorded, the details of Sook Ching, the pre-planned slaughter of local Chinese men by the Japanese, is a little more sketchy.  Professor Hayashi Hirofumi is certainly no apologist for the war crimes perpetrated again the Singaporean Chinese, but he does draw upon Japanese sources to broaden the picture of what actually transpired.

His article is well worth reading and slams the Japanese Government for their history of denial and quite deliberately excluding any reference to Sook Ching in Japanese student texts.

It has also just been announced that China will officially recognise December 13 as a memorial day for those who were massacred in Nanjing by the Japanese invaders.

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I Wanna Eat Economy Rice

Let me take you on a little and typical domestic journey in Singapore.

Each non working day we dine locally which to all intents and purposes means the Economy Rice stall (pictured), opposite the Queenstown MRT.

We exit from the rear gate of Queens condo past the ever slumbering security guard (so I use their title advisedly).  The standard of security personnel seems to have dramatically declined in the thee plus years we have been here.

Then there are two choices; wait for the "green man" and cross over Commonwealth Avenue or hug the shade on our side of the road and go past the Methodist Church, crossing over the dual road via the MRT overbridge.

Today we took the latter.  The sounds of the Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" was booming out of a small set of speakers above the Queens Bubble Tea shop.  It was a somewhat incongruous juxstaposition of sensory delights.

Bubble Tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980's according to some sources.  The introduction of  tapioca pearls into a cold tea product was all that it took to start an Asia-wide fad.

Past the new lift access for the elderly and disabled which had been a work in progress for months and never seems to get completed and then it is downward on the concrete steps, noting that this earlier version MRT station only has an ascending escalator and never a descending one.

On the right is a view of a building that seems to be morphing into some sort of education establishment but it is decorated in a perfectly hideous combination of colours.

On the left is the queue of walking wounded and the infirmed waiting for the free shuttle bus to Alexandra Hospital.

We pass the first food court and head for the second where the Economy Rice is of better quality and more generous in their helpings.

Shooing of the Mynahs and ever vigilant sparrows we select a couple of plastic stools placed under a slow beating fan.  The air is oppressive as the rains have still to come.

Dogs are know to mark their territories and there is a similar custom when reserving a table in a Singaporean food court.  Not that one cocks a leg; an umbrella or packet of tissues left in full view will suffice.

A plentiful dollop of rice and a 'meat and two veg" are to be had for a mere $2.80.  Replete, we retrace our footsteps stopping off for dessert at the Walls ice-cream cart.  A thick slice of Macadamia ice-cream between wafers (or two slices of bread which is a local custom) costs a further dollar.

I note that the Beatles CD is still playing up in the MRT interrupted only by the canned announcement for the station staff to "please mind the platform gap".

I am old enough to remember the original version of this song when it came out in 1962 (below).  What better way to finish a walk in the noon day sun.