The Japanese Surrender

At last, the Japanese surrendered. They surrendered because of the atomic bombs the USA dropped on their two cities. On 15 August 1945, the Japanese Emperor announced the end of the war on the people of Japan . Two days later, we heard over the radio that Japan had surrendered. Upon hearing about the Japanese surrender, there is much anxiety and uncertainly among us. I thought that they had done a very good job on protecting the world from threats like this. I felt grateful to the allied forces as they freed our country from the Japanese. But the bad thing is that some people who are not considerate cause chaos in Singapore before the British return. They looted shops, especially those owned by the Japanese, and they take revenge on the informers who had helped the Japanese during the war. The informers are scared and went into hiding. Some managed to escape while others were caught and killed. This sent a shiver down my spine. On 28 August 1945, Allied warplanes dropped leaflets from the air informing the prisoners-of-war in Singapore that the war had finally ended. The POW s were happy to receive news of the end of war. I felt happy that the war is over! I think this would be a good time to live in peace.

This is how the leaflets look like :

I don't really know if this is the real one.

Book : Ministry of Education, Singapore (2007) Interacting with Our World : Singapore Under Foreign
            Rule. Marshall Cavendish Education

Picture : http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4781141288683234&pid=15.1

Dropping of the Atomic Bombs

In the end, the USA decide to use the atomic bomb to end the war quickly. I will say that this is a good idea. I don't know how and why good ideas come out at the end of the show. On 6 August 1945, the USA finally dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Serves them right! They have attacked the wrong parts of the world. The atomic bomb was more powerful than the other bombs used during the war. It destroyed the entire city of Hiroshima. The atomic bomb dropped her is called 'Little Boy'. However, the Japanese did not surrender.So, the USA released a second atomic bomb. It was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. This city was also destroyed. This atomic bomb is called 'Fat Man'. See, what comes around goes around.

This is how little boy looks like :

This is how fat man looks like :

This is how the bombing at Nagasaki looks like :

And this is how Hiroshima looks like after the dropping of the atomic bomb :

This is the map of Japan :

As you can see, Hiroshima and Nagasaki is on the left corner in this picture.

In the end, I think that the USA is very rich and acts too rashly. If I were them, I would have bribed the Japanese. I don't know if it will work but if it works, I will say that they would have wasted a whole lot of money dropping these two atomic bombs.

Book : Ministry of Education, Singapore (2007) Interacting with Our World : Singapore Under Foreign
            Rule. Marshall Cavendish Education

Pictures : http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4506177528922260&pid=15.1
               http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4992488053867665&pid=15.1
              http://ts4.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.5042502925746667&pid=15.1
              http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.5002310637323358&pid=15.1
               http://ts4.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4728880143338795&pid=15.1

Capture of Japanese Islands

The Americans want to end the war. So, they wanted to end it by capturing two Japanese islands in the Pacific Ocean. This will weaken the Japanese. I think this is a good idea as the Japanese will run back to their homeland to recapture the islands again. Then, the American planned to attack from these islands they had captured. On February 1945, the Americans landed on the island, Iwo Jima. They want to use the airfield an Iwo Jima to land and refuel their warplanes. This is a good idea as they would need lesser time to go back and forth in between their bombing on Japan and have more destruction. The next month, they succeeded on capturing the island. The Americans landed on another island, Okinawa. They also want to control the airfields on this island. This happened on the following month. This happened quite fast. I think they did a very good job on capturing these islands. After that, bombs were dropped on Japan almost everyday. As the war continued, Japan suffered great losses. It was not able to produce warplanes, warships and weapons as it did not have much raw material. This is a good sign. This will make Japan's attack on us less devastating as they cannot throw bombs at us from they sky and the sea. It will also mean that the Japanese would surrender sooner or later. Provisions such as rice had to be rationed due to shortages. This again. How unlucky! I don't really like food rationing as I have to wait for my turn to get my food. As one of us said earlier, we have to start queuing at about 3 o'clock in the morning which is very hard to do.

Here is the map of Japan :

You can find Okinawa on the left bottom corner of this picture  and Iwo Jima on the right bottom corner of this picture .

Book : Ministry of Education, Singapore (2007) Interacting with Our World : Singapore Under Foreign
            Rule. Marshall Cavendish Education

Picture : http://sites.asiasociety.org/education/AsianArt/map.japan.gif
 

Japanese Treatment of Other Races

Although the Chinese suffered the most during the Japanese Occupation, the Malays, Indians and the Eurasians were not spared. We were made to bow to Japanese soldiers when they saw them on the streets. If we failed to do so, we would be slapped or punished. Some Malays were arrested on the streets by soldiers and sent to Thailand to build the Burma-Thailand Railway. A large number of us made up of Europeans, Australians, Chinese, Indians and Eurasians were also sent to construct this railway. They worked under harsh conditions. They were made to work long hours and given very little food. This railway in known as the 'Death Railway'. I am not doing this for real but bowing to the Japanese is a must, so, I just pretended. I don't want to get caught you know. The Japanese wanted the Indians to join the Indian National Army to fight against the British. Many of them refused and are sent to prison or killed. Some were also sent to Thailand to build the railway. Phew! I am not an Indian. If I were one of them, I would have already hid somewhere until I die. The Japanese thought that the Eurasians saw themselves as superior to the other Asian races because they were related to the Europeans. Those suspected of helping the British were shot and many were put in prison camps. At least I'm not part of it but I felt sorry for them because they cannot help the British. If I were one of them, I would not arise suspicions and just act that I did not see anything bad happening. I think the Japanese are too much! They keep forcing other people to do this and that. I would just stay in my house so that I need not do much of what they told the rest to do.

Here is what the Death Railway looks like :

I think they did a good job. I think it is called the Death Railway because a lot of people die while building this railway and maybe their bodies were left there. The sentence before this is just an opinion.

Book : Ministry of Education, Singapore (2007) Interacting with Our World : Singapore Under Foreign
            Rule. Marshall Cavendish Education

Picture : http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4545038376699918&pid=15.1

Effects of the Japanese Occupation

One of the most serious problems during the Japanese Occupation was the shortage of food. As a result of the war, it was difficult to get food from other countries. Many of us experienced hungeer. Due to food shortages such as rice, salt and sugar were controlled. Each of us were given a ration card. This was to limit the amount of food each person was able to buy. People could not get any provisions if they did not have ration cards. So, we have to queue for our ration as early as three oçlock in the morning. If we were late, we might not get anything. There was very little food, so we lived on a simple diet. Many of us grew their own food such as sweet potatoes and tapioca because it ws easy to grow them. Even in schools, we have to grow vegetables. We ate tapioca and sweet potatoes instead of rice. Many of us suffered from malnutrition, a condition caused by not eating enough food or not eatin on a blance diet, and diseases. There is also a shortage of medicine and this worsened our health. While some of us received treatmeant in hospitals, many of the other died. Due to scarcity of food, the prices of things went up evry high. Many of us could not afford to buy food.
These were the items that were sold :
Item                         Dec 1942 ($)    Dec1944 ($)
About 600g of rice          0.50                  8.20
An egg                            0.10                  1.25
About 600g of sugar        0.85                   18

If I were those people who are rich, I would never even dare to buy anything else other than the food products mention above. I would not even buy textbooks and stationery for school to save for the amount of foodstuffs that we would need in the future.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Book : Ministry of Education, Singapore (2007) Interacting with Our World : Singapore Under Foreign
            Rule. Marshall Cavendish Education

Japanese Control Over the People

After the surrender, the Japanese tried to make us more Japanese in the way we speak, think and behave. They fell that this will make you more loyal to Japan. So, they got us to learn Japanese. They set up schools to teach the language and printed textbooks in Japanese. every morning  we have to stand facing Japan and sing the Japanese national anthem. In cinemas, only Japanese movies were shown. If I were one of those people who watched the movies, I would think that the Japanese are trying to make us follow them and leave  before the story ends. Well, learning Japanese is a bit hard as we need to memorize the meaning. If we spout nonsense without knowing what we're saying, we might get caught. It's better to keep quiet.
This is what I learnt :
PRONUNCIATION NOTE- Desu pronounced dehs ; gozaimasu is goh-zai-mahs ; for shita, i is almost inaudible (sh'ta), do will be pronoucned as though, dare is dah-reh & takusan is tahksahn.
Words :

1. Come in                      = O hairi nasai
2. Not yet                       = Mada nesu
3. I believe so                 = So omoi masu
4. Who said so?              = Dare ga so iimashita ka?
5. It is true                      = Honto desu
6. It may be so                = So de sho
7. How much is this         = Ikura desu ka?
8. I don't want any           = Mo takusan
9. It is excellent                = Kekko desu
10. Isn't it finished yet?       = Mada owari masen ka?
11. Certainly, with pleasure = Kashikomari mashita (very polite)
12. Yes                              = Hai or So desu
13. No                               = Liye

So, in fact, it is hard to learn something new.
             
Book : Ministry of Education, Singapore (2007) Interacting with Our World : Singapore Under Foreign
            Rule. Marshall Cavendish Education

British Surrender

Today, the Japanese had captured the northern and central parts of Singapore. They had also captured the reservoirs and airfields in Singapore. The British held only a small area of the city in the south of Singapore. Most areas of the city had no water and food. The British had little petrol and few bullets left. The soldiers defending Singapore were tired. They felt that more soldiers and civilians would be killed if they continue to fight. At a meeting, Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival and his commaders agreed to surrender. So, he arrived with a few British soldiers at the Ford Motor Factory in Bukit Timah. This is where the Japanese set up their headquarters in Singapore. The Japanese Commander, Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki Yamashita wanted to show that the Japanese were powerful. So, he invited Japanese reporters to witness the surrender. They also take photographs and videos of the surrender which will be shown all over the world. Percival shook hands with Yamashita across a conference table. The British soldiers sat at the opposite the Japanese soldiers.
The discussion went like this :
Yamashita : Do you wish to surrender unconditionally?
Percival     : Yes...We do.
Yamashita : Do you have any Japanese prisoners-of-war?
Percival     : None at all.
Yamashita : Very well. Will you sign this document of surrender?
Yamashita hands over a document.
Percival     : Would you wait until tommorrow morning?
He made an angry face.
Yamashita : YES or NO?
Yamashita folds his arms.
Yamashita : All I want to know is, do you surrender unconditianlly or not?
-END-
So, after knowing this I felt sad because I know that we will have to follow what the Japanese say and if they don't know how to speak English, we will have to learn their language so as to understand wha they are saying.

Book : Ministry of Education, Singapore (2007) Interacting with Our World : Singapore Under Foreign
            Rule. Marshall Cavendish Education

Bombing of Pearl Habour

The United States of America had a naval base at Pearl Harbor  Pearl Harbor is located in Hawaii which is a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, between Japan and America. From there, American warships could be sent to stop Japan from attacking countries in Southeast Asia, To make sure that this did not happen, Japan bombed the naval base at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. A few battleships were hit and they sank within minutes. Within two hours, bout 2,000 Americans lost their lives as they were taken by surprise and were not able to defend themselves. So, They were angry with the Japanese and declared war on Japan and Joined the Allied Forces the next day. So, from this event, I felt that I'm still not ready and could be attacked by surprise by the Japanese like this event. Because of that, I felt very unsure if I would survive the war.

This is how Pearl Harbor looks like when it is being bombed :

Book : Ministry of Education, Singapore (2007) Interacting with Our World : Singapore Under Foreign
            Rule. Singapore.Marshall Cavendish Education

Picture : http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4688112328706136&pid=15.1

The Battle of Opium Hill

One of the greatest battles are that is being fought is the Battle of Opium Hill. It was also one of the fiercest battles that took place in Singapore in World War Two. It pitted the invading Japanese Army against a brave but heavily out numbered troop of the first Malay Brigade of the Malay Regiment. The battle was also remembered for the heroism of lieutenant Adnan Saidi, the leader of the brigade, who together fought with his men fought the Japanese. In the end, Lieutenant Adnan was captured and being tortured to death. I wasn't there at that time but if I were there, I would have panicked and ran away. Knowing this made me fear the Japanese because they could kill a very good person.

Website : http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_457_2005-01-04.html (15 Feb 2103)

Operation Clean Up (Sook Ching Operation)

During the Sino-Japanese War,  the local Chinese community in Singapore had been active in providing support to their homeland including boycotting purchase of Japanese goods. With the invasion of Singapore after a few years from the war, many Chinese activists joined the underground anti-Japanese movement. To aggravate matters, most of the officers of the 25th Army that invaded Singapore were veterans of the war. With the 25th Army weakened by the Malayan campaign, General Yamashita ordered on 18 February 1942 for notices to be posted, recalling Chinese men between the ages of 18 to 50 to congregate at concentration centres. Singapore was divided into four sections under the charge of the various divisions of the 25th Army who then garrisoned the Chinese population. Official figures record up to 6,000 victims but unofficial figures range between 25,000 to 50,000. So, I felt that I should have done something like hide my chinese friends by telling the Japanese that they were Malay, but that would be a risk. I also don't feel safe at home as they would look for the chinese men from door to door. After they found the chinese men, they would take them to one of these places. 
They are :

• Punggol Beach
• Changi Beach
• Changi Road
• Hougang
• Katong
• Beach opposite 27 Amber Road
• Tanah Merah Beach
• Thomson Road
• East Coast Road
• Siglap Area
• Blakang Mati Beach

Website : http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_40_2005-01-24.html (15 Feb 2013)