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[h=2]Tuesday, October 16, 2007[/h] [h=3]Mr. Lim Bo Seng-World War 2 hero[/h]
Lim Bo Seng
Mr. Lim Bo Seng, wartime hero
English name: Lim Bo Seng; Chinese name: 林谋盛; Han yu pin yin: Lín Móu Shèng; Wife: Gan Choo Neo
Birth
Lim Bo Seng was born in Nan Ann, China on 27 April 1909. He was the first son of a man who had married five times and had eighteen children. He took over his father’s biscuit and brick factory when his father died. Around the time when his father migrated to Singapore and set up the factory, he joined Raffles Institution in Standard Eight. Within three years, his English was proficient enough to matriculate and read Economics at Hong Kong University but he dropped out of university when his father died.
Marriage
In year 1930, he married Gan Choo Neo. Their marriage was unusual as it had been arranged to by the couple’s parents. Choo Neo was a Straits-born Christian Nonya who spoke English and Malay while he was a China-born Taoist Hokkien who spoke English and Chinese. Lim Bo Seng later converted to Christianity. They had seven children.
Love for Children
Although he was stricter with the boys, he loved his children greatly, especially the younger ones. He always wanted a baby in the house. As a testimony to that, he had five out of the seven children were born in a year apart from each other. He was very depressed when his two-year-old daughter died. He would talk about that matter to his wife even years after that incident. Saturday was also the happiest day for the kids. He would take the children to Polar Café at High Street. Then, they would go to Ensign Bookshop. He would read books on literature and history while his kids browsed through story and picture books. Finally, he would take the children to TMA Music Store. He encouraged his children to learn music and would be around to hear them practise as he loved Western semi-classical music.
Planning to escape
On Feb 11 1942 (four days before the fall of Singapore), Mr. Lim Bo Seng fled the country to India. The steamer that was heading towards India that afternoon could only accommodate fifty people and it would be overfilled if he let his family and co-helpers escape to. He did not want to be accused of being selfish. He also thought that being a leader of resistance, he could not only think only of his family. Thus, he escaped alone. Before he escaped on Feb 11 1942, he held each of his children and gave them each a kiss. Then, he went and held his wife and gave her a hug. All of his children burst into tears. Unfortunately, he could not stay but had to go. It was a very painful departure and everyone (including himself) was in tears. Neither he nor his family knew that that would be the very last time they were seeing each other ever again.
Force 136
Mr. Lim Bo Seng was an active contributor of the China Relief Fund. Later on, he became Director of the Labour Service Department in the newly-formed Singapore Chinese Mobilisation Council. That council was well hated by the Japanese. Thus when the Japanese attacked Singapore, Lim Bo Seng felt a need to escape before Singapore fell to the clutches of the Japanese. He managed to reach Sumatra where he then made his way to Colombo and finally to Calcutta in India. That was the place, where he met a British Officer, Basil Goodfellow, who persuaded him to join the British efforts in setting up a joint China-Britain espionage network in Malaya. He went to Nationalist China to recruit Malayan Chinese for that task. Later, that network was known as Force 136. The members were sent to Malaya in batches (by submarine at first). He was there when the agreement was signed. It was about the Malayan Chinese Communist working together to attack the Japanese.
The training in India
After escaping from Singapore to India, he hid in the jungle with the other members of Force 136. He stayed there training agents who would infiltrate the Malayan jungles. Mr. Lim Bo Seng was also the main person-in-charge of the British Network and the operation in the Malayan jungles. They built up a Network in Perak to gather information on the Japanese. Then, they passed on the detailed information to the Allied forces, allowing them to launch the attack to reclaim the Malayan Mainland. They used radio to contact one another.
Allied Base
There was one Chinese shop in Ipoh, Perak, Jian Yik Jan. It was an allied spying base. During that time, members of force 136 smuggled messages in empty tubes of toothpaste, salted fish and even in their own diaries. He passed through checkpoints pretending to be a business man by a name of Tan Choon Lim, so that he would not be identified and caught by the Japanese.
Capture!!!
On March 23, his best friend, Tan Chong Tee advised him to escape due to the circumstances but he refused to go until he had heard from Wu (another member) who had gone to Singapore to look for funds. Three days later, when he knew that Tan Chong Tee was caught by the Japanese, he decided that he had no choice but to escape. Unfortunately, the Japanese had blocked up the entire road immediately after Tan Chong Tee’s capture. Lim Bo Seng was arrested the very next day.
Betrayal!!!
How the Japanese knew about Lim Bo Seng? There must be a betrayer. Although, it was not known who the betrayer was, it was confirmed that it was one of his own men. Many post-war accounts and authors claim that Lai Teck, a triple agent working for the British, Japanese and Force 136, was the betrayer. It was said that he leaked out much valuable information to the Japanese. When the Japanese knew about the spy network in Perak, the Kempetai (Japanese secret police) began a counter-espionage operation in Pangkor. Soon, more than two hundred Japanese soldiers started swarming to that island, causing the network to be destroyed. It was a big blow for the British as this ruined their plans of setting up another network in Malaya. The Japanese were also able to decipher a few coded messages sent among members in Force 136. Thus, many members were caught due to that. The worst thing was that the communication between Force 136 and the remnant of Davis’ network in the jungle was cut off. It was only set up again only at the end of 1945, which was after the war.
Torture
After being caught, he was taken to the Kempetai headquarters for interrogation. There, he was also tortured physically and mentally to try to make him reveal the names of the other leaders and the hideouts of Force 136. As a brave man, he tolerated the pain and kept these secrets to himself. He believed that he would be killed eventually anyway. Even in prison, he put others before himself and protested against the ill-treatment of his comrades in the prison and the prisoners-of-war (POWs). He did that by refusing food. He even asked the warders to distribute his share of sweet potato to his comrades. The Japanese tried to force Lim Bo Seng to cooperate with them but he refused. They even got his friends in Singapore to come over to persuade him but to no avail. Instead, he reminded the comrades to remain firm and not to surrender to the Japanese.
Lim Bo Seng was actually already weak in health, having just gone for a haemorrhoids operation in India before arriving in Malaya. Due to the lack of good food and water, he became bedridden by the end of May 1944. Then, he was sent to a small terraced prison-house a little away from the main prison building. It was called Batu Gajah prison. During the last few days of his life, he was only given porridge. He was so sick that he could not even swallow it. Upon seeing his sufferings, his fellow prisoners cried and begged the Japanese soldiers to give him some medicine but without success. On June 29 1944, Lim Bo Seng finally succumbed to his tortures. He died of dysentery. He was buried behind his prison at an unmarked spot.
After his death
After his death, Mr. Tan was the first person to inform Mr. Lim Bo Seng’s wife about his death. At first, Mrs. Gan Choo Neo was excited to hear news about her husband. She had believed that her husband was alive all the while as a man had said that the war would make him famous and that he would live to know that. She was in utter shock and pain. Later, Mrs. Gan and her eldest son went to collect his body. After that, there was a proper funeral held for him. The Nationalist Government in China accorded to him a posthumous rank of Major-General and a grand funeral procession was held on 13th January 1946. His grave today is situated at MacRitchie Reservoir. On the 10th Anniversary of his death, in 1954, a memorial was unveiled at the Esplanade to commemorate him.
After the death of Lim Bo Seng, many of the Japanese authorities softened their stance a little. The prisoners, for a period of time, were given better food. Simple medical treatment and daily exercises in the prison compound were provided for the prisoners.
When he realised that he was dying, he wrote a letter to his wife. He also left behind a diary. These gestures demonstrated his love for her. It consisted mainly of his training in India and a few of his reflections. Those stated below are what he said to his wife through the farewell letter, “It is very painful for me to put the whole burden on your shoulders, but I am confident you are capable of bearing it and bearing it well.” and “You must not grieve for me. On the other hand you should take pride in my sacrifice and devote yourself to the upbringing of the children.” He also wanted his wife to tell his children about what he did and urged them to follow in his footsteps. He also wrote that it had been his hope to send his children to university, and that it was important that they should divide their time between English and Chinese. Unfortunately, he did not live to see that happen. In the years after the war, his widow devoted herself to carrying out those wishes. Her daughters were educated at Raffles Girls' School and all went on to become trained teachers. Her four sons went to St Andrew's before going to university in Australia, graduating in engineering, medicine, economics and accountancy.
Lim Bo Seng’s diary:” We then took leave of each other. The children were too stupefied to realise what was happening. Each of them kissed me goodbye. I shall never forget their tear-stained faces as long as I live."
After his death, Bo Seng Ave in Singapore was named after him. He was indeed a true HERO, never to be forgotten. I will always remember his deeds.
References
http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/war/headline/bspapa2.html (Website)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lim_Bo_Seng (Website)
http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/war/headline/bspapa4.html (Website)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lim_Bo_Seng's_Downfall (Website)
http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/war/lifeline/bond7.html (Website)
http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/about_us/history/world_war2/v09n06_history.html (Website)
http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/war/headline/bspapa3.html (Website)
Singapore History Come Alive for young Singaporeans; page 60; by Diana Chua Mei Ling (Book)
A PICTURE HISTORY OF Singapore; 3rd Edition; page 38 and 39; by Amy Chua (Book)
Posted by Clement Lim at <a class="timestamp-link" href="http://singapore-history.blogspot.com.au/2007/10/mr-lim-bo-seng-world-war-2-hero.html" rel="bookmark" title="permanent link"><abbr class="published" itemprop="datePublished" title="2007-10-16T02:41:00-07:00">2:41 AM</abbr>
