Singapore's Hidden History (2)

[Harry Lee]

Japs charging at Bukit Timah.


Battle of Bukit Timah- Feb 1942

The Japanese 5th Division, supported by tanks, advanced down Choa Chu Kang Road. Indian and British troops blocked the road and opened fire with an anti-tank gun, destroying the first Japanese tank, the first of a force of 50 tanks.

There followed some hand-to-hand combat, as well as bayonet charges from both sides. In this stage of battle, Dalforce, an irregular force made up of ethnic Chinese men from Singapore, took heavy losses. The poorly trained and equipped members of Dalforce were armed only with parangs, grenades, rifles and shotguns. By midnight, the Japanese had overwhelmed the defenders and captured Bukit Timah.

The British launched a counterattack the following morning with two brigades. But by midday, faced with strong Japanese resistance, the counterattack failed.

The next day, the Japanese Imperial Guards advanced from the north, outflanking the defenders. In the ensuing battle the Japanese suffered some of their heaviest casualties in the campaign to occupy Singapore. In revenge, they massacred Chinese men, women and children living in a nearby village......

-----------------------------------

Japs marching in front of GPO - now fullerton hotel

The column reaches Victoria Memorial Hall -

the place today....

 

[Harry Lee]

Guns of February shows the Fall of Singapore and Japan's 1941 military campaign in Malaya through the eyes of Japanese soldiers who took part, based on interviews, memoirs, war diaries, and other Japanese-language sources.

Although an enormous number of books have been published on Japan's wartime advance into Southeast Asia, few books in English make much use of Japanese sources, and they reveal little of what happened on the Japanese side. In the words of the author, the Japanese "'advance by brigade groups', 'outflank the defence', 'sustain many casualties', and remain altogether a largely faceless mass bicycling their way down to Singapore."

In Guns of February some of the voices of these soldiers are finally heard, and they tell a fascinating story. A few of them were professional soldiers who served their country with commitment and dedication, but many were conscripts hoping to stay alive, curious and apprehensive about the countries they entered, and moved by the plight of the people whose cities and towns they sometimes destroyed. Many were young men, interested in girls and in the sights and sounds of Southeast Asia, but also missing their families and the familiar world of Japan. It is a picture far removed from the staple view of the remorseless and fanatic Japanese soldier totally devoted to his Emperor and determined to die for his country.

In writing this account of the Japanese advance on Singapore, the author attempted to show the universal humanity of the actors concerned.

Henry Frei was Swiss by birth, and was a scholar of Japanese with a particular interest in Japan's wartime advance to the south. He taught for many years at Tsukuba University in Japan before his death in 2002.

Slightly more readable account of the Malayan invasion from the Jap perspective, compared to Tsuji's "Singapore 1941-42", offering the view from the trenches as opposed to the big picture strategic overview in the latter. Organisation of the book leaves something to be desired towards the last couple of chapters, where it became a confused mess of seemingly random narratives of the fighting in Singapore, which was also the main focus of the book. By contrast the blitzkrieg charge down Malaya was only cursorily dealt with.

Singapore: The Japanese Version by Masanobu Tsuji (1961)

 

[Bigfuck]

Mountainshita of the bullshitdo army was only good in bluffing for if the cowardly British stayed the army from the land of the setting sun would have been vanquished as they were greatly outnumbered. The fact that so few challenged the Japs but achieved such results showed how really lousy they were. The cowardly behavior of the setting sun land continues today and they can only exist on this planet by treating others like aliens and consider themselves masters as aliens to other slave races requiring freedom. Their only feared species are white, especially USA. They were and are still losers to the Russians

 

[Harry Lee]

The INA

Indian soldiers captured by the Japs were encouraged to join the Indian National Army to fight for independence of India. Thousands signed up. Those who remained loyal to the British were executed.

(Our ex-president was very impressed by the INA......)



Execution of loyal Indian soldiers who refused to join the INA

Getting ready for execution.....

Target were placed over the heart of the victim. Marker on ground to keep score on accuracy of shooter....

Making sure all are dead.....

Singapore has a monument for the INA traitors, but none for those who stood loyal to the nation. Why?

Monument to the Indians who joined the Japs in the INA

Why did we forget those who died fighting the Japs? There is also no Monument for Dalforce, a group of Chinese volunteers who fought at Lim Chu Kang and Bukit Timah....

National Heritage Board sleeping ah?

 

[Kinana]

Singapore has a monument for the INA traitors, but none for those who stood loyal to the nation. Why?

There is a big monument for those who died during WW2

 

[laksaboy]

Mountainshita of the bullshitdo army was only good in bluffing for if the cowardly British stayed the army from the land of the setting sun would have been vanquished as they were greatly outnumbered. The fact that so few challenged the Japs but achieved such results showed how really lousy they were. The cowardly behavior of the setting sun land continues today and they can only exist on this planet by treating others like aliens and consider themselves masters as aliens to other slave races requiring freedom. Their only feared species are white, especially USA. They were and are still losers to the Russians

兵不厌诈

Deceiving your enemies is an integral part of warfare.

Zhuge Liang did it with an empty fort, and was praised.
Yet when the Japanese used a similar tactic, they are demonized.

It's the same with chess and card games. If you're successful in bluffing your opponent even when you're at a disadvantage, you win.

 

[Kinana]

Yamashita was an absolutely brilliant general.

 

[soIsee]

Yamashita was an absolutely brilliant general.

If he was brillant he would not have ended up shamed, lead by a leach and hanged like a dog!

If you idolised him maybe you deserved the same too!

 

[babuSingh]

Those japs really pa buay si.... Reminds me of iwo jima film worth your time watching it

 

[sleaguepunter]

兵不厌诈

Deceiving your enemies is an integral part of warfare.

Zhuge Liang did it with an empty fort, and was praised.
Yet when the Japanese used a similar tactic, they are demonized.

sorry, zhuge liang never use empty fort tactic, the real deal was cao cao when he face encirclement by lu bu and his own troops were away harvesting gain. zhuge liang story was as BS as increase gst to help the poor by pinkie.

 

[Sideswipe]

Yamashita was an absolutely brilliant general.

General Yamashita perceived his command of the Malaya-Singapore campaign as a demotion. he would have preferred to stay and fight in China. think he was already sidelined by Tokyo prior to the campaign.


think the Japanese forces that conquered Malaya-Singapore were mostly assembled from the new units ( no combat experiences ) of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria and the free units ( can be redeployed ) in the China theater of war. they didn't bring adequate military equipments and supplies for the campaign too. the Japs really risked it and took their chances well against the useless/uncommitted British troops defending the region.

Japan best fighting military divisions stayed and fought only in China throughout WW2.

 

[Leongsam]

Guess who helped translate for them. No Google in those days.

 

[cowbellc]

Yamashita was an absolutely brilliant general.

I'm more interested in Yamashita's gold.

 

[Sideswipe]

"it was the best option at that time, ( working as an interpreter aka hanjian during WW2 )." not i say one, lee wrote this line in his memoirs.

btw what was he translating anyway? he knew no Chinese dialects in the 1940s. the Japanese have their own English translators. was he really an interpreter?

 

[Bigfuck]

General Yamashita perceived his command of the Malaya-Singapore campaign as a demotion. he would have preferred to stay and fight in China. think he was already sidelined by Tokyo prior to the campaign.


think the Japanese forces that conquered Malaya-Singapore were mostly assembled from the new units ( no combat experiences ) of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria and the free units ( can be redeployed ) in the China theater of war. they didn't bring adequate military equipments and supplies for the campaign too. the Japs really risked it and took their chances well against the useless/uncommitted British troops defending the region.

Japan best fighting military divisions stayed and fought only in China throughout WW2.

BTW for Russo-Jap war, they won by fluke. If it were an open canon exchange, 1905 would have been different for Japan. If no Cold War, USA would have left Japs in the stone age, and most of you here would not bother to look at a Jap girl.

 

[kingrant]

It showed resourcefulness of a future leader of men. Till today, many hoped to emulate him in how he sold his soul to save his neck.

Guess who helped translate for them. No Google in those days.

 

[Narong Wongwan]

btw what was he translating anyway? he knew no Chinese dialects in the 1940s. the Japanese have their own English translators. was he really an interpreter?

This is food for thought

 

[sleaguepunter]

think the Japanese forces that conquered Malaya-Singapore were mostly assembled from the new units ( no combat experiences ) of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria and the free units ( can be redeployed ) in the China theater of war. they didn't bring adequate military equipments and supplies for the campaign too. the Japs really risked it and took their chances well against the useless/uncommitted British troops defending the region.

i tot that an elite guard division to form the spine of yamashita's corp?

 

[greedy and cunning]

It showed resourcefulness of a future leader of men. Till today, many hoped to emulate him in how he sold his soul to save his neck.

emulate him ah ?

you mean a pack of hyenas trying to imitate as a jackal ?

 

[Kinana]

General Yamashita perceived his command of the Malaya-Singapore campaign as a demotion. he would have preferred to stay and fight in China. think he was already sidelined by Tokyo prior to the campaign.


think the Japanese forces that conquered Malaya-Singapore were mostly assembled from the new units ( no combat experiences ) of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria and the free units ( can be redeployed ) in the China theater of war. they didn't bring adequate military equipments and supplies for the campaign too. the Japs really risked it and took their chances well against the useless/uncommitted British troops defending the region.

Japan best fighting military divisions stayed and fought only in China throughout WW2.

He fought an exceptionally brilliant campaign given what he had.