My dad, told me that even the Japs are cruel in the beginning but after they settled in, they were very fair to the locals as they punished the locals and their own soldiers the same way when anyone committed an offence like stealing or robberies.
During the Jap. occupation, my dad told me they did not even need to close their doors to sleep as there wer no robberies and thieves. It was very peaceful.
They were allowed to open all sorts of businesses expect arms, drugs and robbery.........the rest like strip clubs, gambling, were OK.
Also the Japs never tried to change the local culture....the Chinese still spoke their dielects (now Singapore PAP do away with dialects) and they thought the locals lots of things like: making things out of rubber, plant food to survive, first-aid etc.
They are quite fair at giving food ration to those who worked for them as volunteer fire fighters, guards etc.
My dad was a trainee dentist under a Jap before he returned to Japan and then came back to Singapore as one of the high ranking army officer to occupy it. He put up notice in the Chinese newspaper many times to seek for my dad. When my dad responded to his newpaper notice, he was shocked to see his former Jap boss was such a big gun.
Then he persuaded my dad to work for him to service the Jap soldiers who had lots of dental problem because of the hot weather in Singapore compare to Japan. The military dental clinic also treated local civilians.
His Jap boss was so good to him that when my dad married my mother, the boss provided his own army vehicle together with a Jap army driver to drive them.
Also, his boss told him that when the foot soldiers first entered a country they were made up by lots of conscripts from Korea and Taiwan and they lack the discipline of the Japs. Thus lots of lottings and rapes were also committed by the former and it was very hard to stop them as they took it as part of their reward.
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