The occupation of Singapore by the Japanese was like a long nightmare that lasted for three and a half years. The various ethnic groups of Singapore were treated differently during 3 years of Japanese ruling. Following the defeat of the "Impregnable Fortress", the Japanese military administration in Tokyo convinced with Japanese military to use highly brutal clean-up operations against the Chinese. The Indians, on the other-hand, were either given much leeway and treated with kindness or experienced a similar fate like the Chinese. This essay will examine how the Indians were torn between two choices; for or against the Japanese military.
After the fall of Singapore on 15th February 1942, the Japanese military wanted to show that the Chinese were its only enemy but spared the other ethnic groups. The 'Sook Ching' operations (brutal operation of the Chinese) were one way of showing that the Chinese were its only enemy and that the other ethnic groups were its friends. With the existing anti-British sentiments already present in Singapore before the occupation, the Japanese saw a golden opportunity to forge a viable cooperation with the Indian POWs because they intended to exploit Indian anti-British sentiments to sabotage British army. In fact, they openly courted the Indian community with broadcast messages telling them the Japanese had come to liberate.
The primary objective was to make use of the Indian POWs in Singapore by harnessing their patriotism to India. At that the time, the Indians in Singapore were eager to join the anti-British, pro-Japanese Indian National Army. It was hoped that they would fight along with the Japanese military in its attacks against New Delhi for the independence of India.
Early in May 1943, the Japanese in Singapore formed "Indian Working Parties" from Indian soldiers who had resisted Japanese appeals to join the INA. The largest group of Indian prisoners assembled in South-East Asia after Singapore appears to have been the 5,000 sent to Rabaul in New Britain. Their experience awaits a more detailed investigation. The second largest group of Indian prisoners of war was sent to Wewak, in north-western Australian New Guinea, the destination of about 3,000 men.
The formation of the INA (Indian National Army) was mooted by an Indian POW, Captain Mohan Singh, in 1942 with the aim of mobilizing Indians in Singapore to support India's independence struggle. Captain Mohan Singh was appointed as the Supreme Commander of the Indian contingents by the Japanese; he spoke to the Indian POWs, expressing his intention of raising an Indian National Army out of them to fight for India's freedom.
The agreed condition was that "military action against the British in India will be taken only by the INA and under Indian command, together with such military, naval and air cooperation and assistance as may be requested from the Japanese by the "Council of Action". After the liberation of India, the framing of the future constitution of India will be left entirely to the representatives of the people of India. Despite supporting the Japanese, it is clear that the Indians' loyalty belongs to India and India's liberation from British rule. However, Captain Mohan Singh later fell out with senior Japanese intelligence officers as he did not want the Japanese military to fully control the Indian National Army. Captain Mohan Singh was treated roughly by the Japanese military and stripped of his military powers and put under house arrest. The relationship between the Japanese military and the militant Indian National Army turned sour. The situation had turned risky. Luckily for the Japanese, Subhas Chandra Bose, another leader of the Indian National Army, returned secretly from Germany to Singapore and took over the handling of this highly sensitive matter. No one could imagine what might have happened should the situation deteriorate further as there were more than 20,000 members of the fully armed Indian National Army in the Malay Peninsula.
The Indian POWs, who eventually joined the INA, kept a wary eye on the Japanese Military. Despite the military's efforts to gain more of the Indian population's support, they had instilled more fear in their hearts. The brutalities shown against the Chinese sowed seeds of doubt in their hearts, many questioned if this was the benevolent governance of the Imperial Army which they promised. I will now discuss the other group of South Asian POWs in Singapore, those who were anti-japanese. Indian troops captured in Singapore were immediately separated from their European officers and exposed in INA propaganda.
There was a group of Indian soldiers who fought alongside with the British troops and held anti-Japanese sentiments from the start. After British surrendered, the Indian soldiers and many civillans were exposed to INA propaganda; those who refused to join INA, perhaps a quarter of the total, were detained within Singapore and treated as harshly as any other prisoners of the Japanese. For the first few months, the POWs were allowed to do as they wished with little interference from the Japanese. The mood of the Japanese changed for the worst when a POW tried to escape. The attempt was a failure and the Japanese demanded that everyone in the camp sign a document declaring that they would not attempt to escape. This was refused. As a result, 20,000 POW's were herded onto a barrack square and told that they would remain there until the order was given to sign the document. When this did not get the desired result, a group of POWs was marched to the local beach and shot. Despite this, no-one signed the document. Only when the men were threatened by an epidemic, was the order given that the document should be signed. However, the commanding officer made it clear that the document was non-binding as it had been signed under duress. He also knew that his desperately needed the medicine that the Japanese would have withheld if the document had not been signed. But this episode marked a point of no-return for the POW's at Changi.
Many of the POWs were forced to labor for their captors for the duration of the conflict, they performed grueling tasks, including working in industrial plants and mining coal in Japan, and, most notably, constructing the infamous Burma-Thailand "Death Railway." The Japanese were determined to build a railway to create a new route from Rangoon and the Bay of Bengal through Bangkok to Singapore. They thought that by relying on sea routes only, they would be vulnerable to Allied attacks, so they needed another method of transportation. During their captivity, these prisoners experienced appalling brutality at the hands of the Japanese. Enduring prolonged malnutrition and extreme overwork, they suffered from numerous tropical and dietary diseases while receiving almost no medical care. Each day, these men lived in fear of being beaten and tortured, and for months at a time they witnessed the agonizing deaths of their friends and countrymen.
In summary, during the three years and eight months, the Japanese military used high-handed measures such as mass screenings and Sook Ching operations against local Chinese and attempted to create rivalry among the different ethnic groups. But little did they expect their actions to give rise to anti-Japanese sentiments even among the Malays and Indians, who began to distrust the Japanese military.
