Lest We Forget – Sook Ching Massacre (18 Feb – 4 Mar 1942)

My uncle was a survivor of the Sook Ching and had the scars to show. He was stabbed using the bayonet by the Japanese Army personnel at Bedok, but managed to escape because he fainted and was under a pile of bodies. But many others were not as lucky.

A Purge of the Chinese

Almost immediately after occupying Singapore, the Japanese Army targeted the Chinese community with an extensive two-week operation, which came to be known as the Sook Ching (肃清, or “great purge” in Chinese). This was supposedly to identify and eliminate anti-Japanese elements. From 18 February 1942, all Chinese men between the ages of 18 and 50 were told to register at screening centres.

The Kempeitai 憲兵隊 (military police) directed the operation, supported by army soldiers and local informers. Officially, the operation was targeted at Dalforce volunteers, members of the Singapore Volunteer Corps, supporters of the China Relief Fund, and those who had tattoos or were otherwise accused of anti-Japanese activities.

In reality, however, individuals were randomly singled out. They were forced onto lorries and transported to remote areas such as Siglap, Changi, Punggol and Bedok to be massacred. The exact number of Sook Ching victims in Singapore is unknown. The Japanese claimed that the operation executed 5,000 to 6,000 victims, while unofficial estimates range from 20,000 to 30,000 victims.

Having witnessed the brutality of the Japanese, LKY made the following comments in his memoirs:

But they also showed a meanness and viciousness towards their enemies equal to the Huns’. Genghis Khan and his hordes could not have been more merciless. I have no doubts about whether the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary. Without them, hundreds of thousands of civilians in Malaya and Singapore, and millions in Japan itself, would have perished.

Lee Kuan Yew, The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew¹

Blood Debt

In February 1962, a Sook Ching mass grave was unearthed by sand-washing workers in Siglap.² This discovery reawakened the painful collective memories of the Chinese in Singapore and triggered a strong reaction from the community.

Among the first to respond was the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce (SCCC, 新加坡中华总商会). It dispatched a team to inspect the Siglap site and to locate other mass graves. When the team returned with further discoveries in Bedok, Bukit Timah, Changi, East Coast and Yio Chu Kang, the SCCC set up an action committee on 1 March 1963 to manage the exhumation of the mass graves. The committee also initiated a campaign to erect a memorial. This was to provide a final resting place for the Sook Ching victims and a site for their families to carry out mourning rituals. To “avenge” the Sook Ching victims, the SCCC demanded that the Japanese government compensate the Chinese community for the atrocities committed against them, a gesture that the SCCC referred to as a “blood debt”.³

The Japanese Foreign Ministry declined Singapore’s request for an apology and reparations in 1963, stating that the issue of war reparations with the British had already been settled in the San Francisco Treaty⁴ in 1951 and hence with Singapore as well, which was then a British colony. Singapore’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew responded by arguing that the British colonial government did not represent the voice of Singaporeans. In September 1963, the Chinese community staged a boycott of Japanese imports by refusing to unload aircraft and ships from Japan, which lasted for a week.

According to Hirofumi Hayashi⁵, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs “accepted that the Japanese military had carried out mass killings in Singapore … During negotiations with Singapore, the Japanese government rejected demands for reparations but agreed to make a ‘gesture of atonement’ by providing funds in other ways.”

Nevertheless, the Japanese government was motivated to provide compensation to Singapore because of the potential economic damage to Japan as a result of a boycott or sabotage by the local Chinese should Singapore’s demands be rejected. They also saw the potential for Singapore’s post-war ensuing success and was keen on repairing their relations.⁶

An agreement was reached on 25 October 1966⁷: the Japanese government agreed to pay a total of $50Mn to the Singapore government⁸, $25Mn in compensation and $25Mn as a development fund/loan, after intervention by LKY⁹. (Coincidentally, the Japanese demanded $50Mn from the Chinese community after Sook Ching as a proof of “loyalty” that resulted in Dr Lim Boon Keng, representing the “Chinese community of Singapore”, in payment as “tribute money”. $25Mn was collected from the Chinese community, $25Mn was a loan given to SCCC by the Japanese bank.)¹⁰

Memorial to the Civilian Victims

In February 1963, the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce formed a Remains Disposal Committee to organise the excavation, recovery and reburial of victims of the Sook Ching. The human remains uncovered by the committee were finally interred under the Memorial to the Civilian Victims of the Japanese Occupation (better known as the Civilian War Memorial) at Beach Road. Unveiled in 1967, the memorial’s campaign began with the Chinese community but evolved into a national symbol of shared sacrifice and nation-building.

Afterthoughts

This post has avoided any ambiguous points of view, as well as controversial interpretations of factual evidence. However, I was quite disappointed that the SG60 exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore totally ignored this part of history and decided to just focus on Singapore as an entrepôt. This is an important part of our history, a turning point that solidify our resolves to build an independent nation of our own.

All photos taken at National Museum of Singapore Aug 2025, unless otherwise indicated.

History of Singapore

Singapore’s history is a journey from ancient settlement to modern metropolis. Initially known as Temasek, it was a 14th-century trading post, later falling under the influence of various empires. Sir Stamford Raffles established a British trading post in 1819, transforming the island into a thriving port. Post-World War II, Singapore gained self-governance and eventually independence, first as part of Malaysia and then as a sovereign nation in 1965. 

The Singapore Treasures series focuses on the artefacts, relics and key monuments and moments that shaped this young nation. It is divided into four main parts.

• Pre-colonial before 1819
• British Colonial Rule (1819-1942), Japanese Occupation (1942-1945) and Post-War (1945-1955)
• Self government (1955-1963) and merger with Malaysia (1963-1965)
• Independence since 1965

Treasures – Revere Bell (1843)

National Treasure – Daguerreotype of Boat Quay and Singapore River from Government Hill (1844)

Treasures – Artefacts of Lee Kuan Yew (c. 1950s)

Singapore’s First Airport – Kallang Airport (1937-1955)

Lest We Forget – Fall of Singapore (15 Feb 1942)

Treasures – Presentation Cup to William Farquhar (1823)

Treasures – National Day Rally Rostrum from National Theatre (c. 1970s)

Chasing Dragons (c. 1900s)

Coolies that Moved the Nation (c. 1900s)

Treasures – Straits Chinese Panel Belt (c. mid 20th century)

National Treasure – Portrait of Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham (1904)

Treasures – Silver Epergne for William Farquhar (c. 1823)

Treasures – Portrait of Sir Stamford Raffles (1912)

National Treasure – Mace of the City of Singapore (1953)

Malaysia Day 1963

National Treasure – Majapahit Armlet and Earrings (c. 14th century)

National Treasure – Singapore Stone (c. 14th century)

Treasures – Javanese Gold Jewellery (c. 14th Century)

Declaration of Independence

1. Lee Kuan Yew. The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew. Singapore: Times, 1998. [59–60] ↩︎
2. Mass war graves found in Siglap’s ‘valley of death’. (1962, February 24). The Straits Times, p. 4. ↩︎
3. Lim Tin Seng, From Exclusive to Inclusive Remembrance: The Civilian War Memorial, BiblioAsia, Vol Jul 2011. https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-7/issue-2/jul-2011/civilian-war-memorial-remembrance/ ↩︎
4. Wikipedia entry on “The Treaty of San Francisco“
   The Treaty of San Francisco, also called the Treaty of Peace with Japan, re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied powers on behalf of the United Nations by ending the legal state of war, military occupation and providing for redress for hostile actions up to and including World War II. It was signed by 49 nations on September 8, 1951, in San Francisco, United States, at the War Memorial Opera House. Italy and China were not invited, the latter due to disagreements on whether the Republic of China or the People’s Republic of China represented the Chinese people. Korea was also not invited due to a similar disagreement on whether South Korea or North Korea represented the Korean people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_San_Francisco, accessed 16 Dec 2025.
   
   John W. Dower, The Treaty that Ended World War II Still Haunts Asia Today, History News Network, March 3, 2014.
   The corrosive long-term consequences of this post-occupation estrangement between Japan on the one hand and China and Korea on the other are incalculable. Unlike West Germany in post-war Europe, Japan was inhibited from moving effectively toward reconciliation and reintegration with its nearest Asian neighbors. Peace-making was delayed. The wounds and bitter legacies of imperialism, invasion, and exploitation were left to fester—unaddressed and largely unacknowledged in Japan. And ostensibly independent Japan was propelled into a posture of looking east across the Pacific to America for security and, indeed, for its very identity as a nation.
   https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-treaty-that-ended-world-war-ii-still-haunts-as, accessed 15 Dec 2025 ↩︎
5. Hirofumi Hayashi (林 博史, Hayashi Hirofumi; born April 6, 1955) is a historian, an authority on modern Japanese history, and is a professor of politics at the Kanto Gakuin University. He has been conducting research on the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia, Japanese war crimes, and war crimes trials including the subject of comfort women. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirofumi_Hayashi, accessed 16 Dec 2025 ↩︎
6. Hayashi Hirofumi (13 July 2009). “The Battle of Singapore, the Massacre of Chinese and Understanding of the Issue in Postwar Japan”. The Asia-Pacific Journal. 7 (28). Retrieved 10 May 2015. ↩︎
7. $25M Grant, $25M Loans Settle Singapore’s Blood Debt,The Straits Times, 26 October 1966, Page 20, https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19661026-1.2.135, accessed 15 Dec 2025 ↩︎
8. Blood debt settlement: Chamber says ‘yes’ at last, The Straits Times, 1 December 1966, Page 20 https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19661201-1.2.164, accessed 15 Dec 2025 ↩︎
9. Blood-debt letter from Lee, The Straits Times, 1 November 1966, Page 20, https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19661101-1.2.121, accessed 15 Dec 2025 ↩︎
10. Lim Tin Seng, From Exclusive to Inclusive Remembrance: The Civilian War Memorial, BiblioAsia, Vol Jul 2011. https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-7/issue-2/jul-2011/civilian-war-memorial-remembrance/  ↩︎