World War II Research
From Wikicliki
Consolidation of personal notes and research into World War II / Battle of Singapore
Contents
Visits
Visit to Battlebox
Visit to Former Ford Factory
Visit to Reflections at Bukit Chandu
Visit to National Gallery Supreme Court Wing
Visit to Changi Museum
- Changi Tree - area named after exceptionally huge tree in area, probably Sindora Wallichia / Sepetir which grew 50m tall, blown up by british army 1942 to prevent its usage as geographical marker
- front of museum lined with military crests of companies, poppy flower garlands, Australia India Msia NZ Pakistan SG UK
- Japanese soldiers were allowed two weeks to do whatever they liked after capture of Singapore, but after which they faced severe restriction for behaviour (impunity during war)
- 3 star men, 2 star men, blue star for europeans indicating they were supposed to be under curfew, story about eurasian mother out with children to watch movie when a chinese civilian called her out for breaking curfew hours and she and the children were terrified (although it wasn't one of the authorities who caught her) and ran home
- "Asia is for Asians" propaganda slogan used by japanese
- "Once I was given a puppy to eat, but I couldn't eat it. I was so hungry but still I could not eat it." - Jack "Crackers" Kyros Australian POW
- POW - Lunch was 50g cooked rice (source: oral history report of Dutch POW Victor Lois Bloen)
- Learning to make soap, wine, tapioca crackers, cakes (no flour), oil for lamps using coconut, condensed milk, shoe polish, frying pans, tyres, welding set bottles ropes paper
- Remembrance ceremony held at Krangi War Cemetery in April and Nov
- Plan of typical cell in so called "Asiatic style"
- Secret POW postcards with allied intel info sent using postcards glued together with rice starch (source: prof malcolm H murfett)
- shortwave radio hidden inside water tank, windup devices in matchbox for morse code
- Alexandra Hospital Massacre, Sook Ching, Double Tenth Incident, Selarang Incident (no escape paper. "So we signed. What did we sign? we all signed fictitious names. The japs never knew. I signed "winston churchill. Some put down mickey mouse, charlie chaplin" (source: charles Lyon British POW)
- New resettlement sept 1943 endau 12000 catholic chinese and several hundred eurasian catholics --> new syonan in endau johore (mainly catholic, some christian)
- Bahau in negri sembilan "fuji-go"
- "F Force" --> sent to death railway between thailand and burma. 7500 strong end of 1942.
- H E Mackenzie Illustrated London News Oct 27. 1942. A Japanese Internment hell in Singapore. Changi Criminal Jail.
Books
SPEEDREAD!!!
Romen Bose - Secrets of the Battlebox
Romen Bose - The End of the War
Romen Bose - Kranji
Legacies of World War II in South and East Asia
Edited by David Koh Wee Hock, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
Chris Brown - Singapore 1942 Battle Story
Historical Timeline
Notes
- Keep Mum posters from IWM (replicated within the Battlebox)
- http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-origins-of-the-phrase-keeping-mum.htm - Mmmmmm. Mummeries. Mummer. The term was also borrowed by members of the acting community, who started to put on “mummeries,” or silent plays, at around the same time. In a mummery, people would wear masks to conceal their identities, and portray a scene which was often laden with political and social commentary.
- http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/9732 - image: a three-quarter length depiction of an attractive woman, reclining on a chair and looking directly out of the poster. She is surrounded by three entranced officers, representing the Army, Navy and RAF. text: Keep mum she's not so dumb! CARELESS TALK COSTS LIVES Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaine Ltd., Watford and London.