British Malaya was a tempting target for a hungry and ambitious Japan. For over a century, the British colonial masters had developed Malaya into a rich source of tin and rubber, two resources which were badly needed by the Japanese to build war planes, tanks and warships in support of its war effort, as well as to feed its domestic economy. The Japanese also saw Malaya as a foothold from which it could push into territories further south where natural resources were in abundance. In addition, the Malayan Chinese engaged themselves in anti-Japanese activities by collecting large amounts of money to assist China in fighting against Japan. With the invasion of Malaya, the Japanese could wrest control from the British and use the necessary resources for its own purposes, and, at the same time, terminate the flow of help provided by the Malayan Chinese to China.
1.2 The Invasion
Early on the morning of 8 December 1941, Japanese invading forces brought World War II to Malaya's shores. Landing troops, weapons, transports and supplies simultaneously on the coasts of Singora and Patani in southern Thailand, and Kota Bahru in northern Malaya, the 25th Army, led by Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki Yamashita, embarked on a swift and single-minded drive down the Malay Peninsula, culminating in the capture of Singapore, barely three months later.
1.3 The Inexorable March Down Malaya
The aggressive Japanese assault saw the defeat and capture of British installations and troops. The British defenders, consisting of British, Indian and Australian troops, were unable to repel the Japanese who employed surprise and speed as the key elements in their coordinated attacks. Although superior in number, many of the British troops lacked sufficient training and experience in the field. Key battles took place along the east and west coasts of the peninsula, with British forces trying to hold positions but very often forced to withdraw further south. In many cases stockpiles of ammunition, food and supplies (which came to be known as the "Churchill Supplies" to the Japanese) were left behind in their haste to retreat. The Japanese occupied many British airfields left in this manner. Taking advantage of the roads laid down by the British, convoys of Japanese troops on bicycles made rapid headway down the peninsula.
1.4 Crippled British Air and Sea Defences
With the airfields in Japanese hands, the British were unable to deploy sufficient air power to combat the Japanese air force which not only provided protective cover for their ground troops, but also caused much damage to the unprotected British defenders. This was made worse by the fact that the British had only a small and obsolete air force of mostly Brewster's Buffaloes to begin with. These were no match for the technologically superior Mitsubishi Zeroes. Whatever semblance of air cover that was available to the British was quickly wiped out by the marauding Zeroes. They fared no better on the seas. On 10 December 1941, Force Z comprising the battleships H.M.S. Prince of Wales and H.M.S. Repulse, and four destroyers, set out without air protection from Singapore to confront the invading Japanese forces off the east coast of Malaya. Overcome by repeated attacks from Japanese fighters and bombers, the two battleships were sunk off the coast of Kuantan, effectively crippling British naval power in the East.
1.5 The Road to Singapore
By 8 January 1942, all of northern Malaya from the Slim River upwards, including Penang, was in Japanese hands. By 11 January, Kuala Lumpur, capital of the Federated Malay States, was captured. From 16 January to 24 January, the last desperate battle was fought in the Yong Peng-Muar triangle in Johore territory. By the dawn of 31 January, the last of the heavily depleted and exhausted British troops had evacuated across the Causeway into Singapore. A 21-metre gap was blown into the Causeway to impede the Japanese advance into Singapore, but it did little to halt the invading forces.
2 The Seven-day Battle for Singapore
2.1 Preparations for War
With the Japanese occupying Johore and moving reinforcements to the front-line, Singapore was in a desperate situation. Malaya Command, under Lieutenant-General A. E. Percival, nonetheless harboured hope of defending Singapore successfully. Defenses on the northern coasts of Singapore were hurriedly constructed late in the war when British higher authorities discovered, to their horror, that scant regard had been given to that area. These defences later proved superficial and incapable of halting the initial invasion on the northwestern coast of the island on the night of 8 February 1942. In the meantime, Singapore had been "softened" by continuous air raids since January 1942 by the Japanese fighters and bombers who had command of the skies. The main targets were British airfields, communication lines and installations, but civilian areas in the heart of the city were also bombed, causing great damage and loss of life.
2.2 The Attack
The Japanese attack began with a feint by the Imperial Guards Division from Pulau Ubin on the eastern coast of Singapore on 7 February 1942. Percival, anticipating the full force of the attack to come from the East, strengthened his defences there, placing the thinly-defended northwestern coast in peril. The bulk of the Japanese army landed at various points on the northwestern coast on 8 February, quickly over-running the defences there and pushing southwards to the city. By 11 February, Japanese forces had captured Tengah Airfield and breached the Jurong-Kranji Line, a British defensive border running between the mouths of the Kranji and Jurong Rivers in the west, allowing them to advance further inland to Bukit Timah, halfway to the city. The miscommunication that had caused the British defenders to retreat from the Line prematurely on 10 February was symptomatic of the general disorganized state of Malaya Command. Although British forces resisted fiercely, with support from local volunteer groups like Dalforce who were deployed in the northern, western and central sectors, Malaya Command was unable to mount a united and strong stand against the enemies, resulting in successive withdrawals to the south. Under fire by the enemy, exhausted and demoralized, many soldiers of the British forces deserted. Some were even found to be forcing their way onto ships already crowded with civilians desperate to flee from Singapore. On 11 February 1942, Yamashita's first demand for British surrender was ignored. Unknown to the British, the Japanese Army's resources were by then running low and Yamashita feared that the British would dig in and wait for reinforcements to arrive, thereby surviving a siege by Japanese forces and possibly turning the tide of war. Percival, under orders from his superiors to "fight to the death", overrode his generals' recommendations to surrender and decided to fight on. As Japanese forces pushed their way to the city, the fiercest battles took place at Bukit Timah on 11 February and at Pasir Panjang on 14 February. The Malay Regiment put up a tenacious 48-hour fight in its defence of Pasir Panjang but was annihilated. Other British troops fought desperately to keep the Japanese out of the final defensive perimeter encircling the beleaguered city. Only with the Japanese Army sitting at the gates of the city did Percival concede defeat . Water supply, rations, fuel and ammunition had almost run out by then; the city was in chaos and under threat of pestilence with dead bodies strewn along the streets and bomb-damaged buildings crumbling into rubble; hospitals were overflowing with the injured and dying while doctors and nurses worked feverishly to save as many as they could. On 15 February 1942, at Percival's final conference with his generals, a unanimous decision was made to surrender.
2.3 The Surrender
In the afternoon on 15 February, Percival and three accompanying officers were escorted to the Board Room of the Ford Factory where negotiations for the terms of the surrender took place. Yamashita demanded an unconditional surrender, failing which, the Japanese forces would carry out a full-scale attack on the city. Percival, who had hoped to stall for time, finally signed the surrender documents. A cease-fire came into effect two hours later, signalling the end of hostilities.
3 The Agony of Defeat
The fall of Malaya and Singapore was one of the most devastating military defeats in British history. The British forces in Malaya had been too weak to stop the Japanese: Malaya Command had underestimated the power of the Japanese forces and its troops were ill-prepared for the war. Attempts to get additional help and reinforcements from other Allied powers, which might have hindered Japanese advances, were also unsuccessful: the American Pacific Fleet had been crippled when Pearl Harbor was attacked at the outset of the Malayan Campaign and could not provide immediate relief to British forces in Malaya; the British themselves were caught up in the European theatre of war, where they and other Allied forces were fighting a defensive war against Germany. Little by way of resources could be spared for its colonies in the East. In less than three months, the Japanese had achieved their objective of capturing important sources of tin and rubber to support their war effort and ailing national economy, gained a foothold to pursue ambitions further south, and effectively drove out the British colonial masters who, for 120 years, had been ensconced in this part of the world. Thus began the Japanese Occupation of Singapore.^^^
