The Singapore Chinese massacre : 18 February to 4 March 1942

Did the Japanese Army kill 5,000 or 50,000 during the Singapore Chinese Massacre from 18 February to 4 March 1942?

When the Japanese invaded in Malaya on 8 December 1941, besides having detailed information of every British military fortification in the country as well as in Singapore, they also had the names of all prominent 'anti-Japanese elements' among the Chinese communities of both territories who had given financial aid to Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek, the Nationalist (Kuomintang) leader, who was fighting the Japanese in China.

Immediately after the surrender of Singapore on 15 February 1942, an order was issued by the victorious 24th Army that male Chinese between the age of 18 and 55 were required to 'register'. (Singapore's population at the time was 500,000 of which about 85% was Chinese.) Registration centres guarded by Japanese troops were quickly set up at various points; some in schools and others at open spaces.

Several thousand Chinese within the age group assembled at each centre, among them students, teachers and government employees.

The kempeitai, the dreaded military police, carried out brief 'interrogations' - or asked no questions at all. The 'anti-Japanese suspects' with their hands tied behind their backs were taken away in convoys of covered trucks to remote beaches or rubber plantations where they were executed in groups of 200 and 300 by Japanese machine-gunners.

Beaches were preferred as places for mass executions since the bodies would be taken away by incoming tides.

This proved to be a more convenient way of disposal than burials.

The massacre went on from 18 February to 4 March when it 'officially' ended.

After the surrender of Japan in 1945, British war crimes investigators went to work in Singapore to gather evidence of atrocities committed by the Japanese army during its occupation of the two territories.