Adapted from: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_40_2005-01-24.

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Who

- communists
- members of the volunteer force
- looters
- those possessing arms
- those whose names appeared in lists of anti-jap
subjects maintained by the Japanese

What

Operation Sook Ching was a Japanese military operation aimed at

purging or eliminating anti-Japanese elements from the Chinese
community in Singapore.

When

From 21 February to 4 March 1942

Where

Punggol Beach.
Changi Beach/Changi Spit Beach: Victims were from the Bukit
Timah/Stevens Road area.
Changi Road 8-mile section (ms): Massacre site found at a
plantation area (formerly Samba Ikat village) contained remains of
250 victims from the vicinity.
Hougang 8 ms: Six lorry loads of people were reported to have
been massacred here.
Katong 7 ms: 20 trenches for burying the bodies of victims were
dug here.
Beach opposite 27 Amber Road: Two lorry loads of people were
said to have been massacred here. The site later became a car
park.
Tanah Merah Beach/Tanah Merah Besar Beach: 242 victims from
Jalan Besar were massacred here. The site later became part of the
Changi airport runway.
Sime Road off Thomson Road: Massacre sites found near a golf
course and villages in the vicinity.
Katong, East Coast Road: 732 victims from Telok Kurau School.
Siglap area: Massacre site near Bedok South Avenue/Bedok South
Road (previously known as Jalan Puay Poon).
Blakang Mati Beach, off the Sentosa Golf Course: Many of the
bodies of massacre victims that were washed ashore were buried
here.

Why

1) The Japanese military were suspicious of the

Chinese in Singapore because of the long-standing tensions
between Japan and China, and their own experiences
fighting the Chinese in China since 1937.
2) Second, many of the Japanese commanders and
soldiers were veterans of campaigns in other parts of Asia
where violence and executions were regularly used as tools
to keep the civilian population under control.
3) Third, the Japanese wanted to prevent anti-Japanese

elements from interfering with their occupation of Singapore

after experiencing resistance by Chinese volunteers and
guerrillas during the Malayan Campaign (19411942).4
How

Chinese men were brought to selecting centres in Singapore where

they there were examined. If they did not pass, then they would be
put on lorries and drove off the remote locations to be masqueraded
After the directive was issued, notices and posters were put up
informing Chinese males between the ages of 18 and 50 to report to
designated screening centres. Men also went round with
loudspeakers to spread the news.7 These screening centres were
located all over the island, especially in areas such as Chinatown
where large numbers of Chinese resided.
The screening was mainly carried out by the Kempeitai (the
Japanese military police) in the urban areas and by the Imperial
Guards Division in the other districts.8 Initially, the plan was for the
operation to be carried out from 21 to 23 February 1942. It was
subsequently extended to 4 March.
The screening process was unsystematic and disorganised.
Decisions as to who were anti-Japanese were based on the whims
of the persons doing the screening. Oral history accounts from
eyewitnesses describe different screening methods being used at
the various centres. In some centres, victims were selected based
on their occupations, their answers to questions, or whether they
had tattoos. In other centres, hooded informers would point to men
who were allegedly criminals or anti-Japanese elements.9
The men who were fortunate enough to pass the screening process
were allowed to leave the centres. They were provided with proof of
their cleared status in the form of a piece of paper with a stamp that
said "examined", or through similar stamps marked on their face,
arm, shoulder or clothing.10
Some people were spared from the screenings through the
intervention of Japanese official Mamoru Shinozaki. Appointed as
advisor to defence headquarters after the fall of Singapore,
Shinozaki used his position to issue personal protection cards to
thousands of Chinese.11 In some instances, Shinozaki even
personally went to the screening centres to ask for the release of
men who had been detained.12
Thousands of other men were not so fortunate. Suspected of being
anti-Japanese elements, these men were loaded into lorries and
transported to remote areas such as Changi, Punggol and Bedokfor
execution. At these sites, the suspects were machine-gunned to
death and often their bodies were thrown into the sea.13 In some
instances, British prisoners of war (POWs) were tasked to bury the

bodies.14
Known massacre sites include beaches at Punggol, Changi,
Katong, Tanah Merah and Blakang Mati (now Sentosa island).
Massacres were said to have also occurred at Hougang, Thomson
Road, Changi Road, Siglap, Bedok and East Coast.15
Due to a lack of written records, the exact number of people killed in
the operation is unknown. The official figure given by the Japanese
is 5,000 although the actual number is believed to be much higher.
Lieutenant Colonel Hishakari Takafumi, a newspaper correspondent
at the time, claimed that the plan was to kill 50,000 Chinese and
that half that number had been reached when the order was
received to stop the operation.16

1. Why would the Japanese have targeted the Chinese population/

2. Why would the Japanese seek to hide what they had done?
3. What effects might Sook Ching have had on the population of
Singapore?