The Singapore Story - Chapter 3

Title: The Singapore Story - Memories Of Lee Kuan Yew (Chapter 3)

Author: Lee Kuan Yew

Chapter Review - The Japanese Invaders (Pg 44 to Pg 84)

Summary: How Japanese troops invaded Singapore

  Lee Kuan Yew was asleep in E block of Raffles College when he was woken up to by the sound of exploding bombs. The war with japan had begun. The bombs killed 60 people and wounding 130 others, leading to many casualties.

  After that fatal accident, Lee Kuan Yew volunteered for the Medical Auxiliary services and would cycle from his home to his post to the college which was 3 miles away. The war did not go well. A few days later, the Japanese started to bomb Singapore, day and night on 31 January. The siege of Singapore had just begun.

  In the middle of January, the schools were closed. After the Japanese took over the college on 10 February, the MAS unit had to disband. At 15 February, it turned out that the British had surrendered and the Japanese had swept on towards the town. In turn, some bold people began looting houses, department stores and other places which contained items of value.

  

The japanese caught a few of these looters and beheaded them to strike fear into the people. As a result, many people were fleeing from Singapore and hospitals, public utilities and other services were unmanned and Lee Kuan Yew was shocked at their cowardly behaviour just to save their skins.

  One day, when Lee Kuan Yew went to visit his aunt, he walked past a group of japanese soldiers. After being kicked to the ground, Lee Kuan Yew was told to go back the way he had come. Soon after, he was shocked to find several japanese soldiers come into the house and decided it was a suitable billet for a platoon. The beginning of a nightmare had started.

  Since the occupation started, Lee Kuan Yew's father had no work, he had no college, and his siblings had no school. Deciding to learn chinese, Lee Kuan Yew headed to get Mandarin Made Easy, a thin booklet that taught basic chinese characters and how to read them. After Lee Kuan Yew's father died in Japan, Lee Kuan Yew looked up his grandfather's Japanese friend, Mr Shimoda, and ended up working in his company as a clerk for a year.

  After that, he worked as an editor in the cathay building for 15 months until the end of 1944.

  

  Since the end of 1943, food has been getting scarcer and scarcer. Lee Kuan Yew would eat shoots of sweet potato, tapioca and vegetables that were barely palatable almost everyday.

  Soon, Lee Kuan Yew and his friend, Yong Nyuk Lin, decided to start a business by making gum, which was scarce, but Nyuk Lin had the ingredients that were cheap to make it. The gum turned a decent profit, and the location of making it was in Nyuk Lin's house, where he was helped with his wife her younger sister, Kwa Geok Choo, the girl who beat him in Raffles College.

  The gum making business lasted for six to seven months until late 1944. By that time, war was going badly for the japanese and they were losing to other countries. After that, Lee Kuan Yew's family sold the house they had in Norfolk Road for $60000 in banana notes.

  

  To prevent from starving, Lee Kuan Yew continued to operate on the black market as a broker for everything tradeable. In May, Germany was defeated by Japanese, now, it was only a matter of time before japan would be defeated as the war effort would be turned against them.

  On 15 August, the japanese emperor announced the surrender of japan. Finally, the war was over!

  

  After a few months, the British arrived and finally, the Japanese occupation was over!

  In 1992, the japanese prime minister, morihiro hosokawa, gave an unqualified aoplogy.