Elimination of the "anti-Japanese" elements in the Chinese community - Sook Ching

Here is another video taken at the site for the Sook Ching massacres in Changi Beach. The following is another write-up on the Sook Ching operation - a mass elimination of alleged "anti-Japanese" elements among the Chinese community in Singapore.





WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED AT CHANGI BEACH?

Changi Beach was one of the first sites used for the Sook Ching massacre, along with Tanah Merah Beach. On 20th February 1942, 66 Chinese men suspected of being anti-Japanese elements were brought to the beach and shot dead. The men, after being identified as anti-Japanese, were brought to Changi Beach. They were executed by Japanese soldiers carrying machine guns. After the Japanese soldiers ensured that they were dead, their bodies were tossed into the sea.

THE SOOK CHING MASSACRE (THIS PICTURE IS PART OF AN EXHIBITION IN THE OLD FORD MOTOR FACTORY)





WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN SINGAPORE BACK THEN?

During the Japanese Occupation in Singapore, the Japanese hated the Chinese, due to the Japan-China war back in China then. In order to wipe out all anti-Japanese elements in the Chinese community, the Japanese government took extreme measures to ensure that these potentially dangerous elements were eliminated. Chinese suspected of such “anti-Japanism” (in our own words again) were immediately killed.


WHAT IS SOOK CHING? Operation Sook Ching was carried out to eliminate all anti-Japanese elements in the Chinese population. “Sook Ching”, in fact, means “to purge” in Chinese. A policy was subsequently set up to identify the people the Japanese government thought to be anti-Japanese. Chinese men, and sometimes women and children, between the age of 18 and 50 were regularly brought to Kempeitai (the Japanese secret police) inspection centres to be checked. The inspection centres included the YMCA building at Stamford Road, and the Central Police Station at South Bridge Road.

SIT BUILDING - JAPANESE KEMPEITAI WEST DISTRICT BRANCH, WWII





There, the Japanese military police would inspect the Chinese. At certain centres, a person wearing a hood, called the ‘informer’, would simply point out the ones who they thought were anti-Japanese. The people identified by the military police or the ‘informer’ would then be brought to spots, such as Changi Beachand the Tanah Merah beach, to be executed. The people who were not identified would then be given a stamp with the Chinese word “Examined” on it, and were allowed to leave. The Kempeitai would randomly and frequently conduct searches and kill people who were suspected to be plotting against the Japanese.

AN INSPECTION SCENE - SOOK CHING OPERATION





In reality, the inspections were based solely on the inspecting Japanese officers’ or the “informers’” individual judgment. Many innocent Chinese were identified and killed. The Japanese aimed to create fear among the Chinese so as to make them more obedient and easier to control, and reduce the chances of trouble, such as riots, stirring up.