049 - Singapore Massacre

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Sook Ching and the Screening House

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Ironically, before the Battle of Singapore, the inmates of Changi Prison had been imprisoned for the perceived hostilities against the British Empire. Many were Chinese Nationals who had ties to Communists in the Soviet Union. After the Japanese Army had advanced to the Southern tip of Malaya, these same prisoners were now freed and given arms to fight the Japanese.
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The final battle, however, was quite short, lasting less than two weeks.  Now, General Yamashita faced a great problem with the great number of Singaporean citizenry who were now in chaos after the British Surrender. He turned to Commander Oishi Masayuki of the Kempetai (the Japanese Military Police Corps) to oversee the cleansing of Singapore.

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Masayuki also commandeered the local YMCA, the Changi Prison, and the Singapore Police Station and turned them into District Headquarters. Then, he set about to put officers in charge of different regions within the city. Each region had its own “Screening House” to examine all local males between the ages of 18 and 50 for “anti-Japanese feelings”.

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Those found to not be loyal to the Japanese were often shipped off to places such as Changi and Punggol Beach and then exterminated by the Japanese, firing squad. Sometimes, however, people were simply rounded up and executed in any public area “suitable for extermination”, By the end of February, the estimated death toll of Chinese civilians reached 25,000, including women and children.

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