World War II Day by Day

Singapore Island, British Malaya • February 8, 1942

On this night and the next day in 1942 in British Malaya (today’s Malay­sia) Japa­nese forces surged over and soon pushed the British-led de­fenders back to the edges of the 220‑sq-mile/­566‑sq-kilo­meter island of Singa­pore (the “Gibral­tar of the East”), nearly 600 miles/­966 kilo­meters from the ini­tial Japa­nese landing sites. Singa­pore’s air­fields fell—they were diffi­cult to defend against attack—thereby per­mitting the quick resupply of the Japa­nese in­vaders. Issued an air-dropped ulti­ma­tum for the island’s sur­render on Febru­ary 11, Lt. Gen. Arthur Perci­val, land com­mander of Com­mon­wealth forces (Indian, British, Aus­tra­lian, and Malay bri­gades) that were holed up in the southern sector of the island, surrendered his garrison on February 15.

Percival’s 85,000 troops, nearly 3 times the strength of their attackers and recently rein­forced, were low on ammu­ni­tion and drinking water. Many were tired from their retreat down the Malay Penin­sula, and many were raw and untrained such as the 7,000 men of the 44th Indian Brigade, and most cer­tainly under­equipped. For instance, the British had zero tanks to the Japa­nese two hundred. Perci­val, who had only been in the British colony 6 months, com­plained later that war mate­rial which might have saved Singa­pore was instead sent to the Soviet Union and the Middle East, places where Great Britain was also heavily engaged.

During the course of the Japanese con­quest of Mala­ya and Singa­pore the invaders took some 130,000 British, Austra­lian, and Indian pri­soners into a brutal capti­vity; some stayed in Singa­pore at the infa­mous Changi Pri­son, but many were trans­ported in so-called “hell ships” to other parts of Asia, including Japan, to be used as slave labor. Some 60,000 Allied POWs were forced into building the infamous Thailand-Burma “Death Railway” between Bang­kok and Ran­goon (Yangon) in sup­port of the Japa­nese cam­paign in Burma (Myan­mar). Over 10,000 never returned. British Prime Minis­ter Winston Churchill was appalled by Singa­pore’s sur­render, calling it “the worst dis­aster and largest capit­u­la­tion in Brit­ish history.” Earlier, from London Chur­chill demanded that Per­ci­val dismiss any thoughts of sparing troops or popu­la­tion defending Britain’s stra­te­gic South­east Asian out­post. “Com­manders and senior offi­cers should die with their troops. The honor of the British Empire and the British Army is at stake.” (A dis­aster on a sim­i­lar scale was taking place next door in the American Philippines.)

Singapore’s surrender late in the after­noon of Febru­ary 15, 1942, just 10 weeks into the Pacific War, per­ma­nently under­mined Britain’s pres­tige as an im­peri­al power in the Far East. It also gave Japan control of the Straits of Malacca—the chief sea route between the British-held Indian sub­con­ti­nent and the min­eral and agri­cul­tural riches of South­east Asia. Perci­val sur­vived his cap­tivity in China and was on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay during the Japa­nese sur­render cere­mo­nies in Septem­ber 1945. He also was wit­ness to the Japa­nese sur­render cere­mo­nies in the recon­quered Philip­pines with none other than Gen. Tomo­yuki Ya­mashita, reversing the role Percival had played nearly 4 years earlier in Singapore.

Scenes from the Battle of Singapore, February 1942

Left: RAF Bristol Blenheim bombers lined up at Tengah Airfield, Singa­pore, Febru­ary 8, 1941. The major air­field was impos­sible to defend, lying close to Japa­nese artil­lery across the Jahore Straits, the 1,100 yards/­1,006 meters that sepa­rated the port city from the main­land. What is more, the British had less than half the 600 faster and more deadly planes the Japa­nese had. The enemy quickly domi­nated the skies, demol­ished air­fields, and destroyed the British and Austra­lian air forces. Few British 15‑inch/­38.1‑centi­meter artil­lery pieces faced land­ward; the mass of Singa­pore’s defenses were set up to oppose a seaborne invasion that never came.

Right: Lt. Gen. Arthur Percival, escorted by a Japa­nese offi­cer through enemy lines, walks beside the Union Flag under a white flag of truce to nego­ti­ate the capit­u­la­tion of Common­wealth forces in Singa­pore, Febru­ary 15, 1942. Photo­graphs of the defeat went around a stunned world. It was the largest and most humil­i­ating sur­render of British-led forces in his­tory and led directly to the im­pri­son­ment, tor­ture, and death for thou­sands of British and Common­wealth men and women, sol­diers and civil­ians alike. For many Singa­poreans, Malays, Chi­nese, and Indi­ans there was a strong feeling that Britain had left them to the mercy of a brutal Japa­nese occu­pa­tion. Across Asia, the defeat was viewed as an Imperial dis­grace. In India, British pres­tige was shattered. Resentment simmered in Australia for decades.

Left: Surrendering troops of the Suffolk Regi­ment held at gun­point by Japa­nese infan­try in the battle of Singa­pore. Men from the regi­ment suffered great hard­ship as pri­soners of war and only a few survived their captivity.

Right: Lt. Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita (seated, center), the short, heavy-set, pudgy-face com­mander of the Japa­nese Twenty-Fifth Army, pounds the table to empha­size his terms—uncon­di­tional surrender. Percival sits between his officers, clenched hand to mouth, looking weak and puny at the nego­ti­a­ting table. In Decem­ber 1945 an Ameri­can mili­tary tribunal in Manila con­victed Yamashita of war crimes relating to the many Japa­nese atro­cities in the Philip­pines (Yamashita’s last command) and Malaya and Singa­pore (his first) against wounded soldiers, civilians, and prisoners of war (tens of thou­sands were slaughtered). The “Tiger of Malaya,” as Yama­shita was known, was ordered hanged in February 1946.

Left: Elements of the Japanese Twenty-Fifth Army march through Fuller­ton Square in the center of Singa­pore, Febru­ary 1942. The Twenty-Fifth Army served pri­marily as a garri­son force for the occu­pied terri­tories. The Fuller­ton Building at 1 Fuller­ton Square seen here on the left became the head­quarters of the Japa­nese Mili­tary Admin­is­tration in Singa­pore. It was here that Lt. Gen. Yamashita received a check for $50 mil­lion from the Singa­pore and Malay Chi­nese commu­nity as recom­pense for their alleged crimes against the Japanese. Today the building is a Singa­pore national monument and houses the posh Fullerton Hotel.

Right: Japanese soldiers shoot Indian (Sikh) POWs, captured Common­wealth sol­diers who sit blind­folded in a rough semi-circle about 20 yards/­14 meters away. (Indian divi­sions were the back­bone of British forces in Singa­pore.) This photo­graph was one of four found among Japa­nese records when British troops reentered Singa­pore in 1945. Japa­nese sol­diers also sought ven­geance against huge num­bers of Chi­nese civil­ians who had settled in Singa­pore, executing between 50,000 and 100,000 young Chinese men, most infa­mously in the Sook Ching mas­sacre, which took place between Febru­ary 18 and March 4, 1942, at various places in Singapore and Malaya. Malays were not spared either.

Fall of Singapore, December 1941 to February 1942