The Background to the Far East Campaign

The Background to the Far East Campaign

What is VJ Day?

A commemoration of 15th August 1945 when Japan surrendered to the Allies.

Although hostilities in Europe had ceased in May, fighting continued in the Far East.

VJ Day brought World War II to an end.

Why did Japan enter the war?

The opening up to trading Europe of both Japan and China in the mid to late 19th century pushed both, but particularly the more forward-looking Japan, towards modernisation.

China had a huge resource of raw materials whereas Japan had vey few. It lacked oil and rubber, for example.

From then until the 1930s there were incursions and clashes between Japan and China ending in the Sino-Japanese war 1937-1945.

At the same time relations between Japan and the US became fraught over Japanese immigration to the country and their rights in it.

And Britain, who held India, Burma and Malaya, also held the largest garrison in the Far East—Singapore.

Japan felt encircled by industrial nations such as America, Britain, The Dutch East Indies and China.

What happened?

By 1940 Japan had annexed Manchuria and occupied Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos (French

Indo-China) and had been at war with China since 1937.

In 1940 the country entered a pact with Germany and Italy.

After Paris fell it occupied French Indochina as a springboard to the south.

All of this led to economic sanctions from the Allies which cut off Japan's access to oil.

On 7/8 December 1941 Japan launched a long-expected attack on Malaya, breaking through

British and Indian defences and driving down to the one military base that stood in its way - the

British fortress of Singapore. What the Allies had not anticipated was a simultaneous attack on

Pearl Harbour.

Singapore

Malaya

Thailand

Indonesia

Japanese Forces

95 minutes before Pearl Harbour on 7

December 1941 Japan bombed RAF

bases to the north of Singapore on the

Malay coast.

The naval response was to send the

battleship Prince of Wales and the bat-

tle cruiser Repulse at the head of a

fleet of ships. Both were torpedoed

and sunk.

Singapore was left unguarded by both

air and sea. The only hope was the ar-

my of 90,000 Australian, British, Cana-

dian and Indian soldiers.

Fighting began on 11 December in the

north of Malaya. The British were

forced to retreat down the country

throughout January 1942. They

reached Singapore on 8 February

1942.

Singapore is a tiny sovereign island nation sandwiched between Malaysia and

Indonesia. Before 1942 it was seen by the British as a South-East Asian Gibraltar,

a formidable fortress, impregnable and vital to the control of the Far East.

The Fall of Singapore 15 February 1942

The vast majority of the FEPOWS were taken prisoner on 15 February 1942

Not only Singapore but also the surrounding Malay countries were forced to surrender.

Winston Churchill described it as "the worst disaster and the largest capitulation in British

history".

The surrender saw the beginning of the end of Britain's global empire both strategically

and militarily. Within a decade of the end of the war new independencies were created

and geo-political aspirations between Asia, including Australia and New Zealand, and

Britain shifted for ever.

There were several reasons. The British tanks were cumbersome and old fashioned; High

Command had focused on the war in Europe; uniforms and materials were not suited to jungle

warfare; troops were unprepared and many had never seen combat on this measure before;

The British relied too much on the belief that Singapore was impregnable; until the last the

men were ordered not to surrender, which caused unnecessary loss of life; arrogance on the

part of the British High Command.

Taken from the Whalebelly scrapbooks.

The white flag of surrender carried alongside the Union Jack

The soldiers—and it was the 4th, 5th and 6th Regiments of the Royal Norfolks who bore the brunt

of it—felt betrayed by a Government who had placed them in this position.

The Norfolk Regiments in the Far East Campaign

The 4th battalion: Headquarters—Chapelfield Drill Hall, Norwich.

The battalion left England on 29 October and after sailing to Halifax, Nova Scotia, travelled to Cape

Town where news of Peal Harbour reached them. They left Cape Town on 13 December 1941 and

from there sailed to Bombay. They arrived in Singapore at Keppel Harbour on 29 January 1942.

Shelling continued from 13th to 14th February. A major Japanese attack developed around 8pm.

Japanese tanks and infantry broke through the line. The following morning a counterattack to regain

the high ground was launched and the objective taken at 11am. The next day hostilities ceased.

75 officers and men and a further 7 died of wounds received, 65 were missing and 124 wounded.

The battalion became prisoners of war.

Race Course

Part of their responsibility was

the island of Pulau Ubin which

they found to be abandoned by

the Japanese. On learning that

the Japanese had invaded the

western side of Singapore the

battalion marched towards

Bukit Pajang village. Which had

been taken by the Japanese.

The battalion was ordered

to withdraw to the race

course, and then again to

the new defence line

north of Adam Road.

This would be their last

stand before Singapore

itself.

Pulau Ubin

Keppel Harbour

Bukit Pajang

Adam Road

Singapore city

Singapore city

In the Swaffham, Watton & District FEPOW Association 63% of the members belonged to the

4th, 5th or 6th Royal Norfolk Regiment Territorial Battalions of the 18th Infantry Division,

altogether around 2000 men.

Around 600 members of these battalions died at the hands of the Japanese, with many more

suffering lasting physical and mental scars from their experiences in the PoW camps.

The following text about the regiments in that campaign is taken from The Holy Boys, Sutherland and Canwell Barnsley, 2010


The 5th battalion: Headquarters—King’s Lynn but by 1939 concentrated on Holt.

The battalion left England on 28 October and followed a similar route to that of the 4th battalion

and arriving in Singapore on 13 January 1942 1942.

They began their defence in Malaya

at Jong Peng on 16 January ready to

go to Jemaluang the next day. They

were then sent to Batu Pahat to keep

the road, blocked by the Japanese,

open. They moved down to Skudai,

only to be told on 24 January to go

back to Batu Pahat. They held their

position there but the Japanese

advanced. By 28 January the bulk of

the 5th battalion were in Singapore at

the Serangoon Camp. From here

they helped defend the naval base.

At this stage the battalion had 30 officers and 660 other ranks although more would turn up later

in captivity.

Yong Peng

Keppel Harbour

Jemaluang

Serangoon Camp

Skudai

Singapore city

Batu Pahat

Braddell Road

On 12 February the battalion was ordered

to withdraw and take up position in the

defensive perimeter around Singapore

City. The Japanese had landed on the

west coast of the island and had complete

air superiority.

On 13 February the battalion had taken up

its position in the Braddell Road area. The

Japanese attacked that night and again

during the next 2 days. Shortly afterwards

the order to cease fire was received.


4th, 5th or 6th Royal Norfolk Regiment Territorial Battalions of the 18th Infantry Division


Malaya (See below—6th Battalion)

Singapore



4th, 5th or 6th Royal Norfolk Regiment Territorial Battalions of the 18th Infantry Division


The 6th battalion: The City of Norwich Battalion, mobilised at the Aylsham Road Drill Hall.

It was the weakest of the three battalions with only three companies at the beginning.

It was quartered in various places in Norfolk during 1940, including spending Christmas at

Swaffham. In January 1941 it moved to Scotland and from there travelled to Singapore on

27 October 1941 via Canada, Trinidad, Cape Town, India and the Maldives. They arrived in

Singapore on 13 January 1942.

Their first position was astride the

Muar to Yong Peng road in Malaya,

ten miles south of Muar.

The Japanese were moving in from

the west and the battalion was also

bombed by aircraft. They withdrew to

Yong Peng. On 24 January they

moved to Sanggarang, leaving A

company at Rengit. They were to

hold the river crossings in support of

the 15th Infantry brigade, which

included the 5th Royal Norfolks, at

Batu Pahat. They were ordered to

withdraw to Benut. This was already

in Japanese hands and so they were

evacuated by gunboat to Singapore.

Singapore

Malaya

River Seletar

Braddell Road

They were encamped on the north

coast of Singapore close to the Seletar

river but the Japanese attacked from

the west of the causeway which meant

that they had to withdraw as soon as

possible to prevent being cut of. They

oversaw the withdrawal and then took

up position at the 7th milestone on the

road from the naval base to Singapore

city. On 13 February they were forced

to withdraw to the Braddell road. (See

previous page)

It was here that they learned that hostilities would cease. At 1600 on 15 February.

Two days later they were marched to Changi Barracks as prisoners of war.

Causeway

Skudai

Changi Prison

Changi gaol was constructed by the British in 1936 as a civilian prison.

Following the Fall of Singapore over 3,000 civilians, (many British) were incarcerated in the

gaol itself and 40,00 men were marched to the north east tip of the island where they were

imprisoned in a military base called Selarang near the village of Changi.

This section is taken from online resources. Family stories may be different. We would

welcome any detail from family members.

To the Japanese to be captured was dishonourable. Neither had Japan signed the Geneva

Convention. The men were forced to work, usually heavy manual labour on the docks or

building sites – no work, no food – but the food was sparse and poor. The basic menu was a

bowl of rice, a cup of miso soup and some pickles. Old cow meat or fish guts were occasionally

provided. Often one pint of water a day was shared sip for sip amongst the men.

Lack of clothing was also acute. Disease was rife.

Punishments were severe. Men might be punched, slapped, prodded with a sword, scabbard

or butt of a rifle, kept running, stood at attention for hours or with a bucket of water on their

head. They might be left in small cells without food. Almost all who tried to escape and were

recaptured were executed in front of their fellow PoWs.

The text with these notes reads” Each

prisoner was paid 10 cents per day

when at work. Worth 2d or one egg

when we could get them”

From the Whalebelly scrapbooks

The illustrator Ronald Searle was a PoW at Changi. He enlisted in the Royal Engineers in 1939 and spent some time in Norfolk training as a camouflage artist. This drawing is entitled “Changi May 1942. Prisoners queuing for their rice”. © Estate of Ronald Searle. https://illustrationchronicles.com/The-War-Drawings-of-Ronald-Searle

Other regiments

5th Suffolks

The 5th were recruited at the start of the war and were at first responsible for the security and de-

fence of the coast from Lowestoft, Suffolk to Mundesley in Norfolk.

This battalion, like the 4th Suffolks, was essentially made up of Territorials, recruited locally, and

new recruits with no battle experience.

In 1941 they began training in Scotland and then Lancashire. They embarked in October of that

year from Liverpool to travel to Nova Scotia and from there to Cape Town and on to Bombay.

Their destination was to be Egypt.

On 19 January 1942 the men were ordered to re-embark to travel to Singapore.

On arriving in Singapore at the end of January troops were order to defend the beaches at all

costs. After severe fighting they were forced to withdraw and on 15 February surrendered to the

Japanese with the rest of the British and Commonwealth troops.

After 2½ years of training and 3½ months in transit from Britain to Singapore, the Suffolks had

had 17 days of active service, albeit in a chaotic and confused manner, before being ordered to

lay down arms and become prisoners of the Japanese Imperial Army.

(Information from: http://ww2.brandonatwar.co.uk)

“When Dad left England, the ship was originally bound for the Middle East, I think it was Egypt, to

join in the desert campaign. However, after realising that Singapore and Malaya were under

threat from the Japanese, the ship was rerouted. Dad always blamed Churchill for sending troops

into a situation where they were bound to lose.”

(family member by email.)

“When he was first captured, he spent some time in two other camps before being sent up the

jungle. These were Changi and Serangi. Later he met one of his cousins up the jungle where he

learned that they were both in Changi at the same time in huts about one hundred yards

apart. The cousin was with his own brother together in the same hut but unfortunately the other

brother died in the camp.”


“He told me a story that once a big python decided to sleep it off in the roof of their hut. They

killed it and ate it. He also nearly died from a scorpion sting and carried the scar near his right

knee for life. “


The Burma-Thai railway

The railway was built to create a short cut for

supplies to India and China.

It was 415 kilometres long – 263 in Thailand

(then Siam) and 152 in Burma and built from

both ends simultaneously to meet in the mid-

dle at Three Pagodas Pass.

Once deemed impossible to build because of

the jungle and mountainous difficulty of the

terrain and the cost, Japan now had a work-

force of cheap labourers who only needed a

bit of food and disciplining.

The build, which engineers said would take 5

years was completed in 16 months.

Who worked on the railway?

Civilian workers from all over the Far East

who had been forcibly drafted in after their

countries had been seized, numbered

between 180,000 and 250.

There were about 61,000 allied PoWs from

Britain, Holland, Australia and the US.

About 90,000 civilians and 12,800 PoWs

died from the combined effects of malaria,

dysentery, cholera and malnutrition.

On average four workers died for every

100 metres of track laid.

The construction of the Burma

was counted as a war crime after

the war. 111 Japanese military

officials were tried and of these

32 were sentenced to death.

After its completion, the railway was soon put out of

commission by allied bombing, but when sections

were bombed the prisoners were sent out again to

mend them.

After the end of the war the bridges were destroyed

and the jungle soon took over the tracks.

Part of the railway is now open and serves as a

memorial to the men who built it.

A new bridge was built over the river Kwai and the

old one closed as a mark of respect in 2014.

A preserved section of line has been rebuilt at the

National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

One of the notable bridges built by the prison-

ers was Bridge 277 out of 688 – over the River

Kwai and deep in the jungle of Thailand. It was

one of eight steel bridges they built on 18 hour

shifts, carrying supplies up and down cliff rocks

and over water. Elephants walked alongside,

helping to move equipment and using their

trunks to carry out felled trees. Some stems of

bamboo took five or six men to extract from the

earth. All under a relentless sun —

until the monsoons came.

Hellfire Pass was the largest rock cutting on the

railway. 69 men were beaten to death by guards

in the 12 weeks it took to build the cutting.

Many more died from disease, starvation and

The men were forced to build the railway

using only what they could carry in their

hands or on their backs from the camps

nearby. The tools they used were primitive. The Railroad of Death

You are asking me of railroads

And what they cost to build.

I know of one, ‘neath a blazing sun

Where the youth of an Empire were killed.

A long slim line of railroad,

A glittering metal thread.

Built by the blood of my comrades

Twenty thousand of them dead.

You think of gold and silver

And things that money can buy.

They were no avail on that bloody trail

Where men were left to die.

They toiled till their backs were broken.

Till their breath weas well nigh spent.

Then staggered back to an attap shack

Or a battered rag of a tent.

They knew the pang of hunger,

Of pain and sickness too well,

Malaria, ulcers, cholera

In that stinking part of Hell

Think of the shrunken bodies,

Think of the fevered moans,

Think of that thread of railroad

Bordered by their bones.

You were asking me of railroads,

Wondering what they cost.

Remember the one in Thailand,

Remember the lads we lost.

GFVW

An attap hut is traditional housing found in Malaysia and Singapore. It is named after the attap palm, which provides the wattle for the walls, and the leaves to thatch the roofs.

Ronald Searle

'Cholera Lines

–Thai-Burma

Rail-

way'(1943)

© Estate of Ronald Searle. https://illustrationchroni-cles.com/The-War-Drawings-of-Ronald-Searle

The Hell ships

To travel from Singapore or elsewhere to labour in the Japanese occupied Far East PoWs

and forced labourers were shipped out on "Hell Ships". These were requisitioned merchants’

ships, crammed with prisoners in holds with little air, food or water for journeys that might

last weeks.

Japan required great numbers of workers—often enslaved or coerced—and huge quantities of

oil and other raw materials in order to wage war against the Allies, so the ships became an

integral part of the effort to keep the war machine running.

They transported cargo out but brought back human cargo from the lands they had captured.

Because of this dual purpose they did not always mark the ships with a Red Cross, so they

were frequently targeted as enemy by allied forces. It is estimated that 20,000 allied PoWs

died at sea as a result of attacks by allied submarines.

However, the Japanese cargo ships were frequently marked with a red cross.

Extracts from REGULATIONS FOR PRISONERS

“1. The prisoners disobeying the following orders will be punished with immediate death:

(a) Those disobeying orders and instructions. (b) Those showing a motion of antagonism

and raising a sign of opposition. (c) Those disordoring the regulations by individualism, egoism,

thinking only about yourself, rushing for your own goods. (d) Those talking without permission

and raising loud voices. (e) Those walking and moving without order. (f) Those carrying unnec-

essary baggage in embarking. (g) Those resisting mutually. (h) Those touching the boat's materi-

als, wires, electric lights, tools, switches, etc. (i) Those climbing ladder without order. (j) Those

showing action of running away from the room or boat. (k) Those trying to take more meal than

given to them. (l) Those using more than two blankets”

“5. Toilet will be fixed at the four corners of the room. The

buckets and cans will be placed. When filled up a guard will

appoint a prisoner. The prisoner called will take the buckets

to the centre of the room. The buckets will be pulled up by

the derrick and be thrown away. Toilet papers will be given.

Everyone must co-operate to make the room sanitary.

Those being careless will be punished.”

“6. Navy of the Great Japanese Empire will not try to pun-

ish you all with death. Those obeying all the rules and

regulations and believing the action and purpose of the

Japanese Navy, co-operating with Japan in constructing

the New order of the Great Asia which lead to the world's

peace will be well treated.”

From Whalebelly scrapbopoks

“When they were building a bridge at one time there was a Jap who delighted in lying on the top

of the bridge and throwing stones onto the prisoners working below. An Aussie got fed up with

this and secretly left the working party, climbed up to the top of the bridge and threw the Jap off

the bridge to his death on the rocks below.

The Japs immediately did a roll call but the Aussie was back in time. All the prisoners suffered

some kind of punishment but they were pleased to accept this because no more stones were

thrown.”

“One morning after the atomic bomb was dropped, the camp woke up to find that all the Japs

had disappeared into the jungle trying to disguise themselves as local natives.

Since the railway was finished, or nearly finished at that time, the Japs’ plan was to transport all

the prisoners back to Japan to work in the mines and, in the case of an invasion, to use the

prisoners as a human shield.”

“So, if the atomic bombs had not been dropped there would have been no Dad and no you or

me.”


Planes dropping leaflets announcing end of war, over Changi gaol, Singapore.

© Estate of Ronald Searle. https://illustrationchronicles.com/The-War-Drawings-of-Ronald-Searle

“Towards the end of the war a Mosquito

aircraft used to fly along the river and drop

leaflets saying that the Allies were winning.”


In Charge of Burials and Landscaping

In the Moulton photo album was a copy of a letter to an unknown and undated source by

J.N.Farrow of Cromer which described his service as Sergeant in charge of burials and

landscaping at Changi cemetery. He worked there for three and a half years and buried

almost 800 men.

The Company Commander had asked him to volunteer for a job. It was when he saw a piece of

scrubland cleared to receive three bodies that he understood what the job was going to be.

He was brought tree cuttings and shrubs from officers, which in the years grew to be over 12 feet

high and he planted a hibiscus fence which rose to 4 feet to shield the cemetery from the Changi

-Singapore road.

“Just to the right” he said “I buried my next door neighbour whom I had never seen since

the war broke out.”

“The graves,” he wrote, “were to have been left flat but I felt it should be a little corner of

England, so I had them mounded and turfed. This proved to be an exacting task with all the

work we had to do, later I made a wooden mould and it became so much quicker with every

grave uniform in shape and size.”

“As the cemetery progressed we hauled turf from the old Changi barracks … using a hand-

cart made on a pair of Austin Seven car wheels” ...

“The large tree behind the Lych Gate is a cachou nut tree from which we ate the fruit if we

got them before the red ants.”

Image from www.cofepow.org.uk

Kranji Memorial

Dedicated to the men and women from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Sri Lanka, India,

Malaya, the Netherlands and New Zealand who died defending Singapore and Malaya against the

invading Japanese forces during World War II, the Kranji War Memorial was unveiled in 1946 in

northern Singapore.

4,458 Allied servicemen are buried there, of which over 850 of the graves are unidentified.

Before 1939, the Kranji area was a military camp and at the time of the Japanese invasion of

Malaya, it was the site of a large ammunition magazine. After the fall of Singapore, the Japanese

established a prisoner of war camp at Kranji and eventually a hospital was organised nearby.

After the reoccupation of Singapore, the small cemetery started by the prisoners at Kranji was

developed into a permanent war cemetery by the Army Graves Service when it became evident

that a larger cemetery at Changi could not remain undisturbed. Changi had been the site of the

main prisoner of war camp in Singapore and a large hospital had been set up there by the

Australian Infantry Force. In 1946, the graves were moved from Changi to Kranji together with

many other graves from all parts of the island and beyond.

Documents

The Background to the Far East Campaign