Chapter 8 - Shōnan: Light of the South

Summary

In March 1942 the military government gave Japanese-occupied Singapore its new name Shōnan, Light of the South. The Mayor inaugurated this great recognition of the gallantry of Japan's warriors, and 25 Army Military Government took over the administration of Malaya and Singapore. After the occupation there was an anti-Japanese movement fomented by a large number of disreputable overseas Chinese merchants who were executed, for the most part without trial: this gradually stopped the unrest and public peace and order were restored.

In Changi a new commandant, Major-General Fukunaga Kyōhei arrived to administer the Shōnan prisoner-of-war camp. To prevent escapes the new commandant demanded that all officer-prisoners should sign a written pledge not to escape, so that re-captured escapees could be executed. The officer-prisoners used the International Prisoners-of-War Convention as their pretext for refusing to sign. They had no case for utilizing it because Japan did not ratify it. General Hattori felt that the local company of guards could not deal with his instructions to the letter so his chief-of-staffconcentrated the prisoners in a single barrack square at Selerang, and kept them so crowded together that normal living conditions were impossible to sustain. There was now the risk of lives being lost and the Changi prisoners all gave in to the chief-of-staff's demand and signed. It was at this juncture that the Thai-Burma Railway was about to be built as an overland trucking route to Burma and as a source of manual labour in the Thailand-Burma area prisoners-of-war were to be used, sent up from Changi [as a matter of fact a large number had been sent before Selerang: editor].

Since the occupation of Singapore Lieutenant Adams and his group had been living in the Shōnan prisoner-of-war camp, starting their new way of life in it. In the southern region the native peoples had been liberated and the Japanese ideal of a Great East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere was preached and realized. Our Army had Japanized Singapore as Shōnan City. Concurrently, a monument in mourning to the souls of the departed heroes of the campaign, the Shōnan Shrine, was constructed. It was put up on the heights of Bukit Timah on the outskirts of the golf-course near the McRitchie reservoir.