Editing Sook Ching (section)

==Purge==

===Screening===
{{Main|Kenpeitai East District Branch}}
After the fall of Singapore, Masayuki Oishi, commander of No. 2 Field Kenpeitai, set up his headquarters in the [[Old YMCA Building|YMCA Building]] at [[Stamford Road]] as the [[Kenpeitai East District Branch]]. The Kenpeitai prison was in [[Outram, Singapore|Outram]] with branches in Stamford Road, [[Chinatown, Singapore|Chinatown]] and the [[South Bridge Road|Central Police Station]]. A residence at the intersection of [[Smith Street, Singapore|Smith Street]] and [[New Bridge Road]] formed the [[Kenpeitai West District Branch]].

Under Oishi's command were 200 regular Kenpeitai officers and another 1000 auxiliaries, who were mostly young and rough peasant soldiers. Singapore was divided into sectors with each sector under the control of an officer. The Japanese set up designated "screening centres" all over Singapore to gather and "screen" Chinese males between the ages of 18 and 50.<ref name="s1942.org.sg">{{cite web|title=Japanese Occupation|url=http://www.s1942.org.sg/s1942/dir_defence7.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090222200626/http://www.s1942.org.sg/s1942/dir_defence7.htm|archive-date=22 February 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQvvNdxSTgw|title=History of Singapore 新加坡的歷史 (II) Part 2|date=16 October 2008|work=YouTube|access-date=10 May 2015|archive-date=25 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140925131550/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQvvNdxSTgw|url-status=dead}}</ref> Those who were thought to be "anti-Japanese" would be eliminated. Sometimes, women and children were also sent for inspection as well.

According to Kevin Blackburn, associate professor at [[Nanyang Technological University]]:

{{blockquote|The screening and identification process for 'anti-Japanese' Chinese proved little more than a device to prevent Chinese resistance to a general massacre. In practice, Japanese troops did not adhere to any criteria for screening 'anti-Japanese' elements, despite an order on paper listing the types of people who were 'anti-Japanese', such as communists, volunteers who had fought with the British forces, businessmen who had financed the resistance to the Japanese invasion of China, and gangsters ...}}

{{blockquote|However, the process of screening was, in practice, far more indiscriminate. At one screening center, all Chinese males who walked through one particular entrance was taken away in trucks to be shot, while those who happened to take another pathway were released.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Blackburn |first1=Kevin |title=The Collective Memory of the Sook Ching Massacre and the Creation of the Civilian War Memorial of Singapore |journal=Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society |date=2000 |volume=2 |issue=279 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41493428|pages=75|jstor=41493428 }}</ref>}}

The following passage is from an article from the National Heritage Board:

{{blockquote|The inspection methods were indiscriminate and non-standardised. Sometimes, hooded informants identified suspected anti-Japanese Chinese; other times, Japanese officers singled out "suspicious" characters at their whim and fancy. Those who survived the inspection walked with "examined" stamped on their faces, arms or clothing; some were issued a certificate. The unfortunate ones were taken to remote places like Changi and Punggol, and unceremoniously killed in batches.<ref name="Sook Ching Centre"/>}}

According to the ''A Country Study: Singapore'' published by the Federal Research Division of the [[Library of Congress]]:

{{blockquote|All Chinese males from ages eighteen to fifty were required to report to registration camps for screening. The Japanese or military police arrested those alleged to be anti-Japanese, meaning those who were singled out by informers or who were teachers, journalists, intellectuals, or even former servants of the British. Some were imprisoned, but most were executed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Singapore : a country study |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/90025755/ |access-date=2022-08-23 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref>}}

The ones who passed the "screening"<ref name="s1942.org.sg"/> received a piece of paper bearing the word "examined" or have a square ink mark stamped on their arms or shirts. Those who failed were stamped with triangular marks instead. They were separated from the others and packed into trucks near the centres and sent to the killing sites.

===Execution===
There were several sites for the killings, the most notable ones being [[Changi Beach Park|Changi Beach]], [[Punggol Point]] and [[Sentosa]] (or Pulau Belakang Mati).

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Massacre sites !! Description
|-
| [[Punggol Point]] || The Punggol Point Massacre saw about 300 to 400 Chinese shot on 28 February 1942 by the Hojo Kempei firing squad. The victims were some of the 1,000 Chinese men detained by the Japanese after a door-to-door search along Upper Serangoon Road. Several of these had tattoos, a sign that they might be [[triad (underground society)|triad]] members.
|-
| [[Changi Beach]]/Changi Spit Beach || On 20 February 1942, 66 Chinese males were lined up along the edge of the sea and shot by the military police. The beach was the first of the killing sites of the Sook Ching. Victims were from the Bukit Timah/Stevens Road area.
|-
| Changi Road 8-mile section (ms) || Massacre site found at a plantation area (formerly Samba Ikat village) contained remains of 250 victims from the vicinity.
|-
| [[Hougang]] 8 ms || Six lorry loads of people were reported to have been massacred here.
|-
| Katong 7 ms || 20 trenches for burying the bodies of victims were dug here.
|-
| Beach opposite 27 Amber Road || Two lorry loads of people were said to have been massacred here. The site later became a car park.
|-
| Tanah Merah Beach/Tanah Merah Besar Beach || 242 victims from Jalan Besar were massacred here. The site later became part of the Changi airport runway.
|-
| Sime Road off Thomson Road || Massacre sites found near a golf course and villages in the vicinity.
|-
| Katong, East Coast Road|| 732 victims from Telok Kurau School
|-
| Siglap area || Massacre site near Bedok South Avenue/Bedok South Road (previously known as Jalan Puay Poon)
|-
| Belakang Mati Beach, off the Sentosa Golf Course|| Surrendered British gunners awaiting Japanese internment buried some 300 bullet-ridden corpses washed up on the shore of Sentosa. They were civilians who were transported from the docks at Tanjong Pagar to be killed at sea nearby.<ref name="eresources.nlb.gov.sg"/>
|}

In a quarterly newsletter, the National Heritage Board published the account of the life story of a survivor named Chia Chew Soo, whose father, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters were bayoneted one by one by Japanese soldiers in Simpang Village.<ref>{{cite web|title=Newsletter of the National Heritage Board April – June 2003 p. 5 Memories of War – National Archives of Singapore|url=http://www.nhb.gov.sg/resources/Online_Newsletter/heritageVol9Issue2.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717031343/http://www.nhb.gov.sg/resources/Online_Newsletter/heritageVol9Issue2.pdf|archive-date=17 July 2011}}</ref>

===Extension to Chinese community of Malaya===
At the behest of [[Masanobu Tsuji]], the Japanese High Command's Chief of Planning and Operations, Sook Ching was extended to the rest of Malaya. However, due to a far wider population distribution across urban centres and vast rural regions, the Chinese population in Malaya was less concentrated and more difficult to survey. Lacking sufficient time and manpower to organise a full "screening", the Japanese opted instead to conduct widespread and indiscriminate massacres of the Chinese population.<ref>''Lords of the Rim'' by [[Sterling Seagrave]]</ref><ref>''Southeast Asian culture and heritage in a globalising world: diverging identities in a dynamic region: heritage, culture, and identity'' eds. Brian J. Shaw, Giok Ling Ooi. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009. Chapter 6 "Nation-Building, Identity and War Commenmoration Spaces in Malaysia and Singapore", article by Kevin Blackburn, pp.93–111</ref> The primary bulk of the killings were conducted between February and March, and were largely concentrated in the southern states of Malaya, closer to Singapore.

====Targeted locations====
Specific incidents were [[Kota Tinggi]], [[Johor]]e (28 February 1942)&nbsp;– 2,000 killed; [[Gelang Patah]], Johor (4 March)&nbsp;– 300 killed; [[Benut]], Johor (6 March)&nbsp;– number unknown; [[Johor Bahru|Johore Bahru]], [[Senai]], [[Kulai]], [[Sedenak]], Pulai, Renggam, [[Kluang]], [[Yong Peng]], [[Batu Pahat]], [[Senggarang (Malaysia)|Senggarang]], Parit Bakau, and [[Muar town|Muar]] (February–March)&nbsp;– estimated up to 25,000 Chinese were killed in Johor; Tanjung Kling, [[Malacca]] (16 March)&nbsp;– 142 killed; [[Kuala Pilah]], [[Negeri Sembilan]] (15 March)&nbsp;– 76 killed; Parit Tinggi, Negeri Sembilan (16 March)&nbsp;– more than 100 killed (the entire village);<ref>{{cite news|title=Jap General to face a firing squad|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19471014-1.2.18|work=The Straits Times|date=14 October 1947|page=1}}</ref> Joo Loong Loong (near the present village of Titi) on 18 March (1474 killed, entire village eliminated by Major Yokokoji Kyomi and his troops);<ref>{{cite news|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19480103-1.2.80|title=990 killings alleged|work=The Straits Times|date=3 January 1948|page=8}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title= Massacre in Titi- Kuala Klawang, Jelebu District, Negeri Sembilan state, Malaysia  |url=http://www.atrocityinns.net/masacretiti.html |website=www.atrocityinns.net |access-date=21 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211218042432/http://atrocityinns.net/masacretiti.html|archive-date=18 December 2021|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Penang]] (April)&nbsp;– several thousand killed by Major Higashigawa Yoshimura. Further massacres were instigated as a result of [[Anti-Japanese movement in Malaya|increased guerilla activity in Malaya]], most notably at Sungei Lui, a village of 400 in [[Jempol District]], Negeri Sembilan, which was wiped out on 31 July 1942 by troops under a Corporal Hashimoto.

===Mass murder of Tamils of Malaya and Singapore===
The Japanese also killed about 150,000 [[Tamil People|Tamil]] Indians in Thailand and Myanmar during the war, although it is believed that the true number of deaths is much higher for the Tamil Indians. It excludes the death toll of the [[Malayali]] Indians. The Indians came from Singapore or Malaya under Japanese supervision.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/The-real-Kwai-killed-over-1.50-lakh-Tamils/article14593113.ece | title = The real Kwai killed over 1.50 lakh Tamils | work = [[The Hindu]] |access-date = September 21, 2016|date = August 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220618032742/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/The-real-Kwai-killed-over-1.50-lakh-Tamils/article14593113.ece|archive-date=18 June 2022|url-status=live}}</ref>

Japanese camp guards frequently killed entire Indian families or the entire Indian population of whole camps. They also killed Indian families or camps that were infected with [[typhus]], sometimes for sadistic reasons.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GnY-AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA158|title=The Railway Man: A POW's Searing Account of War, Brutality and Forgiveness by Eric Lomax| page=158|isbn=9780393344073|last1=Lomax|first1=Eric|date=11 April 2014|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company }}</ref> Aside from killing the Indians, Japanese soldiers often gang raped Tamil women after which they would force other Indian coolies to rape the Indian women.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kyoto-seika.ac.jp/researchlab/wp/wp-content/uploads/kiyo/pdf-data/no25/david.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=27 February 2020 |archive-date=6 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210106062941/https://www.kyoto-seika.ac.jp/researchlab/wp/wp-content/uploads/kiyo/pdf-data/no25/david.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>