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Welcome to the Museum of
[Battle for Malaya & Singapore]

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Museum Entrance

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Curator’s
Offices

Zhen Yang & Yinn Ray
Curator’s Office
We are a pair of students interested to teach
other students about the Japanese Invasion Place your picture
of Malaya and Singapore through the use of here.
this virtual museum. Enjoy!

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Invasion of Malaya

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Invasion of Malaya

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Invasion of Singapore

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Invasion of Singapore

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[Room 5] Room

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Landings at Kota Bahru
On 8 December 1941, the Japanese 25th Army
landed at Kota Bharu. While they faced some
resistance from the Indian and British soldiers,
the Japanese troops were able to surround them
and forced them to surrender. They then
destroyed British airfields and command centers
in Kota Bharu before heading south towards
Singapore. At the same time, Japanese troops
from the 5th division landed in Singora and
Pattani and made a deal with Thailand to land
their troops and use their airfields there. During
the battle of Malaya, despite the Japanese being Linked citation goes here
outnumbered more than 3 to 1 by the British,
they had several advantages, namely the close
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airfield in Thailand and also a good supply line. Exhibit
The Japanese also made use of bicycles travel
down swiftly through the coasts of Malaya and
ultimately reach Singapore.

HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales
The ship that you just saw was HMS Repulse,
one of the heavy battle cruisers sent to protect
Singapore and Malaya in late 1941, together
with HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Electra, HMS
Express, HMS Encounter and HMS Jupiter.
However on 10 December 1941, Prince of
Wales and Repulse were sunk off the coast of
Kuantan. These ships did not have aerial
support at all and were thus sunk easily by
Japanese bombers. This was one of the
greatest disasters in WW2 and because of this,
the Japanese could enjoy aerial and naval Linked citation goes here
superiority over the British. They could also
establish a good and reliable supply line from
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Japan to send in food, ammunition and Exhibit
reinforcements.

Battle at Jitra
This is one of the first big scale military
engagement between the Japanese and
British. Jitra was mainly held by the 11th Indian
division which comprises mainly Indian troops.
These troops were neither well equipped nor
prepared and when the Japanese started
attacking on 11 December 1941, they were still
setting up traps and communication systems.
Despite this, they still put up a good fight
against the well trained Japanese troops. The
11th Indian Division was pushed back quickly
by the Japanese as they did not have heavy Linked citation goes here
armour or artillery. The Japanese on the other
hand had tanks and thus managed to overrun
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the Indian troops, securing their victory in Jitra. Exhibit
Following that they headed south towards
Penang.

Capture of Penang
Penang was one of Britain’s first ports in South East
Asia and during the WW2, it was called Fortress
Penang. Despite its name, it only had 4 anti-aircraft
guns and 500 untrained troops. When the Japanese
bombed Penang on 10 December 1941 with
approximately 27 bombers, the British could not do
much. Although the bombing did not result in too
many casualties, there was chaos throughout the city
emergency services were not of much use as the
Chinese manning these were incompetent and
untrained. This was made worse when the main fire
department was bombed down and destroyed in the Linked citation goes here
time it was needed the most. On the 17 December
1941, the Japanese landed on Penang from small
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boats. The British soldiers escaped quickly and left Exhibit
behind many supplies and important buildings such
as the radio station intact. Their opening words were
“Hello, Singapore. This is Penang calling. How do
you like our bombing.”

Scramble Order
This picture shows pilots of No.453 Squadron
RAAF in Ipoh responding to a scramble order.
These pilots have to be alert at all times and
respond to scramble orders quickly in an event
of a Japanese invasion from the air. Despite
the bravery and willingness to participate in
these scramble orders, they were ultimately not
able to stop the Japanese as the Japanese
had superior planes as compared to the old
and outdated British planes such has the
Brewster Buffaloes.
Linked citation goes here

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Exhibit

Capture of Kuala Lumpur
Despite the dense jungles and the British
troops’ attempt to slow them down, the
Japanese were surprisingly still able to move
down Malaya extremely quickly with the use of
bicycles and tanks. Just after a month since the
landings, the Japanese troops made it all the
way to Kuala Lumpur. On 11 January 1942,
Yamashita’s army move into Kuala Lumpur and
took over it with relatively little resistance.
Yamashita also managed to find a lot
resources left behind by British soldiers
retreating into Singapore solving his problems Linked citation goes here
of low supplies. Yamashita wasted no time and
continued travelling south to Johor Bahru and
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finally Singapore. Exhibit

Force 136
Force 136 was a secret organization set up by
the British in the 1940s and comprised manly
senior British officers trained in jungle warfare.
However, they could not move around Malaya
dressed like locals or lead sabotages easily,
hence they needed to find suitable Asians. One
of them was Lim Bo Seng. Despite his wealthy
background, he was totally against the
Japanese and wanted to stop them. He
became the leader of the Malayan Chinese
section and under his leadership, they carried
out sabotages against the Japanese which Linked citation goes here
slowed them down, although not by much.
Sadly in 1944, the Japanese captured him and
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he was tortured before he eventually died of Exhibit
dysentery.

Johor Battery
Most of the batteries pointing towards the sea
were placed in Singapore in places such as
Changi and Sentosa. However some of the
batteries were also placed at places such as
Pengerang, Malaysia. These batteries,
however, were not very useful because instead
of landing from the south of Singapore, the
Japanese landed from the north, catching the
British by surprise. Although these huge guns
could be turned inland, they were not effective
as these guns are meant for destroying ships
and not soldiers. Thus the fall of Singapore Linked citation goes here
was partially the British’s fault as they only
prepared for a sea invasion from the south but
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not an invasion form the north in Malaya. Exhibit

Bombing of the Causeway
This picture of the blown up Johor-Singapore
causeway was an effort by the British to delay
the Japanese invasion while they retreated
from Malaya into Singapore. It did: but only for
9 days, as the Japanese had other methods of
crossing into Singapore, such as inflatable
boats. The Japanese also quickly repaired the
bombed section of the Causeway by using
civilians from Johor Bahru. As such, it was not
very effective in delaying the Japanese landfall,
and they were able to quickly continue their
Image from :
invasion of Singapore. This futile effort is prove http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Singapore_causeway_blo
of the British weakness and unpreparedness wn_up.jpg
for war. Return to
Exhibit

8 Feb 1941 Air Raids
This picture of firefighters putting out the fire,
results of the Japanese air raids on 8 February
1941, depicts the Bombing of Singapore.
These air raids happened shortly after the
Japanese landings at Kota Bahru, and it was
the first knowledge the Singaporean population
had that they were now involved in World War
II. There were many casualties, including 61
deaths and more than 700 injured. The air
raids successfully damaged airfields at Seletar
and Tengah, and also affected the morale of
the British defense, as they did not expect the Linked citation goes here

Japanese to have any long-range aircraft
capable of striking Singapore from far. Return to
Exhibit

Battle at Bukit Timah
The is the picture of the battle at Bukit Timah
Hill, one of the major victories of the Japanese
that was instrumental to their capture of
Singapore. This victory was mainly because the
tanks used by the Japanese were able to
overwhelm the British, who were poorly
equipped. This is, once again, prove of the
British weakness and unpreparedness for war in
contrast to the Japanese. However, the
Japanese also suffered one of their heaviest
casualties in their invasion of Singapore here.
The Battle at Bukit Timah Hill was also important Linked citation goes here
to the Japanese, as they were able to capture
vital supplies left behind by the British, such as
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food and ammunition, and also a reservoir. Exhibit

Fall of Pasir Panjang
This is the picture of the Fall of Pasir Panjang,
one of the most famous battles in the Japanese
invasion. The Malay Regiment were valiantly
defending Bukit Chandu, which included a
major Allied ammunition store that held vital
resources. The Malay Regiment fought to the
death under the encouragement and
leadership of Lieutenant Adnan bin Saidi, who
was extremely brave and patriotic. Eventually,
the Japanese outnumbered the defenders and
overran them, torturing Lieutenant Adnan bin
Saidi as he inflicted many casualties on the Linked citation goes here

Japanese army. After this loss, most of the
British commanders reported that the soldiers Return to
were demoralised and exhausted, and thus a Exhibit
surrender was considered.

The Battle Box
This picture of the modern Battle Box, an
underground command centre constructed
under Fort Canning before WWII, was the
headquarters of the British Army during the
later stages of the war, since the Japanese
were moving towards the central area of
Singapore. It served as headquarters of the
British defense by housing many defense
operations rooms such as the Naval Extended
Defences office. Important decisions were
made in the Battle Box. For example,
Lieutenant-General Percival and his Linked citation goes here
commanders decided to surrender to the
Japanese here in the Battle Box as their
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soldiers were demoralised and exhausted, and Exhibit
they wanted to minimise civilian casualties.

Suffolk Regiment’s Surrender
This is a picture of the Suffolk Regiment being
held at gunpoint by the Japanese soldiers. Two
battalions of the Suffolk Regiment helped to
defend Singapore briefly during the Japanese
invasion, but the Japanese army was simply
too strong, and they had no choice but to
surrender. This was typical of the situation at
that time, in the sense that most of the battles
in Singapore ended up with the Japanese
defeating the British as they were better
equipped and had experience fighting in
Malaya and China. Most of the Suffolk Linked citation goes here

Regiment would die while captured as
prisoners of war, and only few survived the war. Return to
Exhibit

Final Conference
This picture is a reconstructed scene showing
Lieutenant-General Percival having the final
conference with his men before the surrender
in the Battle Box. Lieutenant-General Percival
wanted to discuss ways to counter-attack, but
the other commanders were against the idea
as they felt that the soldiers were exhausted
and instead advocated surrender to prevent
further bloodshed. This is an example of
Lieutenant-General Percival’s weak leadership.
He was not decisive enough and often simply
agreed with his commanders, jumping on the Linked citation goes here
bandwagon rather than leading. This decision
made here turned out to be extremely
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important, as it put the people under three-and- Exhibit
a-half years of hardship under the Japanese
Occupation.

Surrender Negotiations
This is the picture of the negotiations between
Lieutenant-General Percival and General
Tomoyuki Yamashita during surrender
negotiations. It was arguably the most
important event during the Japanese invasion
of Singapore. It was here that Lieutenant-
General Percival agreed to an unconditional
surrender because he buckled under General
Yamashita’s forceful and insistent tone. Later
on, General Yamashita admitted that the attack
on Singapore was a bluff, as the Japanese
troops were outnumbered by more than 3 to 1, Linked citation goes here
and they would be defeated by the British given
their lack of supplies. Therefore, this surrender
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was a sign of the British weakness, as they Exhibit
gave in to the Japanese without finding out the
exact situation.

Lim Bo Seng’s Letter to his Wife
This is a letter by Lim Bo Seng written to his wife
Gan Choo Neo in 1944 before he died. He said “I
fully realised the risks involved, but once the job
was started, it must be pushed to a successful end.
My duty and my honour would not permit me to
look back. Every day tens of thousands are dying
for their countries. It is very painful for me to put the
whole burden on your shoulders, but I am confident
you are capable of bearing it and bearing it well. If
there is a God in Heaven, there should be a drop of
dew for each blade of grass. Who am I to doubt his
existence? You must not grieve for me. On the Linked citation goes here
other hand you should take pride in my sacrifice
and devote yourself to the upbringing of the
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children. Tell them what has happened to me and Exhibit
direct them along my footsteps.” He also wrote in
his letter “What a pity I could not live to realise my
dreams. But I have no doubts you will do your best
for them.”

Newspaper Article on Japanese Landing
This is a picture of The Oregonian, a daily
paper found in the USA West Coast back in the
1940s, publishing the Japanese landings on
Singapore. This primary source describes how
the Japanese landed on Pulau Ubin on the
night of 7th February 1942, where the British
did not defend strongly as they had fell for the
Japanese trick and moved all their artillery and
soldiers to the northeast. Thus, by early
morning the next day, the Japanese had easily
captured Pulau Ubin and landed on the main
island of Singapore at Sarimbun. This primary Linked citation goes here
source is one of the few newspapers available
that describes the capture of Singapore by the
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Japanese. Exhibit

War Flag of the Imperial Japanese Army
This is the war flag used by the Japanese
Imperial Army in between 1870 (After Meiji
Restoration) to the end of World War 2. It has
16 rays and this symbolizes Land of the Rising
Sun. This was solely used by the imperial
Japanese Army, although the navy had a
similar design, with the center red circle
skewed to the left. After the Japanese were
defeated in WW2, the flag was disused but it
has now become the flag for the Maritime Self-
Defense Force. It is a symbol that represents
the Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia. Linked citation goes here

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