Singapore commemorates WWII victims
Over 1,000 Singapore citizens have attended a memorial for victims killed in the Second World War on the country’s Total Defense Day on Sunday. The day marks Singapore’s fall to Japan in 1942 and the beginning of nearly 4 years of occupation.
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Potential Indonesian Presidential Candidate Lays Flowers At MacDonald House
A potential Indonesian presidential candidate on Tuesday visited a memorial at MacDonald House, the site of a 1965 bombing, and lay flowers at the monument in Orchard Road. Dr Dino Patti Djalal, 48, had also laid flowers a day before at the graves of the two marines who carried out the bombing. He told The Straits Times that his gesture was to highlight the fact that this issue is sensitive to both nations. It's a painful period for both of us. Given the fact that this issue has somewhat recaptured public imagination... I think it's important to do this act of laying the flowers at the graves of Usman (and) Harun (the two marines). Referencing then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's conciliatory gesture in 1973, when the Singapore leader laid flowers on the graves in Jakarta, Dr Djalal said: I realise as I look at the issue, one thing that remains to be done is for an Indonesian to pray at the site of the bombing, because these were innocent victims. So this is the purpose of my visit. His act comes a week after two Indonesian marines posed as the perpetrators of the bombing at an international defence event in Jakarta, prompting Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to express concern and disappointment. Indonesia's decision to name a new frigate the KRI Usman Harun, after two marines who were made national heroes in 1968, was publicised last month. It drew protests from Singapore and strained bilateral ties. Usman and Harun were convicted and executed in Singapore for the bombing that left three civilians dead and injured 33 others. Dr Djalal stressed that his visit to Singapore was a personal one, and that his laying of flowers was a people-to-people gesture. The former Indonesian ambassador to Washington is a participant in the ongoing presidential convention of Indonesia's Democratic Party, and is known to be a close ally of current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, having been a presidential spokesman for foreign affairs. But he rejected suggestions that his visit had to do with the upcoming legislative elections in Indonesia on April 9, an important precursor to the country's presidential polls in July. If this were a political thing I would just play it safe, because this is something that is not going to please everybody, he said. But I call this the politics of doing the right thing, and my thesis as an Indonesian young leader has always been that leaders must do not what is popular, but must also shed light on events, and must do the right thing. He added it was totally inappropriate that two Indonesian marines posed as the bombers last week, especially as it was done at an international forum. During his visit to the Jakarta cemetery on Monday, Dr Djalal had told reporters that describing the duo as heroes was apt, given their total commitment in carrying out their orders. Soldiers are never wrong. They carried out their tasks fully, he said. But the Singaporean victims also have to be honoured because they are civilians who did no wrong, he added. He told reporters that the matter was resolved, and Indonesia and Singapore need not reopen an old wound. Now Indonesia and Singapore relations have changed totally, they're peaceful. Both Indonesia and Singapore are pillars of Asean, he said then.
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Sook Ching | Wikipedia audio article
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Sook Ching
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The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
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The Sook Ching (simplified Chinese: 肃清; traditional Chinese: 肅清; pinyin: Sùqīng; Jyutping: suk1 cing1; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Siok-chheng, meaning 'purge through cleansing') was a systematic purge of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore by the Japanese military during the Japanese occupation of Singapore and Malaya, after the British colony surrendered on 15 February 1942 following the Battle of Singapore. The purge took place from 18 February to 4 March 1942 at various places in the region. The operation was overseen by the Kempeitai secret police and subsequently extended to include the Chinese population in Malaya.
Scholars agree the massacre took place, but Japanese and Singaporean sources disagree about the number of deaths. According to Hirofumi Hayashi, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs accepted that the Japanese military had carried out mass killings in Singapore ... During negotiations with Singapore, the Japanese government rejected demands for reparations but agreed to make a 'gesture of atonement' by providing funds in other ways. Officially Japan claims that fewer than 5,000 deaths occurred, while Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first prime minister, said verifiable numbers would be about 70,000. In 1966 Japan agreed to pay US$50 million in compensation, half of which was a grant and the rest as a loan. They did not make an official apology.
The memories of those who lived through that period have been captured at exhibition galleries in the Old Ford Motor Factory at Bukit Timah, the site of the factory where the British surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February 1942.The Japanese referred to the Sook Ching as the Kakyō Shukusei (華僑粛清, 'purging of Overseas Chinese') or as the Shingapōru Daikenshō (シンガポール大検証, 'great inspection of Singapore'). The current Japanese term for the massacre is Shingapōru Kakyō Gyakusatsu Jiken (シンガポール華僑虐殺事件, 'Singapore Overseas Chinese Massacre'). Singapore's National Heritage Board uses the term Sook Ching in its publications.