Operation Sook Ching, a Japanese Military Operation

Chinese sources list the total number of military and non-military casualties, both dead and wounded, at 35 million. Most Western historians believed that the total number of casualties was at least 20 million. Operation Sook Ching was a Japanese military operation aimed at purging or eliminating anti-Japanese elements from the Chinese community in Singapore. From 21 February to 4 March 1942, Chinese males between the ages of 18 and 50 were summoned to various mass screening centres and those suspected of being anti-Japanese were executed.Reasons for the operationSook Ching is a Chinese term meaning "purge through cleansing".

The Japanese term for the operation was Dai Kensho, meaning "great inspection".There were several possible reasons why the Japanese military carried out the operation.First, the Japanese military were suspicious of the Chinese in Singapore because of the long-standing tensions between Japan and China, and their own experiences fighting the Chinese in China since 1937.Second, many of the Japanese commanders and soldiers were veterans of campaigns in other parts of Asia where violence and executions were regularly used as tools to keep the civilian population under control.Third, the Japanese wanted to prevent anti-Japanese elements from interfering with their occupation of Singapore after experiencing resistance by Chinese volunteers and guerrillas during the Malayan Campaign (1941–1942).

Directive. Shortly after the Japanese occupied Singapore, Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita issued a directive ordering the Chinese population to report to designated areas for screening. The directive targeted five main categories of Chinese:5(1) members of the volunteer force;(2) Communists;(3) looters;(4) those possessing harms; and(5) those whose names appeared in lists of anti-Japanese suspects maintained by Japanese intelligence.In line with the directive, instructions were issued to Japanese officers on how the operation was to be carried out. Japanese officers were instructed to screen all "anti-Japanese elements", segregate them and dispose of them secretly.

How the operation was carried out. After the directive was issued, notices and posters were put up informing Chinese males between the ages of 18 and 50 to report to designated screening centres. Men also went round with loudspeakers to spread the news.These screening centres were located all over the island, especially in areas such as Chinatown where large numbers of Chinese resided.The screening was mainly carried out by the Kempeitai (the Japanese military police) in the urban areas and by the Imperial Guards Division in the other districts. Initially, the plan was for the operation to be carried out from 21 to 23 February 1942. It was subsequently extended to 4 March.The screening process was unsystematic and disorganised. Decisions as to who were anti-Japanese were based on the whims of the persons doing the screening.

Oral history accounts from eyewitnesses describe different screening methods being used at the various centres. In some centres, victims were selected based on their occupations, their answers to questions, or whether they had tattoos. In other centres, hooded informers would point to men who were allegedly criminals or anti-Japanese elements.The men who were fortunate enough to pass the screening process were allowed to leave the centres. They were provided with proof of their cleared status in the form of a piece of paper with a stamp that said "examined", or through similar stamps marked on their face, arm, shoulder or clothing.Some people were spared from the screenings through the intervention of Japanese official Mamoru Shinozaki. Appointed as advisor to defence headquarters after the fall of Singapore, Shinozaki used his position to issue personal protection cards to thousands of Chinese. In some instances, Shinozaki even personally went to the screening centres to ask for the release of men who had been detained.

Thousands of other men were not so fortunate. Suspected of being anti-Japanese elements, these men were loaded into lorries and transported to remote areas such as Changi, Punggol and Bedok for execution. At these sites, the suspects were machine-gunned to death and often their bodies were thrown into the sea. In some instances, British prisoners of war (POWs) were tasked to bury the bodies.Known massacre sites include beaches at Punggol, Changi, Katong, Tanah Merah and Blakang Mati (now Sentosa island). Massacres were said to have also occurred at Hougang, Thomson Road, Changi Road, Siglap, Bedok and East Coast.Due to a lack of written records, the exact number of people killed in the operation is unknown. The official figure given by the Japanese is 5,000 although the actual number is believed to be much higher. Lieutenant Colonel Hishakari Takafumi, a newspaper correspondent at the time, claimed that the plan was to kill 50,000 Chinese and that half that number had been reached when the order was received to stop the operation.