PM: 'The worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history'

The surrender of 'Fortress Singapore' was a grievous blow to Britain and its Prime Minister... and it led the way to horrifying atrocities by rampaging Japanese troops

- By Robert Lyman

TWO YEARS after Britain and its empire had declared war on Nazi Germany — with the country in the midst of a life-and-death struggle against Germany and Italy — a small army under General Tomoyuki Yamashita captured Singapore, crowning for the Japanese the triumph of a blitzkrieg attack down the Malayan Peninsula.

In all the post-war evaluations of the humiliation of the loss of Malaya and Singapore, with much of the blame heaped on the hapless British Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, there was little acknowledgment of just how brilliant the Japanese achievement was.

While spectacular and resulting in what Winston Churchill described as “the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history”, the campaign between December 1941 and February 1942 also introduced to Western audiences the full horror and brutality of the Japanese way of war.

This was something of which the Chinese already knew. During their rapid advance in Malaya the Japanese routinely murdered their captives — British, Indian and Australian. Often prisoners would simply be lined up, hands tied, and bayoneted where they stood or kneeled.

The Japanese had a particular hatred for soldiers who surrendered or who allowed themselves to be captured after being wounded. In their own warped moral code those who did so were unworthy of being called soldiers — as true soldiers fought to the death for their Emperor and refused to allow the humiliation of capture.

Even wounded Japanese were expected to commit suicide with a hand grenade to avoid being taken prisoner.