76-637: Punggol West SMC Pungool ( PONG -gohl or PUUNG -gohl ) is a planning area and new town situated on the Tanjong Pungool peninsula in the North-East Region of Singapore . The town directly borders Sengkang to the south and shares riverine boundaries with the planning area of Seletar to the west and Pasir Ris to the east. Bounding the town to the north and north-east is the Straits of Johor , with Coney Island included as
152-559: A floating island . The "Punggol 21-plus" project involves 18,000 new HDB and private flats, and about 3,000 new flats will be built in Punggol New Town every year. Punggol New Town is projected to have 96,000 units when fully developed in the long term. Waterfront housing will have stepped courtyards. There will be a promenade on the northern sea front, stretching about 8.7 km (5.4 mi). An integrated waterfront commercial and residential development has also been planned at
228-588: A Corporal Hashimoto. The Japanese also killed about 150,000 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. Japanese camp guards frequently killed entire Indian families or
304-691: A certificate. The unfortunate ones were taken to remote places like Changi and Punggol, and unceremoniously killed in batches. According to the A Country Study: Singapore published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress : 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
380-599: A direct route to the city area via TPE, was fully opened in September 2008. New roads were also built to ease traffic congestion on Punggol Road. In terms of public transport, the North-East line opened on 20 June 2003, and Punggol Temporary Bus Interchange on 30 November 2003. The Punggol LRT line 's east loop commenced operations on 29 January 2005, and the west loop on 29 June 2014, beginning with Nibong , Sumang and Soo Teck stations. An additional station on
456-476: A gym, bowling alley, karaoke outlet and a lounge for members. Punggol Safra was officially opened on 24 April 2016. Punggol Regional Sports Centre was announced in 2018. It was mentioned in Vision 2030 and will open in 2023. One Punggol was announced in 2018 as Punggol Town Hub, it will be an integrated community facility like Our Tampines Hub . The development took its present name in 2021. The Punggol Town Hub
532-582: A harsh policy toward the Chinese population of Singapore and Malaya from the beginning of the war. According to Onishi Satoru, the Kenpeitai officer in charge of the Jalan Besar screening centre, Kenpeitai commander Oishi Masayuki was instructed by the chief of staff, Sōsaku Suzuki , at Keluang, Johor, to prepare for a purge following the capture of Singapore. Although the exact date of this instruction
608-492: A linkbridge across Northshore Drive, whereas Northshore Plaza II opened on 21 January 2022. Punggol Waterway Park is a riverine park located along the Punggol Waterway. Opened on 23 October 2011, the park is designed with four themes to cater to residents of all ages. It also provides residents opportunities for leisure activities such as jogging and cycling which can be carried out along the promenade at both sides of
684-580: A part of the Punggol planning area. Under the Pungool 21 initiative, plans to turn the area into a new residential town were announced in 1996 and development of the town started in 1998. Due to the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and the financial troubles within the construction industry in 2003, the plan did not fully materialise. In 2007, a new initiative, the Punggol 21-plus plan, was introduced to redevelop
760-629: A professor of politics at a university and the co-director of the Center for Research and Documentation on Japan's War Responsibility, writes that the massacre was premeditated, and that "the Chinese in Singapore were regarded as anti-Japanese even before the Japanese military landed". It is also clear from the passage below that the massacre was to be extended to the Chinese in Malaya as well. The purge
836-467: A search of the Chinese community living at Upper Serangoon Road. The location was declared as a national heritage site with a plaque commemorating the victims of the massacre. In the 1960s, basic amenities like piped water, electricity, paved roads, and drainage systems were introduced through government and self-help programmes. It was also at this time that television became popular and antennas could be seen installed on many kampong rooftops. Punggol
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#1732776097528912-410: A second shopping mall in the estate, Waterway Point , has opened, and recreational facilities have since been planned within the estate. In his National Day Rally speech on 19 August 2007, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong offered a new vision for Punggol New Town, and introduced the "Punggol 21-plus" plan to re-vitalise the town. Under the new plan, Sungei Punggol and Sungei Serangoon , which flank
988-412: Is completed at the end of 2023. It includes Punggol Regional Library , a Community Club and a new Hawker Centre which is all opened and a blood donation centre. The boat club has a childcare, restaurant, pub and fishing & prawning pools. It used to be only connected with a small road from Punggol Seventeenth Avenue. Presently, it is accessible by Northshore Walk and bus service 384. Masjid Al Islah
1064-483: Is from an article from the National Heritage Board: 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
1140-615: Is located within the densely populated Punggol New Town at 30 Punggol Field. The mosque serves the Muslim community in Punggol. The Church of the Transfiguration is the latest Catholic church to be built in Singapore and will serve an estimated 15,000 Catholics and is expected to be one of the largest parishes in Singapore. Fo Guang Shan (Singapore) is located at Punggol Place and opened in October 2007. The Temple building comprises
1216-507: Is not known, the Army headquarters was stationed in Keluang from 28 January to 4 February 1942 ... The Singapore Massacre was not the conduct of a few evil people, but was consistent with approaches honed and applied in the course of a long period of Japanese aggression against China and subsequently applied to other Asian countries. The Japanese military, in particular the 25th Army, made use of
1292-464: Is the Monkey God and has a long history of more than 40 years. All of their temple workers work voluntarily and on a free-will basis. There are currently eleven primary schools and four secondary schools in Punggol New Town. Planning Areas of Singapore Planning areas , also known as DGP areas or DGP zones , are the main urban planning and census divisions of Singapore delineated by
1368-644: The Central Police Station . A residence at the intersection of 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
1444-589: The Chinese population in Malaya , which was also under occupation by the Japanese . Concurrently, non-Chinese individuals were also not completely spared in other parts of Asia under Japanese occupation; the Japanese had also killed at least 150,000 Tamil Indians as well as an additional 90,000 civilians in Burma and Thailand , many of which were also forced to work on the Siam–Burma Railway, infamously known as
1520-597: The Death Railway . The aim for such a purge was to intimidate the Chinese community, which was considered by the Japanese to be potentially the main centre of resistance to Japanese aims of territorial expansion throughout the Asia-Pacific. The Japanese had also thought of it as a "revenge" for their perceived anti-Japanese activity in the Sinophone regions, such as procuring financial aid for China after
1596-587: The Huns '. Genghis Khan and his hordes could not have been more merciless. I have no doubts about whether the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary . Without them, hundreds of thousands of civilians in Malaya and Singapore, and millions in Japan itself, would have perished. Chinese film pioneer Hou Yao had emigrated to Singapore in 1940 to work for the Shaw brothers as well as to largely avoid
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#17327760975281672-690: The Japanese invasion of China . Because Hou had directed and written a number of patriotic Chinese "national defence" films against that invasion, he was targeted by the Japanese immediately after Singapore fell and killed at the beginning of the massacre. In 1947, after the Japanese surrender, British authorities in Singapore held a war crimes trial for the perpetrators of the Sook Ching. Seven Japanese officers: Takuma Nishimura , Saburo Kawamura, Masayuki Oishi, Yoshitaka Yokata, Tomotatsu Jo, Satoru Onishi, and Haruji Hisamatsu, were charged with conducting
1748-637: The Japanese invasion of Manchuria and during the Second Sino-Japanese War . As a consequence, Sook Ching was aimed primarily at Chinese political and social activists, volunteers fighting on the side of the Allies , as well as representatives of Chinese triads . In practice, however, the arrests and executions were carried out by the Japanese in a completely arbitrary manner, with many civilians randomly killed in summary executions even if they took no part in any organised resistance. After
1824-493: The Serangoon River as transport. An old market was also located here. The Catholic missionaries arrived here 140 years ago and set up churches and schools. A Malay kampong, which has since been cleared, could also be found at Tanjong Punggol. At the end of Punggol Port Road, Indonesian and Malaysian fishermen auctioned their catch at the wholesale fish market. Between 18 February to 4 March 1942, during World War II ,
1900-596: 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 (NHB) uses the term Sook Ching in its publications. In Chinese languages,
1976-595: The Urban Redevelopment Authority . There are 55 of these areas, organised into five regions . A Development Guide Plan is then drawn up for each planning area, providing detailed planning guidelines for every plot of land throughout the country. The planning areas were first introduced in the early 1990s after the release of the 1991 Concept Plan. Since implementing these boundaries, other government ministries and departments have increasingly adopted them for administrative purposes. For example,
2052-479: The death penalty while the other five received life sentences , though Takuma Nishimura was later executed in 1951 following conviction by an Australian military court for his role in the Parit Sulong Massacre . The court accepted the defence statement of " just following orders " by those put on trial. The condemned were hanged on 26 June 1947. The British authorities allowed only six members of
2128-464: The British. Some were imprisoned, but most were executed. The ones who passed the "screening" 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. There were several sites for
2204-546: The Cheng Lim Farmways and Buangkok Farmways, along with old kampongs and low-rise residential areas. Most of these farms have given way to the high-rise HDB flats of Sengkang New Town and Punggol New Town. Historically, Punggol was populated mostly by Teochews and Catholics . However, the original settlers were predominantly Malays . The end of Upper Serangoon Road is known to Teochews as kangkar or " river bank " or " river mouth ". Ferries were used on
2280-488: The Cheng Lim Farmways and Buangkok Farmways. These farms existed along with old kampongs and low-rise residential areas. All of these farms have given way to the high-rise HDB flats of Sengkang New Town and Punggol New Town . In his National Day Rally speech on 18 August 1996, then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong announced the Singapore Government 's plan to develop Punggol, known as "Punggol 21". Punggol 21
2356-871: The Chinese population. 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. Specific incidents were Kota Tinggi , Johore (28 February 1942) – 2,000 killed; Gelang Patah , Johor (4 March) – 300 killed; Benut , Johor (6 March) – number unknown; Johore Bahru , Senai , Kulai , Sedenak , Pulai, Renggam, Kluang , Yong Peng , Batu Pahat , Senggarang , Parit Bakau, and Muar (February–March) – estimated up to 25,000 Chinese were killed in Johor; Tanjung Kling, Malacca (16 March) – 142 killed; Kuala Pilah , Negeri Sembilan (15 March) – 76 killed; Parit Tinggi, Negeri Sembilan (16 March) – more than 100 killed (the entire village); Joo Loong Loong (near
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2432-598: The Hojo Kempei (auxiliary military police), under the supervision of the Kempeitai in Singapore, rounded up suspected anti-Japanese civilians within the Singapore Chinese population during Sook Ching . On 28 February 1942, around 300-400 Chinese civilians were killed at Punggol Point by the Hojo Kempei firing squads. The victims were part of around 1,000 Chinese males who were previously rounded up during
2508-513: 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
2584-456: The Japanese government. On 25 October 1966, the Japanese government ultimately agreed to reimburse S$ 50 million in reparations, half of which constituting as a grant and the rest as a loan. However, the wording used for this reimbursement was classified as a "gesture of atonement", with words such as "damages" or "reparations" being avoided by the Japanese. Furthermore, the Japanese government continued to refuse to accept legal responsibility for
2660-529: The North East line, Punggol Coast , will commence operations in 2024, serving commuters in Punggol North. Strategically located near Coral Edge LRT station , Punggol Plaza is the first shopping mall in Punggol New Town. Opened in September 2004, it offers residents the convenience of fulfilling all their marketing needs at one place, with an NTUC FairPrice supermarket located on the third floor of
2736-503: The Statistics Department of Singapore published its 2000 census data based on planning area boundaries for the first time, compared to using census divisions based on electoral boundaries for previous exercises. The Singapore Police Force 's (SPF) neighbourhood police centres have jurisdiction boundaries based on planning area boundaries when they were officially gazetted in 1999, as opposed to electoral divisions under
2812-598: The ages of 18 and 50. 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 : 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
2888-402: The area into a waterfront town. Punggol is divided into 11 districts: Canal, Coney Island, Crescent, Matilda, Northshore, Punggol Central, Punggol Field East, Punggol Field West, Punggol Downtown, Punggol Point and Waterway West. Punggol Point or Tanjong Punggol appears as Tanjong Rangon on Franklin and Jackson's 1828 map of Singapore. Punggol , also spelled Ponggol, means "hurling sticks at
2964-483: The book, he expressed his condolences to the victims of Singapore and prayed for the repose of their souls. Mamoru Shinozaki (February 1908 – 1991), a former Japanese diplomat, has been described as instrumental as key prosecution witness during the Singapore War Crimes Trial between 1946 and 1948. Shinozaki remains a controversial figure, with some blaming him for saying positive things about
3040-463: The branches of fruit trees to bring them down to the ground" in Malay . It could also refer to a place where fruits and forest produce are offered wholesale and carried away. These possible names suggest that Punggol was a fruit-growing district. The place is said to take its name from the river Sungei Ponggol . Ponggol also means "a stump of a tree", especially "a high stump". There are suggestions that
3116-472: The deaths being the result of random summary executions , the official death toll remains unknown. Japan acknowledged the massacre after the war, but alleged a death toll of about 6,000, whereas the Singaporean Chinese community as well as prime minister Lee Kuan Yew alleged a death toll of about 70,000 to 100,000. Retrospective analysis by historians as well as the scale of mass graves that
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3192-570: The district's name is based on Tamil ( Pongal , "the feast of the boiling rice", celebrated when the sun enters the sign of Capricorn ). However, the word Ponggol or Punggol is definitely Malay . Located in the vicinity of the Punggol Jetty, Punggol was believed to have existed 200 years ago before Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore. The Punggol area used to be a well-established rural district dotted with farmhouses and farm structures, which were serviced by roads and dirt tracks. It
3268-530: The entire Indian population of whole camps. They also killed Indian families or camps that were infected with typhus , sometimes for sadistic reasons. 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. Due to the lack of concrete written records by the Japanese when orchestrating the massacre as well as many of
3344-502: The fall on 18 February, the occupying Japanese military began mass killings of a wide range of "undesirables", who were mostly ethnic Chinese, influenced by the events of the Second Sino-Japanese War that was raging simultaneously as far back as 1937. The operation was overseen by the Imperial Japanese Army 's Kempeitai , its secret police . Along with Singapore, the Sook Ching was subsequently also extended to include
3420-541: The killings, the most notable ones being Changi Beach , Punggol Point and Sentosa (or Pulau Belakang Mati). 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. At the behest of Masanobu Tsuji ,
3496-468: The main shrine hall, a visitor centre, a dining room, a hall for sutra manuscripts, a columbarium, multi-purpose classrooms, a teahouse, an open-air terrace, car park and other modern facilities. Punggol Joint Temple is a combined temple built in 2007 and is located along Tebing Lane. The temple complex houses three constituent temples, which are Sheng Jia Temple, Tian Jun Temple and Tian Ci Gong (Society of Love & Compassion). Sheng Jia Temple's main deity
3572-485: The massacre, which would include carrying out an official investigation or inquiry of the deaths. No official apology was made. Remains of Sook Ching victims would subsequently continue to be unearthed by Singaporeans for decades after the massacre. In 1963, the Civilian War Memorial was constructed in memory of the civilians killed during the occupation, including Sook Ching. Remains belonging to some of
3648-410: The massacre. Documentation of the screening process or disposal procedures had also been destroyed. Besides, the Japanese military headquarters' order for the speedy execution of the operation, combined with ambiguous instructions from the commanders, led to suspicions being cast on the accused, and it became difficult to accurately establish their culpability. Saburo Kawamura and Masayuki Oishi received
3724-449: The massacre. Staff officer Masanobu Tsuji was the mastermind behind the massacre, and personally planned and carried it out, but at the time of the war crimes trials he had not been arrested. As soon as the war ended, Tsuji escaped from Thailand to China. The accused seven persons who followed Tsuji's commands were on trial. During the trial, one major problem was that the Japanese commanders did not pass down any formal written orders for
3800-562: The order seems to have been issued, was put on another trial in the Philippines and executed in 1946. Other staff officers, who planned the massacre, were Shigeharu Asaeda [ ja ] and Sōsaku Suzuki . But, as Asaeda was captured in Russia after the war, and Suzuki killed in action in 1945 before the end of the war, they were not put on trial. The reminiscences of Saburo Kawamura were published in 1952 (after his death) and, in
3876-464: The other hand, was opened to the public in 2015. Subzones indicated in italics are currently under development Prior to 2000s, Punggol Road was the only main road to get to the rest of Singapore. Urban development into the area has been accelerated with the introduction of better transportational options. The Tampines Expressway (TPE) links Punggol New Town up with Singapore's expressway network. The Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway , which provides
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#17327760975283952-664: The other one being Northshore Plaza. Oasis Terraces also houses the Punggol Polyclinic which opened on 24 November 2017, offering outpatient medical care, X-ray, physiotherapy, podiatry services and women health services such as screening for cervical and breast cancer. The mall opened on 15 June 2018. Northshore Plaza I & II are twin shopping malls built as a part of the new-generation neighbourhood centres by HDB; like Oasis Terraces. Northshore Plaza I opened on 29 October 2021; located at Northshore District next to Samudera LRT station and linked to Northshore Plaza II via
4028-479: The plaza and a food court operated by Koufu on the ground floor. Free shuttle services between Punggol Plaza and Sengkang New Town have been provided since September 2004. Located beside the Punggol Waterway and Punggol MRT/LRT station , Waterway Point is the largest mall located in Punggol New Town. It is integrated with a town square and a visitors' centre which provides an avenue for residents and
4104-497: The present village of Titi) on 18 March (1474 killed, entire village eliminated by Major Yokokoji Kyomi and his troops); and Penang (April) – several thousand killed by Major Higashigawa Yoshimura. Further massacres were instigated as a result of 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
4180-491: The previous neighbourhood Police Post system. Planning areas are further subdivided into 332 subzones for statistical purposes. * = Place names attested to be of Malay origin and referred to similarly in the Malay language. Sook Ching 1941 1942 Second Sino-Japanese War Taishō period Shōwa period Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups Sook Ching
4256-511: The public to learn more about the heritage of Punggol through exhibitions and civic and community events and also features the first underground and largest suburban cineplex in Singapore. The mall had a soft launch on 18 January 2016, and was officially opened on 19 April that year. Oasis Terraces was announced in October 2015 by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) as part of two new neighbourhood centres in Punggol next to Oasis LRT station ,
4332-674: The purge to remove prospective anti-Japanese elements and to threaten local Chinese and others to swiftly impose military administration. After the fall of Singapore, Masayuki Oishi, commander of No. 2 Field Kenpeitai, set up his headquarters in the YMCA Building at Stamford Road as the Kenpeitai East District Branch . The Kenpeitai prison was in Outram with branches in Stamford Road, Chinatown and
4408-546: The speech, Punggol 21, which was part of Cheng San Group Representation Constituency then, became an election carrot for the People's Action Party (PAP) to beat a Workers' Party team led by J.B. Jeyaretnam and Tang Liang Hong . At the general election in 1997 , the five-man PAP team managed to retain Cheng San GRC with 54.8% of the valid votes. However, Punggol 21 did not materialise fully as Singapore's economy
4484-537: The term (肅清, Hokkien siok-chheng/sok-chheng, Teochew sog cêng , Mandarin sùqīng ) means, among other things, "eradication" or "purge". According to postwar testimony taken from a war correspondent embedded with the 25th army, Colonel Hishakari Takafumi, an order to kill 50,000 Chinese, 20 percent of the total, was issued by senior officials on Yamashita's operations staff, either from Lieutenant Colonel Tsuji Masanobu , Chief of Planning and Operations, or Major Hayashi Tadahiko, Chief of Staff. Hirofumi Hayashi ,
4560-416: The town centre, which will be built on both banks of the waterway. The site for this project was put up for sale and named Waterway Point with condominium – Watertown . There will also be other facilities within the town centre, which includes a community club, regional library and hawker centre in the future. Punggol Central will be converted into a tree-lined boulevard with landscaping. Coney Island , on
4636-482: The town, will be dammed up to create a freshwater lake and serve as a reservoir . A 4.2-kilometre long, 20-30-metre wide man-made waterway was planned to run through the estate, linking both rivers. Work on it started in 2009, and was completed on 26 October 2011. When it was built, there will be recreational facilities like water sports for kayaking and canoeing , gardens and parks with jogging and cycling tracks, rooftop gardens , eateries for al fresco dining and
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#17327760975284712-502: 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 ... 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. The following passage
4788-467: The victims were also placed in a tomb under the memorial. In 1992, the various Sook Ching massacre sites around the country such as Changi Beach , Katong , Punggol Point , Tanah Merah and Sentosa were designated with historic plaque markers as heritage sites by the Singaporean government's National Heritage Board , to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the occupation. The Japanese referred to
4864-470: The victims' families to witness the executions of Kawamura and Oishi, despite calls for the hangings to be made public. The mastermind behind the massacre, Masanobu Tsuji , escaped. Tsuji, later after the trial and the execution, appeared in Japan and became a politician there. Tsuji evaded trial, but later disappeared, presumedly killed in Laos in 1961. Tomoyuki Yamashita , the general from whose headquarters
4940-553: The war, the Japanese authorities acknowledged that the massacre took place, but disagreed about the number of deaths that Japan had caused. Japan alleged that no more "than 6,000 deaths" had occurred, while Singapore's first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew , who was himself almost a victim to Sook Ching, stated that verifiable numbers would put it at "about 70,000", including the figures in Malaya. When mass graves were discovered in 1962, Singaporeans heavily lobbied for their government to demand compensation as well as an official apology from
5016-705: The waterway. Located near Punggol Waterway Park beside Sam Kee LRT station on the Punggol LRT West Loop, the SAFRA Punggol Clubhouse is a five-storey recreational facility. Announced to be built in June 2014, the clubhouse caters to mainly NSmen and their families features an indoor water playground and a large eco-themed childcare centre. Completed in 2016, the clubhouse houses 10 F&B outlets such as themed restaurants, alfresco dining and quick-service outlets. Its other amenities includes
5092-406: The whole of the 50,000 people, as after half that number had been killed an order was received 'to stop the massacre. ' " Japanese historian Hirofumi Hayashi wrote in another paper: According to the diary of the Singapore garrison commander, Major General Kawamura Saburo, the total number reported to him as killed by the various Kenpeitai section commanders on 23 February was five thousand. This
5168-470: Was 'anti-Japanese.' Singapore was a crucial strategic point in World War II . From 8 February to 15 February, the Japanese fought for control of the city. The combined British and Commonwealth forces surrendered in a stunning defeat to the outnumbered Japanese on 15 February which led to its fall. The loss of Singapore was and still is Britain's largest surrender in history. Three days later after
5244-525: Was a mass killing that occurred from 18 February to 4 March 1942 in Singapore after it fell to the Japanese . It was a systematic purge and massacre of 'anti-Japanese' elements in Singapore, with the Singaporean Chinese particularly targeted by the Japanese military during the occupation . However, Japanese soldiers engaged in indiscriminate killing, and did not try to identify who
5320-581: Was a new model for housing, which would feature a new concept in housing as a model for new towns in the 21st century. It would have a mix of private houses and high-grade HDB flats grouped into smaller, distinctly designed estates. Each estate would contain between 1,200 and 2,800 units, with a common neighbourhood green. Every housing unit would be located within 300 metres of the nearest LRT station. Schools, libraries, and community clubs would be clustered for convenience, and there would be three commercial centres, including shopping centres. A few months after
5396-567: Was affected by the Asian economic crisis in 1997. Although construction began the next year, it was stopped when demand for new flats fell sharply. Plans were again delayed when the construction industry in Singapore experienced financial troubles in 2003. As a result, only some 16,000 flats, out of the 80,000 planned units, have been built as at 2007. There was only one shopping mall in the estate, Punggol Plaza, and there were no recreational facilities like cinemas or swimming pools. As of January 2016,
5472-635: Was also known for its sumptuous seafood and boatels that provided services like docking and renting of boats for boating, water skiing and skindiving lessons. These seafood restaurants and boatels have since been relocated in the mid-1990s to facilitate land reclamation works. Poultry and pig farms were also gradually phased out when redevelopment commenced in the 1970s. The last pig farm closed down in 1990. Land vacated by resettled farmers were then tendered out on short-term leases for non-pollutive agricultural activities, which included hydroponic non-pollutive vegetable and orchid farms that used to flourish along
5548-435: Was discovered decades after the massacre ranges the death toll at about 25,000 to 50,000. According to Lieutenant Colonel Hishakari Takafumi, a newspaper correspondent at the time, the plan was to ultimately kill about 50,000 Chinese, and half that (25,000) had already been achieved when the order was received to scale down the operation. He said Major Hayashi Tadahiko told him that "it had been found to be impossible to kill
5624-499: Was one of the oldest settlements in Singapore. The original settlers were predominantly Malays . The early Chinese immigrants, who settled in Punggol from the mid 19th century onwards, were engaged in plantation work, mainly rubber. As the population of the Chinese increased, many Chinese villagers were then engaged in poultry, pig or fish farming, as well as farm produce. The last pig farm closed down in 1990. Hydroponic non-pollutive vegetable farms and orchid farms used to flourish along
5700-420: Was planned before Japanese troops landed in Singapore. The military government section of the 25th Army had already drawn up a plan entitled "Implementation Guideline for Manipulating Overseas Chinese" on or around 28 December 1941. This guideline stated that anyone who failed to obey or co-operate with the occupation authorities should be eliminated. It is clear that the headquarters of the 25th Army had decided on
5776-410: Was the third day of mop-up operations when executions were mostly finished. It is alleged by Singapore that the total number of innocent Chinese and Peranakan civilians killed was forty or fifty thousand; this point needs further investigations. Having witnessed the brutality of the Japanese, Lee made the following comments: But they also showed a meanness and viciousness towards their enemies equal to
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