[The following is taken from Otto Giese’s memoir, Shooting the War: The Memoir and Photographs of a U-Boat Officer in World War II. In particular, the following events take place during the last days of Japanese control in Singapore at the end of the war.]
The jungle around us had come to life. Silent columns were marching. Now and then we could hear sticks breaking and branches brushing against unseen forces. We would often hear muffled Chinese curse words. The so-called Chunking guerrillas advanced quickly through the northern Malacca province, forcing the Japanese to withdraw to Johore. Only a few police stations held out. Heavily armed guerrilla fighters appeared sporadically in Ayer Itam and our village. They usually came at night, thundering along the road in their trucks, their fixed bayonets glittering now and then in the bright moonlight. They paid little attention to us. All the same to us, we posted an armed guard nightly around our provisions shed.
At night the Japanese and Malayan police in the village barricaded themselves in defensive positions. During the day, they took over the village. While the Japanese remained relatively calm, the Malayan police played havoc in the streets. Reprisals were the order of the day. Hundreds of suspicious Chinese were rounded up and thrown in trucks, taken to the slippery banks of the river, and shot in the neck. Their bodies would topple into the brown clay waters and drift silently down to the sea.
The killing continued day after day until the situation reached a point where we felt something explosive would happen. The Chinese sent feelers out to Captain Freiwald asking what he would do if the guerrilla fighters attacked Batu Pahat to liquidate the police stations. Freiwald answered that if the guerrillas left German sailors unharmed and our provisions untouched, the Germans would stay where they were and not use their arms. Otherwise, we would take all necessary action in self-defense.
Source:
Giese, Otto, and James E. Wise. “Surrender and Survival.” Shooting the War: The Memoir and Photographs of a U-Boat Officer in World War II. Naval Institute, 2003. 237-38. Print.
If you enjoy this type of content, please consider donating to my Patreon!
No comments, yet...