Impact of the Japanese occupation on People's views towards Singapore (#3)

Living in Hardship
The rule of the Japanese in Singapore not only caused great fear among the people , it also brought about hardship in their daily lives. The war had disrupted trade, which limited the import of goods into Singapore from overseas. Furthermore , most of the available resources were channeled to Japan's war efforts rather than to people . As a result , there was a shortage of goods. Rationing was thus introduced to control the sale of essential items.


goods were also sold at high prices on the black market because of the shortages of goods . some people were able to obtain more goods by working for the Japanese . the situation was worsened by the the decreasing value of the new currency introduced by the Japanese . The Japanese government printed more notes whenever there was a need for money . thus , the currency became worthless .
for example , an egg which cost only three cents before the war , cost $100 at the end of Japanese
occupation

however , people found other ways to survive . to earn extra money , people took on second jobs  .
Many women , a great number of them whom never worked before , joined the workforce .

even young children chipped in to help .

in the morning I would study . when I finished at 1'oclock in the afternoon , we would go and pluck jambu ( a type of fruit ) and other fruits and we sell them on the roads or at changi  market.
- adapted from an account from an interview with victor Tan  who was about seven years old then .

resisting the Japanese
even thought the Japanese tried to win the supports of the people , many people in Singapore
became anti-Japanese . They either joined or supported anti-Japanese movement.

when I joined the war efforts , my idea was simple. it was to preserve our home and protect the land. Our second home was in Singapore, so we needed to protect it , the land. Our second home was Singapore, so we needed to protect it , the land here and its safety .There was no concept of a country then. we did not recognize British rule , and neither did the british recognize us , the british viewed us  ( the Chinese immigrants ) as temporary settlers in Singapore , likewise, we viewed Singapore as a birtish colony. if we were talking about protecting our country , the country that we were referring to would have been china .
- adapted from an account by Tan Chong Tee ,
a member of force 136, an anti-Japanese resistance force .
there were two main anti-Japanese resistance movements in Singapore during the Japanese occupation , they were force 136 and the Malayan people's anti-Japanese army ( MPAJA )



< force 136







< MPAJA
( Malayan people's anti-Japanese army )



force 136 was set up by the British war cabinet in1940 , with the help of a prominent businessman,
Lim Bo Seng . its members comprised mainly Malayan Chinese. the force concentrated its resistence efforts in Malaya by collecting information about the Japanese and organizing attacks whenever possible.

the MPAJA was one of the most organized resistance groups during the Japanese occupation. it was led by Lai Teck , a senior communist leader from Vietnam, and his right-hand , Chin peng , a Malayan Chinese from the state of perak .

the MPAJA operated mainly in the jungles or perak and Johor , it launched attacks on the Japanese troops , policemen and locals who worked with the Japanese. it was aided by force 136 . the role played by the MPAJA in resisting the Japanese was recognized by the British after the Japanese
occupation .