Did Japan Catch Britain Flat-Footed in Singapore?

he moon like a tray was sinking in the western sea and the deep red sun showed its face to the east. Samah harbor, shimmering with gold and silver waves, was as beautiful as a picture. The men on the convoy looked towards the bows … as the Navy formed in two lines to right and left of the convoy.… This was surely the starting point which would determine the destiny of the nation for the next century. The die was cast.”

So wrote Colonel Masanobu Tsuji, chief planner of Japan’s 25th Army, on the night of December 4, 1941. He was describing the sortie of convoys carrying Japanese forces from Hainan Island to invade Malaya and conquer Britain’s fortress at Singapore. It was described as impregnable. It would fall in 73 days.

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