On February 18, 1942, the Japanese Imperial Army began a carefully planned massacre of ethnic Chinese men in the conquered territories of Singapore and Malaya, an effort to eliminate what the Japanese perceived to be “hostile elements.” As many as 100,000 Chinese men were executed in a purge called Sook Ching by the Chinese. Soldiers carrying out the deadly deeds were supervised by the Kempeitai, the Japanese secret police.
Digging Deeper
The Japanese saw the Chinese as their main enemy in Asia and called the purge of ethnic Chinese “Kakyō Shukusei” or “purging of Overseas Chinese” in English. An alternate name for the massacre sometimes used by word mincing Japanese is “Shingapōru Daikenshō,” with a much less threatening sounding English equivalent of “Great inspection of Singapore.” (This sort of word games is reminiscent of the Japanese calling their conquered slave territories during World War II “The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.”)
