Old YMCA Building
In Syonan (as Singapore was called during the Japanese occupation), the Kempeitai came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War in Tokyo. It was led by Oishi Masayuki, with his headquarters at the old YMCA, which also served as the East District Branch. There were about 200 regular Kempeitai in Singapore but 1,000 auxiliaries were recruited from the army. The Kempeitai jail was in Outram, with branches in Stamford Road, Chinatown, and the Central Police Station. A former residence at Smith Street in Chinatown formed the Kempeitai West District Branch.
The YMCA also served as a prison for people suspected of being anti-Japanese. Typically, prisoners were cramped into small cells and forced to be motionless and absolutely silent. Those arrested would be tortured for the purpose of extracting names of anti-Japanese accomplices from them; refusal to offer such names led to further punishment. Should a prisoner surrender under the torment, any person identified by him as a "subversive force" would be sentenced to death or imprisonment.
Read more about this topic: Kempeitai East District Branch
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