Operation Tiderace - Japanese Reaction To The Surrender

Japanese Reaction To The Surrender

Itagaki had met his generals and senior staff at his HQ at the former Raffles College in Bukit Timah and told his men that they would have to obey the surrender instructions and keep the peace. That night, more than 300 officers committed suicide using grenades in the Raffles Hotel after a farewell sake party.

About 200 Japanese soldiers decided to join the communist guerrillas whom they were fighting just days before in a bid to continue the fight against the British. But they soon returned to their units when they found out that the MPAJA, which was funded by the Malayan Communist Party, did not plan to fight the returning British.

Nonetheless, some stayed hidden in the jungles with the communists, and when Chin Peng and remnants of the Malayan Communist Party ended their struggle in 1989, two former Japanese soldiers emerged from the jungle with the communists and surrendered.

• Ships of the occupation convoy en route to Singapore, August 1945

• HMS Sussex docked in Singapore on 12 September 1945

• Cheering schoolchildren welcome the return of the British Army on 5 September 1945

• A soldier from the 5th Indian Division stands guard over Japanese prisoners

• Abandoned Japanese Ki-45 Toryu fighters captured at Kallang Airfield

• Surrendered Japanese cruiser Myōkō moored at Seletar alongside submarines I-501 and I-502

• Instrument of Surrender signed by Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten for the Allies and General Itagaki for the Japanese

• Chinese community holding preliminary celebrations through the city streets, with liberation banners