Early Japanese Efforts
At the onset of the war, the Japanese IGHQ in October 1941 sent intelligence missions, notably the Fujiwara Kikan, or the F-kikan headed by Major Fujiwara Iwaichi, in Bangkok. The kikan was tasked with intelligence gathering and contacting the Indian independence movement, the overseas Chinese and the Malayan Sultan with the aim of encouraging friendship and cooperation with Japan and destabillising the British war effort in Malaya. Fujiwara successfully established contact with Indian revolutionaries living in exile in Thailand, notably with Swami Satyananda Puri and Giani Pritam Singh, which saw the foundations of the Indian Independence League being formed. With Pritam Singh, Fujiwara sought to establish contacts within the British Indian Army at Malaya.
After the war started in South east Asia and Japan successfully invaded the Malaya, Fujiwara came to meet with Capt. Mohan Singh. Mohan Singh had, as a captain in the British Indian Army, seen action with the 1/14th Punjab Regiment against Japanese forces at Jitra, where his troops were outgunned and shattered by Japanese tanks. Captured by Japanese troops after several days in the Jungle, Singh was taken to Alor Star to Fujiwara and Pritam Singh at a joint office of the F-Kikan and the IIL. Fujiwara, later self-described as "Lawrence of the Indian National Army" (after Lawrence of Arabia) is said to have been a man committed to the values which his office was supposed to convey to the expatriate nationalist leaders, and found acceptance among them. Even before Singapore fell, the Japanese troops had started the process of identifying Indian troops among the captured and separating them from the Australian and British troops. On a number of occasions, it was noted, British and Australian officers were killed, while the Indians spared.
Singapore surrendered on 15 February 1942. On the evening of the 16th, the Indian troops of the now amalgamated 1/14th and 5/14th Punjab were ordered by the Malaya command (of the commonwealth forces) to assemble at Farrer Park. The British officers were, in the meantime, ordered to assemble east to Changi.
Read more about this topic: The Farrer Park Address
Famous quotes containing the words early, japanese and/or efforts:
“No two men see the world exactly alike, and different temperaments will apply in different ways a principle that they both acknowledge. The same man will, indeed, often see and judge the same things differently on different occasions: early convictions must give way to more mature ones. Nevertheless, may not the opinions that a man holds and expresses withstand all trials, if he only remains true to himself and others?”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“In fact, the whole of Japan is a pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people.... The Japanese people are ... simply a mode of style, an exquisite fancy of art.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Whatever I may be, I want to be elsewhere than on paper. My art and my industry have been employed in making myself good for something; my studies, in teaching me to do, not to write. I have put all my efforts into forming my life. That is my trade and my work.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)