The Farrer Park Address - Early Japanese Efforts

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.