The Human Price

Abstract

A high price in human terms was paid in Malaya, Singapore, and adjacent territories, for the Japanese War and its aftermath. On the military side, the Official War History listed 2446 British and Allied troops killed, 2230 wounded and 127 800 missing and prisoners of war. Tragically, the death-roll arising from prisoner-of-war conditions was to exceed the number of those killed in direct military action. In the large war cemetery at Kranji, on the north side of Singapore island, there are 4465 graves; of these, 2445 were British soldiers, 1113 were Australians, 669 were Indians and 178 Malayans. Other war cemeteries are at Taiping, in Malaya, at Medan and Palembang in Sumatra and at Muntok on the island of Bangka. Beyond these lie others in Java, Labuan and in Sulawesi. At the end of the war an estimated 39 000 British prisoners of war and internees were located on Singapore.