The Impact of the ‘China Experience’ on Japanese Warfare in Malaya and Singapore

Abstract

Melber focuses in his chapter on the case study of the Sook Ching Massacre which the Japanese 25th Army conducted in Japanese-occupied Malaya and Singapore. He asks why the 25th Army committed this war crime and draws attention to the widely overlooked fact that the south-east Asian battlefields and those of the Second Sino-Japanese War were linked with each other. Based on the personal records of Major-General Kawamura, one of the men held responsible for the Sook Ching Massacre, his analysis shows that the ‘China experience’ of the Japanese leadership in Malaya and Singapore played a key role. In addition, the transnational element of fascist warfare, namely General Yamashita’s first-hand knowledge of Nazi warfare, was a strong influence.

Many thanks to Alan Kramer for the revision of my article which is based on my book: Takuma Melber, Zwischen Kollaboration und Widerstand: Die japanische Besatzung in Malaya und Singapur (1942–1945) (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2017).