Island in the Centre is a 1995 novel by Eurasian Singaporean writer Rex Shelley, which tells the story of a Japanese, Nakajima Tomio, working in Malaya from the 1920s until the Japanese Occupation of Singapore and Malaya in the 1940s. [1] The book won a Highly Commended Award from the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) in 1994. [2]
Nakajima Tomio is a Japanese electrical engineer working for a British firm at an estate in Kluang. In Singapore, he meets and later marries Hanako Ohara, a young Japanese prostitute from Nagasaki. After sending his wife back home during the imminent war of the Pacific, he starts an affair with Eurasian Victoria Viera, a brusque, direct girl who sells sports equipment. As the Japanese plan to take Singapore, he is enlisted by the Japanese intelligence owing to his superior knowledge of the region. Parts of the novel are written in the form of diaries kept by Nakajima, as he attempts to learn the English language.
The Straits Times is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust. The Sunday Times is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was established on 15 July 1845 as The Straits Times and Singapore Journal of Commerce. The Straits Times is considered a newspaper of record for Singapore. The print and digital editions of The Straits Times and The Sunday Times have a daily average circulation of 364,134 and 364,849 respectively in 2017, as audited by Audit Bureau of Circulations Singapore. Myanmar and Brunei editions are published, with newsprint circulations of 5,000 and 2,500 respectively.
Changi Prison Complex, often known simply as Changi Prison, is a prison in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore.
Sook Ching was a mass killing that occurred from 18 February to 4 March 1942 in Singapore after it fell to the Japanese. It was a systematic purge and massacre of 'anti-Japanese' elements in Singapore, with the Singaporean Chinese particularly targeted by the Japanese military during the occupation. However, Japanese soldiers engaged in indiscriminate killing, and did not try to identify who was 'anti-Japanese.' Singapore was a crucial strategic point in World War II. From 8 February to 15 February, the Japanese had fought for control of the city. The combined British and Commonwealth forces surrendered in a stunning defeat to the outnumbered Japanese on 15 February which led to its fall. The loss of Singapore was and still is Britain's largest surrender in history.
The fall of Singapore, also known as the Battle of Singapore, took place in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War. The Japanese Empire captured the British stronghold of Singapore, with fighting lasting from 8 to 15 February 1942. Singapore was the foremost British military base and economic port in South–East Asia and had been of great importance to British interwar defence strategy. The capture of Singapore resulted in the largest British surrender in its history.
Eurasian Singaporeans are Singaporeans of mixed European and Asian descent. Their Asian ancestry trace from Colonial India to other colonies while their European ancestry trace back to western Europe primarily, although Eurasian settlers to Singapore in the 19th century came largely from other European colonies. These included British Malaya and British Sarawak, part of the former British Raj India, of the former Portuguese India and Chittagong, the Dutch East Indies and French Indochina. When the European maritime powers colonised Asian countries, such as Colonial India, Ceylon, Malaya, Singapore, Indonesia and Indochina, from the 16th to 20th centuries, they brought into being a new group of commingled ethnicities known historically as Eurasians.
Lim Bo Seng was a Chinese-born resistance fighter based in Singapore and Malaya during World War II. Prior to the outbreak of World War II, he was a prominent businessman among the Chinese community in Singapore. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out, he participated in anti-Japanese activities in Singapore and then at Malaya.
The Malayan campaign, referred to by Japanese sources as the Malay Operation, was a military campaign fought by Allied and Axis forces in Malaya, from 8 December 1941 – 15 February 1942 during the Second World War. It was dominated by land battles between British Commonwealth army units and the Imperial Japanese Army, with minor skirmishes at the beginning of the campaign between British Commonwealth and Royal Thai Police. The Japanese had air and naval supremacy from the opening days of the campaign. For the British, Indian, Australian, and Malayan forces defending the colony, the campaign was a total disaster.
The literature of Singapore comprises a collection of literary works by Singaporeans. It is written chiefly in the country's four official languages: English, Malay, Standard Mandarin and Tamil.
Force 136 was a far eastern branch of the British World War II intelligence organisation, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Originally set up in 1941 as the India Mission with the cover name of GSI(k), it absorbed what was left of SOE's Oriental Mission in April 1942. The man in overall charge for the duration of its existence was Colin Mackenzie.
Gopal Baratham was a Singaporean author and neurosurgeon. He was known for his frank style and his ability to write about topics that were often considered controversial in the conservative city-state.
The history of the modern state of Singapore dates back to its founding in the early 19th century; however, evidence suggests that a significant trading settlement existed on the island in the 14th century. The last ruler of the Kingdom of Singapura, Parameswara, was expelled by the Majapahit or the Siamese before he founded Malacca. Singapore then came under the Malacca Sultanate and subsequently the Johor Sultanate. In 1819, British statesman Stamford Raffles negotiated a treaty whereby Johor will allow the British to locate a trading port on the island, ultimately leading to the establishment of the Crown colony of Singapore in 1867. Important reasons for the rise of Singapore were its nodal position at the tip of the Malay Peninsula flanked by the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the presence of a natural sheltered harbour, as well as its status as a free port.
Sir Hugh Charles Clifford, was a British colonial administrator.
Malaysian Jews are Jews living in Malaysia, whether immigrants or those originally from the country. The state of Penang was once home to a Jewish community, until the latter part of the 1970s, by which time most had emigrated due to growing state-sanctioned antisemitism. Indications of the growing racial and religious hostility in the nation has caused many Malaysian Jews to leave or flee the country. The Malaysian Jewish community consists of Jews of Sephardic origin who live amongst the Kristang people (Malacca-Portuguese), Mizrahi Jews, Malabar Jews and Ashkenazi Jews.
Mamoru Shinozaki was a journalist for Dentsu and spy for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in pre-war years, a military executive in Japanese-occupied Singapore, and a businessman and writer in post-war years. He is known for the Shinozaki Case in 1940, and for his testimony in the war crimes trial in 1947 for the Sook Ching massacre.
The Japanese Cemetery Park is a Japanese cemetery and park in Hougang, Singapore. It is the largest Japanese cemetery in Southeast Asia at 29,359 square metres, consisting of 910 tombstones that contain the remains of members of the Japanese community in Singapore, including young Japanese prostitutes, civilians, soldiers and convicted war criminals executed in Changi Prison. It was gazetted as a memorial park by the Singapore government in 1987.
Rex Anthony Shelley was a Singaporean author. A graduate of the University of Malaya in Malaysia and Cambridge trained in engineering and economics, Shelley managed his own business and also worked as member of the Public Service Commission (PSC) for over 30 years. For his service, he was conferred the Bintang Bakti Masyarakat by the Government of Singapore in 1978, and an additional Bar the next year.
The Garden of Evening Mists is the second English-language novel by Malaysian novelist Tan Twan Eng, first published in November 2011. The book follows protagonist Teoh Yun Ling, who was a prisoner of the Japanese during the World War II, and later became a judge overseeing war crimes cases. Seeking after the war to create a garden in memory of her sister, who was imprisoned with her but did not survive, she ends up serving as an apprentice to a Japanese gardener in Cameron Highlands for several months during the Malayan Emergency. As the story begins, years later, she is trying to make sense of her life and experiences.
People of the Pear Tree is a 1993 novel by Eurasian Singaporean writer Rex Shelley, which tells the story of a Eurasian family, the Pereras, during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore and Malaya. The book won a Highly Commended Award from the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) in 1994.
A River of Roses is the fourth novel by Singaporean Eurasian writer Rex Shelley, first published in 1998 by Times Book International. The novel was awarded the Dymocks Singapore Literature Prize in 2000.
The Shrimp People is a 1991 novel by Eurasian Singaporean writer Rex Shelley. The book won National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) Book Award in 1992.