Sook Ching massacre site



Also in Chinatown, at the junction of South Bridge Road and Cross St, stands this memorial to the Sook Ching massacre of World War II. It was near here, in 1942, that Japanese soldiers rounded Chinese residents of Singapore up to be shot. (My dad says that "Sook Ching" means "searching for Chinese" in the Hokkien dialect - not sure about that. Edit: this site says it means "purification by purging".)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Yah you're right to be suspicious of your dad's hokkien.

The Sook Ching Massacre (?????) was a systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among ethnic Chinese, Malayans and Singaporeans by the Japanese military administration, after the British colony surrendered on 15 February 1942 during World War II.
The term sook ching (??) is a Chinese word meaning "a purge through cleansing". Ironically, the Japanese also described the incident as such, although term daikensh? (???), lit. "great inspection" is also used. Although the term "Sook Ching" appeared as early as 1946, it was not commonly used in the Chinese press or other publications until the 1980s.

Popular posts from this blog

Verbal agreement

Dog blogs, plus the I look like my dog "contest"