The Japanese Occupation: Brutal Communalism The three years of Japanese occupation(1942-45) provided a baptism in politics for the masses in Malaya, but it also had untold repercussions for their unity, partly because the similarity of imperialist rule was augmented by the lack of pretence on the part of Japanese fascism, which adopted blatant communalist measures along during its rule. The humiliating rout of the British by the Japanese shattered the racist myth of white supremacy that had been part of colonial ideology; this served to imbue the masses in all the communities with greater self-confidence in the anti-colonial struggle after the war. The experience of resistance against the Japanese was also an invaluable test of the masses' ability for armed struggle and organization. Throughout the Occupation, the Allies relied on the efforts of the Malayan Peoples Anti-Japanese Army(MPAJA), organized by the CPM. The organization of the resistance forces and the co-operation with the Allies was acceded to by the British only at the very last moment of the invasion because they were reluctant to accord legitimacy to the CPM, which was not only the main threat to British imperialism, but also had a preponderance of Chinese membership The political danger that lay in using the(MPAJA) lay in the strength that this would lend to a post-war claim for equality of status in Malaya for the Chinese. This would, after all, dispel the image created by communalist propaganda of the unpatriotic 'alien' Chinese, but in the end, the had to come to terms with the fact that, at the time, the CPM was the only organization in Malaya both capable of and willing to oppose Japanese fascism s to its
The Japanese set about exploiting the communal differences among the people. The Chinese were singled out for the most severe treatment mainly because they were the suspected communists. This was also partly a retaliation by the Japanese for what they had received at the hands of the Chinese guerrillas during the Man- churian campaigns. Between 17 February and 3 March 1942, more than 5,000 Chinese were systematically massacred in Singapore. 22 missive to familiar The kempetai(Japanese equivalent of the SS) generally assumed that high school students, harbour workers, and Hainanese were all The literature on the Japanese atrocities against the communists Chinese is plentiful and well-documented.