Photo 1.-- Here we see POWs from the Sikh Regiment of the British Indian Army which were captured in Singapore. They are shown being used for target practice by Japanese soldiers, probably untrained new recruits. lthough the victims here are believed to be Sikhs. Even so, notice how the men nhve been shoirn nof their long hair band beards. Notice that they are itting on freshly dug ground. Click on the image to see photo 3 showing the results.

The Japanese treated prisoners of war barbarically. This has been well publicized in Western saccountd America and there are many horific survivor stories. Americns, Audtrlians, Brits, Canadins all had horific accounts to tell. Less well publicized is what happened to the Asian POWs taken by the Japasnese. This included Chinese, Indian, and Filipino soldiers. As bad as the Japanese treated Western POWs. Their treatment of Asian POWs was much worse. This puts to lie the Japanese claim that they believed in Asia for the Asians and the racist nature of Japanese imperial policy. wre The Japanese captured large nunbers of Indian soldiers when they took Singapore, the British bastion in the East (February 1942). They treated these men horifically. We do not yet have a reliable assesmnt, but it looks like the Japanese murdered bout 75 percent of the Indian POWs. Here we are talking about the captured Indians that refused to cooperate with the Japanese, not the larger number that agreed to join the puppet Indian Nationl Army led by Subhas Chandra Bose. T he Japanese seem to have taken a particulasr dislike to Sikh POWs. We are not sure why. We suspect it was their long hair and beards. Most of the Indian soldiers captured in Singapore were Sikhs. These photographs were found among Japanese records when British troops retook Singapore (1945).

Photo 1

Here we see POWs from the Sikh Regiment of the British Indian Army which were captured in Singapore (figure 1). They are shown being used for target practice by Japanese soldiers, probably untrained new recruits. The images are undated, but wouild have been taken in 1942 or 43. The Indian victims are seen sitting in the traditional cross-legged prayer position. Notice that they are itting on freshly dug ground. Thy re blinfolded, but surely know what is about to happen. You can assume that are reciting their final prayers. They are not tied down. Their hands and legs are free as they bravely await their deaths. They are spaced out here where the Japanese placed them. Look at the image closly. Each victim has a target symbol pinned over his hear for the soldies to aim at. And there is a numbered board in fromt so each soldier knows who to shoot and his accuracy can be measured. It is unclear the number of victims. It looks like about 15. We suspect there were muiliple groups executed in his fashion. This is all just target practice, not any kind of firing squad execution. All supervisd by Japanese officers. A firing squad usually has multiple shooters for a single or small numbers of condemed prson. This guarantee an instant death. The scene here is very different. Here each shooter is assigned a single victim to shoot on his own.

Photo 2

Photo 2 is posted on the previous page, We see the trainese in various positions with their rifles. You cam see hrir victims in the background, blindfolded and facing them. An officer is supervising the entire operation. Yhy are poduition very close to their victims. We have no idea what the trainees thought about what they were being ordered to do.

Photo 3

You can see photo 3 by clicking on photo 1 on his page. When firing squads execute a coindemned mn, an officr noirmally has a pistol to administer a coup de grace. Here the victims are bayoneted if they re still alive. This task seem to have been perfomed by he different shooters. They may have been required to do this even if their victim was already dead. There lkooks to be a ditvch lready dug where gthe bodies can be burried.

Created: 7:39 AM 2/28/2022
Last updated: 7:39 AM 2/28/2022