Our Hero: Mr Lim Bo Seng
About Mr Lim Bo Seng:
LIM BO SENG
NATIVE CHINESE
NATIONAL HERO IN SINGAPORE FOR HIS RESISTANCE TO JAPANESE FORCES DURING WW II
MEMBER OF FORCE 136
DIED IN CAPTIVITY ON 29 JUNE 1944
Lim Bo Seng moved to Singapore as a child, he led efforts to raise funds to help China fight Japanese invasion in the late 1930s. When the Japanese captured Singapore, he escaped to India and joined Force 136, a group of resistance fighters organized by the British. He was captured after infiltrating Japanese territory in 1944; despite punishment and torture, he refused to reveal the names of other resistance fighters. Major-General Lim Bo Seng alias Tan Choon Lim was a prominent Hokkien businessman who undertook active leadership in anti-Japanese activities during World War II and is recognised as a local war hero.
Early Life of Lim Bo Seng
Lim Bo Seng was the 11th child but the first son of Lim Chee Gee.
At the age of 16, he came to Singapore and studied at Raffles Institution. He discontinued his education at the University of Hong Kong in 1929 when, upon his father's death, he inherited senior Lim's businesses which included the Hock Ann Biscuits and factories for brick manufacturing.
In 1930, he married Gan Choo Neo, a Straits-born Nonya with whom he had seven children. It was a love marriage, unusual in those days.
The Japanese Occupation
In the 1930s, Lim Bo Seng, under the alias Tan Choon Lim, participated in anti-Japanese activities in Singapore, particularly in supporting the China Relief Fund and also in activities organised by the Nanyang Federation to boycott Japanese goods. Upon the request of Sir Shenton Thomas, the Governor, he formed the Chinese Liason Committee to assist in civil defence. With the fall of Kota Bahru in Malaya in 1942, he, as the head of the Labour Services of the Overseas Chinese Mobilization Council, and Tan Kah Kee organised more than 10,000 men for the British Government to man essential services and to construct defences around the island. As the Japanese troops travelled to Singapore, his men helped dynamite the Causeway.
On 11 February, he left Singapore and travelled to Sumatra with other Chinese community leaders and made his way to India later. He joined the British resistance group, Force 136, and was trained by the British for intelligence work. He then recruited and trained hundreds of secret agents through intensive military intelligence missions from China and India. Force 136 was a special operations force formed by the British and the Chinese governments in June 1942 to support resistance groups behind enemy lines and to coordinate guerilla operations in support of the eventual British invasion of Malaya.
In May 1943, he sent the first batch of Force 136 agents to Malaya to conduct the operation codenamed Gustavus. The operation aims to establish an espionage network in Malaya and Singapore to gather military intelligence about the Japanese forces to aid the British in planning their re-capture of the colonies from the Japanese, codenamed Operation Zipper. It was set up in the urban areas in Pangkor, Lumut, Tapah and Ipoh. One of the Chinese provision shops in Ipoh, Jian Yik Jan, was used as an Allied espionage base. Communications between the agents were done by smuggling messages in empty toothpaste tubes, salted fish and diaries. Lim arrived in Malaya in November 1943 and used the alias Tan Choon Lim to avoid identification by the Japanese, claiming to be a businessman when he passed through checkpoints.
Operation Gustavus failed before the agents managed to achieve any results. An unknown communist guerrilla was captured by the Japanese in January 1944 and they revealed the existence of the Allied spy network operating on Pangkor Island. The Japanese launched a full-scale counter espionage operation on the island and by late March 1944, more than 200 Japanese soldiers had landed on Pangkor Island.
On March 24, the Japanese Kempeitai arrested a fisherman, Chua Koon Eng, at Teluk Murrek on the Perak coast. He was working on Pangkor Island when Li Han Kwang of Force 136 approached him and requested to use his boat for their communications. He also told the Kempeitai what he knew when the Kempeitai threatened to kill civilians. Li Han Kwang was later captured by the Japanese and he confirmed Chua's accounts of Force 136 under torture and then began to feign cooperation with the Japanese in order to escape captivity.
Lim Bo Seng was captured by the Japanese under Marshal Onishi Satoru at a roadblock in Gopeng the next day. He was taken to the Kempeitai headquarters for interrogation but he refused to provide the Japanese with any information about Force 136 despite being subjected to severe torture. Instead, he protested against the ill-treatment of his comrades in prison. He fell ill with dysentery and was bedridden by the end of May 1944. He died in the early hours on June 29, 1944. He was later buried behind the Batu Gajah prison compound in an unmarked spot.
Capture and Death
After the Japanese surrender, Lim Bo Seng's wife, Gan Choo Neo, was informed of her husband's death by the priest of St. Andrew's School. She travelled with her eldest son to bring her husband's remains home later. A funeral service was held on 13 January 1946 at City Hall to mourn Lim's death. Lim Bo Seng's remains was transported in a coffin to a hill in MacRitchie Reservoir for burial with full military honours. He was posthumously awarded the rank of Major-General by the Chinese Nationalist Government.
Timeline
1930s: Participated in anti-Japanese activities in Singapore
Jan 1942: Provided Chinese labour to British Governments to man essential services and build defence positions.
Feb 1942: Escaped to India before Singapore fell. Underwent British intelligence training in Kahdakvasla, near Bombay in the latter part of 1942.
Apr 1943: Recruited Malayan Chinese students studying in Chongqing, China for subversive work in Malaya.
Nov 1943: Landed in Malaya by submarine and set up intelligence network in Pangkor, Lumut, Tapah and Ipoh.
27 Mar 1944: Captured by the Japanese.
29 Jun 1944: Died in Batu Gajah Jail under Japanese torture and because of severe malnutrition.
13 Jan 1946: The British brought Lim's remains to Singapore and reburied him with full military honours at MacRitchie Reservoir.
1954: The Lim Bo Seng memorial, a 3.5 m high pagoda, was officially unveiled at the Esplanade to remember the sacrifice he had given for the country.
SOURCES:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hero
http://socyberty.com/people/what-makes-a-hero/
http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/50734.html
http://www.adrr.com/story/hero.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/lim-bo-seng
Videos
Here are some of the videos that we have found in tribute to Mr Lim Bo Seng, our war hero.
History of Mr Lim Bo Seng (chinese subtitles - Maple Version)
credit:MidnightHorrors @ YT
Mr Lim Bo Seng's History (Maple Version)
credit: Chocolated910 @ YT
An Adaptation of Mr Lim Bo Seng's story
credit:perpetualmobilefilms @ YT
An Adaptation of the life of Singapore Hero Mr Lim Bo Seng (Force 136)
credit: irene89ruffia @ YT
World War 2 The Battle Of The Rights
credit: Connectzfull @ YT
This video may not show everything about Mr Lim Bo Seng, but it shows us how our forefathers stood by to defend Singapore.
The Details of Singapore WW2 Heroes
credit: jimmeng3395 @ YT
Do take note that for Mr Tan Kah Kee's profile, he was born on October 21 1874 and passed away on August 12, 1961.
The Price of Peace
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/hYTo-6YXNpM/
~ End of Part 1 ~
~ To be continued with Part 2... ~ :D
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