Singapore: The Japanese Version

Book excerpt: Originally published in 1960, the author of this book is one of the planners of the Imperial Japanese Army’s invasion of Malaya and the capture of Singapore—Colonel Masanobu Tsuji himself. In it, he “unreservedly attributes Japan’s victory in Malaya to the patriotic fervour and self-sacrifice of the frontline officers and men of her 25th Army, which, in advancing six hundred miles and capturing Singapore in seventy days, achieved one of the decisive victories of World War II and accomplished a feat unparalleled in military history. [...] For the first time in history an army carried out “a blitzkrieg on bicycles”, astounding the world by the sureness and rapidity of its advance, and exploding the myth of the impregnability of Singapore—which, as Colonel Tsuji emphasizes, had no rear defences, a fact he states was unknown to Winston Churchill at the time. [...] Colonel Tsuji’s career proves him a master planner and an outstanding field officer. He now appears as an excellent writer and is to be congratulated upon his book, and also upon the motives which led to his escape from the Allied forces after the national surrender [...].”