By: Germaine Foo-Tan
.Volume 7 Issue 10
A young and beautiful Elizabeth taken in 1933
The worst of times can bring out the best in man. History offers many examples of bravery and heroism in the face of crisis. One such illustration is the Elizabeth Choy story in the Double Tenth Massacre of 10 October 1943.
On 27 September, seven Japanese ships were sunk in Keppel Harbour. Despite a thorough search of the surrounding waters, the Japanese failed to track down the saboteurs. The attack, dubbed Operation Jaywick, had in fact been the work of Force Z, a team of 14 Australian and British commandos. While Force Z celebrated its successful attack, Singapore was made to pay for the devastation to the Japanese ships.
Detainees of the Changi Prison internment camp as well as some hapless members of the public were singled out for the punishment. On the morning of 10 October, the internees were assembled for a roll-call. What followed was a search for radio sets hidden in the prison. Some of the internees had smuggled in radio parts and assembled their own sets. That these radios could only receive and not transmit information outside the prison, or that no one had even heard of Force Z were inconsequential to the Japanese. Someone had to pay for the betrayal and the kempeitai or secret police tortured and threatened the internees with unabashed vengeance.
It was during one of these interrogations that the kempeitai found out that some radio parts had come from a hospital canteen operator, Choy Khun Heng, Elizabeth Choy's husband. Choy Khun Heng was arrested first on 29 October at his Tan Tock Seng canteen. Days later, Elizabeth Choy was lured to the YMCA in Orchard Road on the promise of seeing her husband. She was to spend the next 193 days and nights there in a cell no bigger than three by four metres with only a narrow air-vent on one wall and no windows. This she shared with twenty other people, a mix of civil servants, doctors and businessmen, most locals with a handful of foreigners.
The interrogations were frequent at first and could take place any time of the day or night. The kempeitai liked to alternate between being civil and being beastly in demanding for names of collaborators. She was slapped, kicked and spat at, but it was the electric shock that was to leave her with a life-long fear for electricity. "During the torture, it was impossible to show defiance and be brave; it was impossible to suppress the screams, or to stop the tears and mucus from streaming down her face." But she refused to confess. To Elizabeth Choy, "she could not confess to something she knew was untrue. It would implicate others. It was not right and she could not do it. Not even if it meant more physical abuse at the hands of her jailors." No matter how severe the torture, she always managed to walk back to her cell with as much resolution as she could muster. Typically, she was far more concerned about the welfare of her cell-mates than her own suffering. Her compassion and selflessness, as well as the fact that she remained undefeated to the end won her the admiration of her fellow detainees. In recognition of her valour during the Japanese Occupation, Elizabeth Choy was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1946.
There are many lessons that we can draw from the Elizabeth Choy story. One of them is that her psychological resilience and principled stand helped her in enduring her treatment and interrogation at the hands of her Japanese captors. In trying times, showing care and concern for our fellow man is a show of humanity that binds and unifies. From this unity comes strength to overcome the odds.
Adapted from
"Elizabeth Choy, more than a war heroine" - A biography by Zhou Mei.
http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef ... v07n10_history.html |
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