History Project Parit Sulong WWII Massacre Site (1942-1945) Japanese set their sights on Malaya and Singapore

re as they specialised in the rubber and tin industry and was a trading port, respectively. Japanese sank ships near Kelantan East Coast using torpedos Soldiers drowned British tried to stop the war by sending out Allied Forces soldiers (Australians and Young Indians) to fight against the Japanese Allied Forces lost and were given 2 days to evacuate injured soldiers Prisoners were shot/burnt/hacked by Japanese Bones and skulls can still be dug up til today After massacre was over, Henderson, a surviving soldier, crawled out of the decomposing body he was hiding in (hiding from Japanese soldiers) and told the world about the massacre. Memorial was built for soldiers who died and can be found near Simpankiri River. On January 23, 1942, the Parit Sulong Massacre was committed against Allied soldiers by members of the Imperial Guard Divisions of the Imperial Japanese Army. A few days earlier, the Allied troops had ambushed the Japanese near Gemas and blown up a bridge there. During the Battle of Muar, members of both the Australian 8th Division and the 45th Indian Infantry Brigade were making a fighting withdrawal when they became surrounded near the bridge at Parit Sulong. The Allies fought the larger Japanese forces for two days until they ran low on ammunition and food. Able-bodied soldiers were ordered to disperse into the jungle, the only way they could return to Allied lines. Approximately 150 Australians and Indians were too badly injured to move, and their only option was surrender. Some accounts estimate that as many as 300 Allied troops were taken prisoner at Parit Sulong. The wounded prisoners of war were kicked and beaten with rifle butts by the Imperial Guards. At least some were tied up with wire in the middle of the road, machine-gunned, had petrol poured over them, were set alight and (in the words of Russell Braddon) were "after their incineration [were] systematically run over, back and forwards, by Japanese driven trucks."[1] Anecdotal accounts by local people also reported POWs being tied together with wire and forced to stand on a bridge, before a Japanese soldier shot one, causing the rest to fall into the Simpang Kiri river and drown.