With the surrender of Japanese forces in Singapore, interned Japanese troops are put to work on manual labour tasks.

Human chain of Japanese troops moving petrol tins. An Indian soldier watches with a levelled Sten gun. Japanese chain moves and stacks jerry cans from a lorry. Two Japanese cutting grass with hand tools while another pulls a hand cart. Japanese troops working with hands and tools to clear a drain. Troops moving coils of barbed wire and sheets of corrugated metal.

Notes

A well composed film with good coverage from various angles and wide, medium and close shots. For more footage of this subject, see JFU 346, also shot by Sergeant Abbott.

While the shot of the Indian soldier with levelled Sten gun implies a sense of menace and hostility, Japanese troops in defeat proved obedient, polite, and hard-working to a degree that surprised Allied soldiers who had experienced their ferocity in battle.

The loss of Singapore in 1942 delivered an incalculable blow to British imperial prestige, and so there was a political necessity to humiliate surrendered Japanese personnel in public with menial work such as this.