Lim Bo Seng Memorial

Site #2: Lim Bo Seng Memorial:

The reason I brought you here to Lim Bo Seng’s Memorial is because I wanted you all to see a war hero who was tortured because he didn’t want to betray his comrades.

Lim Bo Seng raised funds to support the Chinese war effort after the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. Because of his anti-Japanese activities the British government considered banishing him from Singapore. He hired workers to defend Singapore and assisted in blowing up the Causeway when the British forces retreated from Malaya to Singapore. Even when it was clear that Singapore would fall the Japanese in 1942, he joined the underground resistance movement in Malaya. The Japanese Military Police (the Kempetai) captured him in March 1944 because he was given away by one of his comrades, Lai Teck, who was a triple agent between Force 136, the Japanese and the British.

The Japanese tortured him to find out more information on Force 136 but he refused. Soon he fell ill with dysentery because of the lack of food and the unhealthy living conditions in the prison. He was bedridden until he died. He died on 29 June 1944 and was buried behind the prison in an unmarked spot.

His wife, after knowing that her husband had died, went with her eldest son to collect his remains. He had a proper funeral which was held on 13 January 1946 at City Hall. His remains were then transported in a coffin to a hill in MacRitchie Reservoir for burial with full military honours.