Selarang Barracks incident

About

On 30 August 1942, British and Australian prisoners-of-war (POWs) revolted against their Japanese captors in the Selarang Barracks camps in Changi, Singapore. The Japanese had recaptured four POWs who escaped from the camps, and required that the other prisoners sign a pledge not to escape. After they refused, they were forced to crowd in the areas around the barracks square for nearly five days with little water and no sanitation. The executions of the recaptured POWs failed to break the men. The commanders, however, finally capitulated on 5 September when their men started to fall ill and die from dysentery. Upon signing the pledge, the men were allowed to return to the barracks buildings.