Selarang Barracks incident

The Selarang Barracks incident, also known as the Barrack Square incident or the Selarang Square Squeeze, was a revolt of British and Australian prisoners-of-war (POWs) interned in a Japanese camp in Changi, Singapore.

The events started on 30 August 1942 after the Japanese recaptured four POWs escaped from the Selarang Barracks 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.

Built in 1938, the Selarang Barracks was part of the Changi Garrison, a heavily fortified coastal defence where most of the British forces were based during the Battle of Singapore. The Selarang Barracks housed the 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders, a British Army infantry regiment which recruited its soldiers mainly from North East Scotland. The Royal Engineers and the 9th Coastal Artillery Regiment of the Royal Artillery were based in nearby Kitchener Barracks and Roberts Barracks respectively. After the British surrender of Singapore on 15 February 1942, Allied POWs were ordered by the Japanese to march to Changi for internment. As the British-built Changi Prison was already crowded with Allied POWs and civilians, the surrounding barracks including Selarang Barracks were used by the Japanese as a holding area for Australian and British POWs.

On 30 August 1942, as a pre-emptive measure, the newly arrived Japanese Commander General Shimpei Fukuye wanted the wholly British and Australian POWs interned at Selarang Barracks in Changi to sign a "No Escape Pledge" after the recapture of four escaped prisoners from Changi Prison earlier. The four escapees were Australian Corporal Rodney Breavington and Private Victor Gale, and English soldiers, Private Harold Waters and Private Eric Fletcher. The pledge reads: "I the undersigned, hereby solemnly swear on my honour that I will not, under any circumstances, attempt to escape." With three exceptions, everyone refused to sign, because the prisoners saw it as their duty to escape if they could. Under the Geneva Convention, POWs had the right to attempt to escape and they were not supposed to be punished if they were recaptured. However, at that time, Japan was not a signatory to the Geneva Convention. General Fukuye was furious at the mass display of insubordination and the following day he ordered all prisoners, except the three who had agreed to sign, to congregate at the parade square in Selarang Barracks. What ensued was to become known as the "Selarang Barracks Incident".

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