Lim Bo Seng
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Lim Bo Seng (Simplified Chinese: 林谋盛; Traditional Chinese: 林謀盛; pinyin: Lín Móushèng; April 27, 1909 - June 29, 1944) was a World War II anti-Japanese Resistance fighter who was based in Singapore and Malaya.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Nan'an, Fujian, China to Lim Loh, a wealthy businessman who owned a biscuit and brick manufacturing business in Singapore, Lim came to Singapore in 1917 to study in the Raffles Institution of Singapore under the British colonial government, and later went on to further his studies in the University of Hong Kong.
In 1930, Lim married Gan Choo Neo, a Nonya woman in the Lim Clan association hall of Singapore. They had seven children.
Initially raised as a Taoist, Lim converted to Christianity after receiving strong European influence.
[edit] Life as a Force 136 veteran
At the time of the Second Sino-Japanese war, Lim, a loyal Chinese patriot, took part in fund-raising on Japanese resistant forces and boycott activities of Japanese goods organized by the Nanyang Federation.
On February 11, just before the fall of Singapore to the Japanese, Lim left his family for the last time to the care of his wife and fled from Singapore to Sumatra with other Chinese community leaders, before making his way to India, where he recruited and trained hundreds of secret agents through intensive missions from the military and intelligence point of view in India and China. Around this time, together with Captain John Davis, they set up the Sino-British guerilla group Force 136 in mid-1942. One of his best friends and students, Tan Chong Tee, participated actively in anti-Japanese activities until his capture on 26 March 1944.
Soon after he organized everything in China and India, Lim sent the first batch of Force 136 agents to Malaya to set up an espionage network to gather military intelligence about the Japanese. This updated the Force 136 against the Japanese. One of the Chinese provision shops in Ipoh, Jian Yik Jan, was an Allied espionage base. According to historical sources, messages were smuggled in empty tubes of toothpaste, salted fish and even in their own diaries. Lim, to avoid identification by the Japanese, passed himself through checkpoints as a businessman, using the alias Tan Choon Lim.
However, there were many traitors that led to the downfall of Lim Bo Seng and Force 136. One of their members, Lai Teck, who served as a triple agent between the Force 136, Japanese and the British, leaked out much valuable information that allowed the Kempeitai to pick up several coded messages from Force 136 and capture many of its members.
[edit] Death by torture
On March 26, 1944, Tan Chong Tee was captured by the Japanese. Upon hearing this news, Lim initially wanted to escape immediately, but was convinced to wait till the next morning. This proved to be a fatal mistake, as the Japanese had blocked all the roads in Gopeng immediately after Tan's capture. Marshall Onishi Satoru, the man who captured Lim, suspected that Tan was trying to tell Lim to escape. Lim was caught and taken to the Kempeitai headquarters for interrogation. Strong as he was, Lim battled through all sorts of physical and mental torture and duress daily but he never uttered a single word about pain and refused to give up information about Force 136. Instead, he protested against the ill-treatment of his comrades in the prison. However, due to unhygienic sanitation and the lack of good food and water, Lim became bedridden by the end of May 1944. In his final letter, Lim bade farewell to his wife:
- Don't grieve for me, but take pride in my sacrifice. Devote yourself to the bringing up of the children.
As his condition worsened, Lim was taken to a small terraced prison-house a little away from the main prison building. In his last days of his life, Lim was not given food, water or medicine, although he received some porridge, but his condition was so bad that he could not even swallow the porridge. Many of his fellow prisoners cried to the Japanese soldiers to give him some medicine. The Japanese, however, ignored their pleas.
In the early hours of June 29, 1944, Lim's groans gradually faded away until there was complete silence. Lim was later buried behind the Batu Gajah prison compound in an unmarked spot.
However, after the death of Lim Bo Seng, many of the Japanese authorities softened their stance a little. The prisoners, for a period of time, were given better food. Simple medical treatment and daily exercises in the prison compound were provided for the prisoners.
After the surrender of Japan, Lim's wife, Choo Neo, was informed of her husband's death. Choo Neo later traveled with her eldest son to bring her husband's remains home. A funeral ceremony was held on January 13, 1946 in front of City Hall to mourn the death of Lim. In his eulogy, Colonel Richard Broome said of Lim:
- He died so that Singapore and Malaya might be the home of free people who could once again enjoy peace, prosperity and happiness.
The coffin containing his remains was transported to a hill in MacRitchie Reservoir for burial in full military honour.
[edit] Bibliography
- Chapman, F. Spencer (1949), The Jungle Is Neutral, Chatto and Windus. Subsequently published in 1977 by Triad/Mayflower Books and in 2003 by The Lyons Press.
- Poh, Guan Huat (1972), Lim Bo Seng: Nanyang Chinese Patriot, Honours thesis submitted to the History Department, University of Singapore.
- Tan, Chong Tee (2001), Force 136: Story of a World War II Resistance Fighter (second edition), Singapore: Select Books.
