How some Indian National Army recruits in Singapore worked to undermine Japan during WWII

World War II spread from Europe to Asia December 1941 when Japan launched its own Blitzkrieg. This surprising move had an influence on the Indian freedom struggle.

Soon after Japan captured Singapore in February 1942, the Indian National Army was recruited from the thousands of Indian army men who had been part of the British-led Allied army defending Singapore and had become prisoners of war.

Supported by Japan, the goal of the Indian National Army was to free India of British rule.

Indian history textbooks are filled with stories of the Indian National Army. Less well known, though, is that there was an active anti-Japanese resistance embedded within the organisation. They believed that seeking Japan’s help for Indian independence was fraught with risk and tried to sabotage the movement from within. This took many forms.

In mid-1942, a long-range radio station was started by Japan and Indian nationalists to broadcast anti-British propaganda to India. It was based in Singapore’s tallest building – the Cathay cinema. A daily programme of broadcasts explained the need for independence, elaborated on the strength of the Indian National Army and underscored that Japanese support for the movement was genuine. It encouraged Indians to unite and rise against the British.

Its routine would be familiar to some media houses today. A morning meeting was held by the Japanese, who were in charge, to decide the focus and news for the day. A script was written in English and given to the broadcasters, who would read them out in various Indian languages.

The Japanese would be listening but were not been able to understand everyone. So some made their own changes.

One of the features was to read out messages from Indian POWs in Singapore to their families in India, telling them that they were alive and well. The Japanese asked the announcers to add that they were very happy under Japan. Some resisted this.

In August 1942, one of the POWs asked to do this was Havildar Shikoh, of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps. A Muslim from Sri Lanka, he had grown up in Lucknow, was 5-foot 8, broad-faced, of medium build and 22 years old. When the station heard his “deep resonant voice, singularly beautiful”, he was asked to join as a regular.

Staunchly anti-Japanese, he flatly refused. But after discussing the matters with some seniors, Shikoh decided to take the plunge.

His goal was to steal or read uncensored documents and pass the information on to the wider resistance network of anti-Japanese POWs and civilians. Soon, he became the voice of Awaz-e-Islam, one of the daily broadcasts.

Using his access within the station, he made a duplicate key to the office of the Japanese news censor. A post-war assessment report says that he then “engaged in the very dangerous occupation of extracting information from the locked drawer of the Japanese director’s desk”.

Once, Shikoh was seen by a fellow India taking papers out. Fortunately for him only reprimanded.

In clandestine meetings with the wider network, he would pass on the documents.

In another close shave, Shikoh was almost caught at the Luna Café.

As Shikoh continued reading out messages from POWs to their family in India, he embedded coded references that sounded outwardly innocent, but the family would understand what they really meant.

In 1944, Shikoh was joined by Upper Division Clerk Inayatullah Mark of the Indian Army Ordinance Corps. A Protestant from Montgomery, Punjab, 26-year-old Mark was thin, 5-foot, 9, a graduate in History and Economics.

After Singapore’s surrender to the Japanese in February 1942, Mark slipped into the city, mingled and lived amongst the thousands of Indians civilians there, till he was caught in August that year. He served as a supply officer in an Indian National Army regiment till March 1944, when he was posted as an English broadcaster at the radio station due to his sonorous voice.

Mark too was anti-Japanese. But his activities had already attracted attention. As a result, his Chinese fiancé Grace Tan had been interrogated about him. Though Mark could not take the same risks as Shikoh, the two men worked well together, feeding the resistance with uncensored news.

In early 1945, Mark was posted to the Indian National Army in Ipoh, Malaysia. By now Shikoh had come under suspicion too, but was able to obtain 15 days leave in April and headed there. He was followed by an Indian spy who worked for the Japanese secret police, the Kempetai, who reported back regularly to his superiors in Singapore.

Fortunately for Shikoh, he was able to remain a step ahead because the spy’s updates made by telephone from a restaurant were overheard by a waitress also part of the anti-Japanese network. She relayed them to Mark, with whom Shikoh was staying.

Arrangements were made and Shikoh joined anti-Japanese guerillas nearby. With them he focused on fighting Japanese propaganda trying to drive a wedge between the ethnic groups in Malaya – Muslim Malays, Chinese and Hindu Indians.

In August 1945, Shikoh started working with Force 136, which consisted of Britons and locals – Malays, Chinese and Indians – many trained in India, to sabotage the Japanese war effort.

Soon after, the war ended and in September 1945, Malaya was liberated by Indian troops. When Shikoh returned to India after the war is not clear. Mark probably stayed back in Singapore with Grace, by then his wife.

Like resistance networks across the world during the war, people of similar views in Singapore banded together. Shikoh and Mark were able to distribute uncensored news – a commodity as useful and as scarce as food – within the anti-Japanese network. For hundreds who were discovered, it meant immediate torture and death. This fear hung over the network every day, so what they did was very brave.

Gautam Hazarika is a Singapore-based author whose book on the Indian Army Prisoners of World War II is being published by Penguin India and Pen & Sword UK later this year. He can be contacted at ghazarika70@yahoo.com.sg.