"The Kempeitai mistakenly suspected that this successful sabotage—code-named Operation Jaywick by the special forces—was somehow connected to the British prisoners in the Changi prison. They made a thorough search and discovered multiple radio sets hidden carefully under prison chairs. The British prisoners had not only been physically hungry but were also starved for news outside of Japanese-controlled propaganda.
Fifty-seven civilians were taken into Kempeitai custody, interrogated, and brutally tortured. Fifteen were tortured to death. These arrests and interrogations would forever be remembered in Singapore as the Double Tenth Incident, so named because they began on October 10, an important date in the founding of China’s Republic.
Where had the prisoners obtained their radio sets? The Kempeitai were determined to find out. During one particularly brutal interrogation, one of the internees who had been found with a radio admitted he had obtained its parts from the Choys. While passing notes and food, Elizabeth and her husband had also passed radio parts. They rarely knew exactly what was in each package. And they never asked.
On the following day, a car stopped outside the tuck shop. A Kempeitai officer asked Elizabeth’s husband, Khun Heng, if he would get into the car: he wasn’t familiar with the area, the officer said, and needed help with directions.
Khun Heng agreed to help. He didn’t return.
Alarmed, Elizabeth traveled to Kempeitai headquarters with a blanket and extra clothing, pleading with the officers to give the items to her husband.
The officers told Elizabeth they didn’t know where he was.
But three weeks later, some Kempeitai officers unexpectedly visited the tuck shop and offered to take Elizabeth to see Khun Heng..."
From "Elizabeth Choy: Justice Will Triumph" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater.
such despicable people!
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