- At age 62, connected to civil defence at Sime Road Camp
- Japanese
occupation destroys his estate house
- Survives
the war and returns to work
This brief handwritten note, dated 3 September 1940,
originates from Sime Road Camp, a British military and civil‑defence
installation in pre‑war Singapore. Tan Piah Eng was already 62 years of age by
this time. The sender, Arthur “C. R.” Burns of Evatt & Co., belonged
to the administrative firm that served as the long‑standing secretaries to The
Bukit Timah Rubber Estates Ltd. His presence at Sime Road Camp reflects the
growing integration of civilian estate administrators into wartime planning as
tensions escalated in the region.
In 1940, Singapore had not yet entered active conflict, but
the island was undergoing rapid militarisation in anticipation of Japanese
expansion. Sime Road Camp functioned as a hub for Air Raid Precautions (ARP),
logistics coordination, and civil‑military communication. It had not yet become
the internment camp it would later be under Japanese occupation (1943–1945).
The reference to “Hut 61” indicates the camp’s hutment‑style layout, typical of
British temporary military and administrative sites of the period.
The note’s informal tone - “Hope you are well and fit” - suggests
a working relationship between Burns and the recipient, likely connected to the
Bukit Timah estate network. It provides a rare glimpse into the everyday
movements of civilian administrators who were drawn into pre‑war defence
preparations.
As such, this note is a valuable artefact of pre‑invasion
Singapore, capturing the atmosphere of uncertainty and mobilisation in the
months leading up to the Pacific theatre of the Second World War for which the
surrender of Singapore by the British to Japan took place on 15 February 1942,
thus beginning the period of the Japanese occupation in Singapore.
Tan would recollect this episode of the war in his letter of
Feb 1952: “.. the depression and the infamous Japanese occupation marred its
progress with terrible effects. I have lived in the estate and see it grow
until the house I was occupying was demolished during the war and although I
still would like to live in it conditions are not what they were”
During these Japanese occupation years, Tan continued
working for the estate under Syonan Gomu Kumiai, the Japanese agency
overseeing Singapore’s rubber plantations.
Tan, already in his sixties had needed to navigate the upheaval of war, loss, and rebuilding until the formal surrender of the Japanese back to the British on 12 September 1945.
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