End of the Occupation

On the 6th and 9th of August, 1945, US B-29 bombers dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It had been about 3 years and 8 months since the Japanese first bombed United States naval base, Pearl Harbor. The United States had remained a neutral party during World War II until the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a decisive move in ending the Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia. By this time, the Japanese forces had lost their will to continue the war and allowed Allied forces to send in reinforcements and food supplies. Prisoners-of-war were checked by the medical officers and arrangements were made to send them home.

On 12 September 1945, huge crowds gathered at the Padang and cheered for the return of the British. In the Municipal Building (now City Hall), Jpanese military leaders signed a surrender document which was accepted by the Supreme Allied Comander for Southeast Asia, Lord Louis Mountbatten.

After the surrender, there was a state of anomie in Singapore, as the British had not arrived to take control, while the Japanese occupiers had a considerably weakened hold over the populace. Incidents of looting and revenge-killing were widespread. Much of the infrastructure had been wrecked, including the harbor facilities and electricity, water supply, and telephone services. It would take four or five years for the economy to return to pre-war levels. When British troops finally arrived they were met with cheering and fanfare. Lord Louis Mountbatten came to Singapore to receive formal surrender of the Japanese forces in the region from General Itagaki Seishiro on behalf of General Hisaichi Terauchi on September 12, 1945 and a British Military Administration was formed to govern the island until March 1946.