Why is Lim Bo Seng worth respecting?

Why is Lim Bo Seng worth respecting?

Selfless attitude  - He left his immediate family members (wife & 7 children) to become an army volunteer to fight the war and that was not what everyone can do it.

Patriotic spirit for the country  - He is willing to sacrifice himself to resist and put up fierce fight against the Japanese.

Determination - He managed to persuade the mine workers to go on strike and also to persuade the people to boycott Japanese goods. He also persuaded the rich Chinese to raise funds to support the war effort in China.

Loyalty - Despite being severely tortured, he still did not divulge any information about the Force 136 and his comrades to the Japanese.

Brave - He put others before himself as he even protested against the ill treatments of his comrades in the prison.

About Lim Bo Seng

Lim Bo Seng was a Chinese resistance fighter based in Singapore and Malaya during World War II. He is regarded as a war hero in Singapore

Lim Bo Seng was born in Nan'an, Fujian, China, in the final years of the Qing Dynasty, as the 11th child but the first son in the family. His father, Lim Loh was a building constructor. In 1925, Lim came to Singapore at the age of 16 to study in Raffles Institution under the British colonial government. He went on to read business at theUniversity of Hong Kong.In 1930; Lim married Gan Choo Neo, a Nyonya woman from the Lim clan association hall of Singapore. They had eight children, one of whom died in infancy. Initially a Taoist, Lim converted to Christianity after his marriage to Gan. He was born in 27 April 1909

When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, Lim and other Chinese in Singapore participated in anti-Japanese activities, such as the boycotting of Japanese goods and fund-raising to support the war effort in China.

Towards the end of 1937, hundreds of overseas Chinese working in Japanese-owned industries in Malaya went on strike. At that time, the Japanese government owned a tin mine in Dungun , Terengganu, Malaya, where nearly 3,000 Chinese labourers were employed. The tin was shipped to Japan and used as raw material to manufacture weapons. Lim felt that if the workers in the Dungun mine went on strike, the Japanese would suffer a huge loss, so he planned to make the workers go on strike. Around February 1938, Lim travelled to Dungun with Zhuang Huiquan of the Singapore Anxi Association to carry out their plan. Zhuang went to the mine to persuade the workers to go on strike while Lim contacted the local police and gained their support. By early March, Lim and Zhuang achieved success as many workers left the mine and followed them to Singapore. On March 11, 1938, Lim Bo Seng and the Singapore Chinese community held a welcoming ceremony for the workers, who were later resettled and found employment in Singapore.

In December 1941, Lim Bo Seng was put in charge of organising a group of volunteers to resist the Japanese, who were advancing towards Southeast Asia. The volunteers put up a fierce fight against the Japanese during the Battle of Singapore in February 1942.

Lim Bo Seng was captured by the Japanese under Marshal Ōnishi Satoru at a roadblock in Gopeng around March-April 1944. He was taken to the Kempeitai headquarters for interrogation and he refused to provide the Japanese with any information about Force 136 despite being subjected to severe torture. Instead, he protested against the ill treatment of his comrades in prison. He fell ill with dysentery and was bedridden by the end of May 1944. Lim died in the early hours on 29 June 1944. He was later buried behind the Batu Gajah prison compound in an unmarked spot. After the Japanese surrender, Lim's wife, Gan Choo Neo, was informed of her husband's death by the priest of St. Andrew's School. Gan travelled with her eldest son to bring her husband's remains home later.

Lim's remains arrived at the Tanjong Pagar railway station in Singapore on 7 December 1945. Upon arrival, the hearse was sent off by a large procession of British officers and prominent businessmen, from the station to Hock Ann Biscuit Factory in Upper Serangoon Road, via Armenian Street. On the same day, a memorial service for Lim was held at the Tong Teh Library of the Kuomintang Association in Singapore.

A funeral service was held on 13 January 1946 at City Hall to mourn Lim's death. Lim's remains was transported in a coffin to a hill in MacRitchie Reservoir (coordinates: 1°20'31.76"N 103°49'50.60"E) for burial with full military honours. Lim was posthumously awarded the rank of Major General by the Republic of China Nationalist Government.

Around the 1990s, Asiapac Books published a comic book (ISBN 981-229-067-2) based on Lim's life. It was written by Clara Show and illustrated by Chu Yi Min. 

Photos Of Lim Bo Seng

                                                           A Picture Of Lim Bo Seng

                                                
                                                                Lim Bo Seng's Grave
                                                                                                            

 

A Memorial To Lim Bo Seng's Contibution To Singapore

The Lim Bo Seng Contribution Video

Lim Bo Seng's Force 136

Lim Bo Seng's name is inextricably linked with that of Force 136, for he had a hand in setting it up and bringing it to success. The British regrouped after their disastrous capitulation and plans were afoot to regain their lost territories. However, they lacked intelligence on the Japanese troops in Malaya and this could only be remedied if they had a good intelligence network on the ground. For this purpose, Lim Bo Seng was persuaded by the British to help set up a clandestine spy network in Malaya. With Bo Seng's help, the British joined forces with Nationalist China to recruit and train the Force 136 members, which consisted mainly of overseas Malayan Chinese. From China, these men were sent to the Far East Military School in Poona, India where they were taught shooting and survival skills, jungle and guerrilla warfare and intelligence gathering techniques.

Upon graduation, they were sent to Malaya in batches, at first by submarine. The first team, Gustavus I, departed for Malaya on 11th May 1943 and landed in Tanjong Hantu on the 24th. The first base was set up at Bukit Segari. Subsequent batches were landed along the west coast of Malaya. Later on in the war, Force 136 members were parachuted into various Malayan states. As the war dragged on and it became apparent that Japan was losing the war, more and more British officers and Force 136 members were parachuted in, along with weapons and supplies. However, before Operation Zipper (the planned British invasion of Malaya) was launched, the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Shortly after the surrender, Force 136 was disbanded, but not before its members had been feted as liberation heroes who had put their lives on the line for freedom.
(Source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_contributions_did_Lim_Bo_Seng_make_to_Singapore)

Anecdotes Involving The Hero

Tragedy was to strike when he was stopped at a checkpoint at Gopeng and arrested. He had earlier ignored warnings and pleas from his comrades about the danger of his mission, which was to revamp the entire intelligence network and solicit funds from his wealthy friends. Brought to Batu Gajah Prison, he was subjected to continuous interrogations and torture by the infamous Kempeitai. Lim Bo Seng was already weak in health, having just gone for a haemorrhoids operation in India before arriving in Malaya. To make matters worse, he suffered from dysentery. Finally, on 29th June 1944, he succumbed under the immense suffering and passed away.

Following the surrender of the Japanese in Malaya in September 1945, the accolades for Lim Bo Seng began to flow in. The Nationalist Government in China accorded to him a posthumous rank of Major-General and a grand funeral procession was held on 13th January 1946. His grave is situated at MacRitchie Reservoir. On the 10th Anniversary of his death, in 1954, a memorial was unveiled at the Esplanade to commemorate him.

Lim Bo Seng attained everlasting fame not only because he gave up everything, including his life, to fight against an enemy he deemed to be tyrannical and cruel but also because of his steadfast refusal under pain and torture to reveal the information which would endanger the lives of his comrades and the cause he was fighting for.
(Source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_contributions_did_Lim_Bo_Seng_make_to_Singapore)