Lim bo seng
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Visiting some of the limestone hills used by MPAJA guerrillas during WWII.
As a Boy Scout, he used to roam around these caves and hills until they became familiar territory to him.
“Every time I pass by here, I can’t help but recall my father’s wartime stories. Phoon is flanked by Dr Lim Whye Geok (on Phoon's left) and Lim Lam Geok.
"He bid us a final goodbye in February 1942, hugging each of us and our mother, not knowing that would be the last time we would see him.”
SMI's principal Phoon Kean Loon (front row, centre), with his student leaders, and Lim Bo Seng's family members and friends on Jalan Lim Bo Seng, Ipoh, during the heritage tour led by Prof Lit (back row, second from left).
Devote yourself to the bringing up of the children." Lim died in the early morning of 29 Jun 1944 and was buried behind the prison in an unmarked grave. Whye Geok and Lam Geok had a chat with the teacher and students.
SMI's principal Phoon Kean Loon (back row, ninth from left) with family and friends of Lim Bo Seng. He went to India, met with Chinese leaders, and worked as a liaison between the British and the Kuomintang government.
Photos: Dr Melvyn Tan Chin Beng
SMI's principal Phoon Kean Loon (back row, ninth from left) with family and friends of Lim Bo Seng. Under the alias Tan Choon Lim, he operated out of Singapore.
Dr Melvyn Tan Chin Beng is the grandnephew of Lim Bo Seng.
The late Lim Leong Geok was the first executive director of Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) who oversaw the initial construction of the MRT in Singapore.
At Calcutta, India, he was convinced by British Army officer Basil Goodfellow to lead a group of ethnic Chinese operatives from Malaya and Singapore against Japanese occupation.
He was among those responsible for persuading the leaders of the Malayan Communist Party to support the British attempt to fight against Japanese occupation, signing the Bukit Bidor Agreement on 1 Jan 1944. Her heart heavy with grief, Gan Choo Neo – a young widow – together with her eldest son Lim Leong Geok, are searching for the mortal remains of her beloved husband Major General Lim Bo Seng.
Please keep your story within 900 words. Until today, I don’t understand why he was prepared to sacrifice himself.”
His eldest child, daughter Oon Geok, 93, recalled that he was a strict, old-fashioned father who loved his children and wife greatly. Although dusty with cobwebs, the long kitchen table, around which he might have conducted secret meetings with his agents, was still intact.
Subsequently, we visited St Michael’s Institution (SMI) in Ipoh.
Seriously ill with dysentery and possibly other diseases due to ill-treatment, he was taken to a separate building away from the main prison complex, and was often denied of food and water. SMI was the Kempeitai HQ during WWII.
The next day, we went to the Gopeng checkpoint where Bo Seng was apprehended by the Japanese Kempeitai.
His identity was betrayed in December that year, leading to his capture in March 1944.
Despite undergoing torture at the hands of the Japanese, he refused to reveal the names of fellow resistance group members, and eventually died of malnutrition, dysentery and torture on June 29, 1944, while he was interned in Perak. Dr Lim Whye Geok (right) and Lim Lam Geok (left) are standing next to Mr Phoon (long sleeve brown shirt with name tag).
The secret bungalow used by Lim Bo Seng during the war.
The wife and family of Lim Bo Seng during his funeral in 1946.
Visiting some of the limestone hills used by MPAJA guerrillas during WWII.
Group photo taken at God's Little Acre cemetery in Batu Gajah.
SMI's principal Phoon Kean Loon presenting a school souvenir to Dr Lim Whye Geok.
One of the many limestone caves where MPAJA guerrillas once roamed.
Sam Poh Tong Cave temple played a mysterious role during WWII.
(From left) Dr Lim Whye Geok, Lucas Tan (Lim Bo Seng's great grand-nephew) and Lim Lam Geok at God's Little Acre cemetery in Batu Gajah, Perak.
War hero Lim Bo Seng's family to tell his story for generations to come
SINGAPORE - While a yearly family gathering to pay respects at Lim Bo Seng's grave in MacRitchie on his death anniversary is no longer practised, the World War II hero's grandson Lim Teck Yin said his grandfather's story will continue to be told in the family for generations to come.
Given his involvement in anti-Japanese activities from the 1930s - including fund raising for China during the Second Sino-Japanese War and leading more than 10,000 men in Singapore to support the British - Lim Bo Seng knew there would be a price on his head when the Japanese arrived in 1942.
The businessman thus made a painful decision to flee Singapore before their arrival, leaving his wife and seven children, aged two to 11, behind.
Mr Lim, 59, said of the yearly remembrance gatherings at MacRitchie: "It was always a proud but sombre occasion, and I remember my grandmother weeping.
Its principal Phoon Kean Loon welcomed us and, together with his student leaders, led us on a symbolic walk along the nearby Jalan Lim Bo Seng, a bustling thoroughfare. He was a prominent businessman and leader of Force 136, a British-led World War II resistance movement in collaboration with the Malayan Peoples’ Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA).
Some 80 years later, in May 2024, two other sons – Dr Lim Whye Geok and Lim Lam Geok – together with some relatives and close friends, made an attempt to retrace Bo Seng's final journey.
He led the boycott of Japanese goods from the beginning of Japan’s war with China and raised money for the China Relief Fund.
Lim left when the Japanese advanced on Singapura. Lim now rests in peace at a hill on the grounds of the MacRitchie Reservoir in Singapore.
ww2dbaseLim was posthumously awarded the rank of major general by the Republic of China.
ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia.
Last Major Revision: Jan 2009
Lim Bo Seng Interactive Map
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Lim Bo Seng Timeline
| 27 Apr 1909 | Lim Bo Seng was born in Nan'an, Fujian, Qing Dynasty China. |
| 2 Nov 1943 | Lim Bo Seng arrived in Malaya aboard Dutch submarine O 24. |
| 29 Jun 1944 | Lim Bo Seng passed away from diseases while in Japanese captivity at Batu Gajah prison, Perak, Malaya. |
| 13 Jan 1946 | A funeral service for Lim Bo Seng was held at the City Hall of Singapore. |
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