His ancestors were Hakka, the Chinese tribesmen who migrated
from northern China to Fujian and have a reputation for pugnacity
and clannishness. Lee was a third generation Straits Chinese,
however, and grew up speaking Malay, English and the Cantonese
dialect of his family's maid.
Ever the pragmatist, he was later to teach himself Japanese,
Mandarin and Hokkien as the political situation in Singapore
required. During
the Japanese occupation of Singapore he worked for a Japanese
government propaganda department...
http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990823/lee1.html
"Now, from all the already released records in London as well as
other historical researches, it is clear that in launching
Operation Cold Store, Lee Kuan Yew was serving the then strategic
interests of Britain which wanted Singapore to continue to provide
a forward military base in Southeast Asia," said
Lim
"It is also now
an undeniable fact that Lee worked earlier for the Japanese
military during the Occupation making Britain's English materials
available in Japanese-language for the occupiers,"
he added.
http://www.singaporedemocrat.org/articlelimhocksiew.html
The Sook Ching massacre (Chinese: 肅清大屠殺) was a systematic extermination of perceived hostile
elements among the Chinese in Singapore by
the Japanese military during
the Japanese Occupation of
Singapore, after the British colony surrendered on 15 February
1942 during the Second World War. Sook Ching was later
extended to include Chinese Malayans as well. The massacre took
place from 18 February to 4 March 1942 at various places in the
region.
The term Sook Ching (肅清) means "a purge through cleansing" in Chinese and it
was referred to as theKakyōshukusei (華僑粛清), or "purging of Chinese") by the
Japanese. The Japanese also referred to it as theShingapōru
Daikenshō (シンガポール大検証), lit. "great inspection of Singapore".
The figures of the death toll vary. Official Japanese statistics
show fewer than 5000 while the Singaporean Chinese community claims
the numbers to be around 100,000.
Lee Kuan
Yew, the founding Prime Minister who
ruled Singapore from 1959 to 1990, said in a Discovery Channel
programme that the estimated death toll was, "Somewhere between
50,000 to 100,000 young men, Chinese".[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sook_Ching_massacre#Death_toll
an undeniable fact that Lee worked earlier for the Japanese
military during the Occupation making Britain's English
materials available in Japanese-language for the
occupiers,"
