The Singapore Police conduct searches of civilian vehicles in the vicinity of the Happy World amusement park in Singapore, four years to the day after the city's fall to the Japanese.

Civilian vehicle being searched. A small bus is searched and afterwards the passengers re-embark. Civilian cars are searched near the Happy World amusement park. A patrol of four Indian (military?) policemen pass camera; they pass a board advertising showings of 'The Mysterious Miss X' and 'Ziegfeld Girl'; camera tilts up to show the entrance to Happy World.

Notes

The dopesheet describes these police checks as a response to a feared public disturbance by the Chinese community. This followed a refused request to hold a public meeting to celebrate the Japanese occupation. This seems a somewhat odd state of affairs, given that the Japanese occupation brought with it the 'Sook Ching' atrocities against the Chinese community in which possibly tens of thousands were murdered. Perhaps the most logical explanation for this would be a misinterpretation of the Chinese community's request (who perhaps intended a commemoration, rather than a 'celebration') by politically sensitive higher authorities.

'The Mysterious Miss X' was a 1939 crime comedy starring Michael Whalen and Lynne Roberts, directed by Gus Meins.

'Ziegfeld Girl' was a 1941 musical romance starring James Stewart, Judy Garland and Hedy Lamarr, directed by Robert Leonard and Busby Berkeley. Considering Singapore's reputation as a beacon of cosmopolitan modernity in prewar British Asia, it is perhaps telling that both of these films predate the Japanese invasion.