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15 February 1942: the surrender of Singapore’s defenders

On 15 February 1942, Arthur Percival and Tomoyuki Yamashita held surrender negotiations at Singapore’s Ford factory. A contemporary photograph and the surrender table’s provenance record support the event’s date and location.

Facts and evidence

The Australian War Memorial catalogues photograph 127903 as showing Percival unconditionally surrendering British forces on Singapore Island to Yamashita at the Ford factory. It dates the photograph to 15 February 1942. Source 1

The Memorial also holds surrender table RELAWM32783. Its record identifies it as the table used for the negotiations and signing, and documents a donation by the Ford company in 1964. Source 2

Scope and limitations

The photograph and furniture are different kinds of evidence, but their dates, participants and use depend on the museum’s descriptions. A table cannot independently establish a date, and descriptions from the same museum may reference one another. This entry checks collection records, not physical authenticity or the full surrender document.

This was the surrender of Singapore’s defenders to Japanese forces in 1942, not Japan’s formal surrender to the Allies in 1945. No troop, casualty or prisoner totals, or precise ceasefire times, are supplied.