page_title: Sibu
section_title: Japanese occupation
hierarchical_section_title: Sibu / History / Japanese occupation
caption_attribution_description: English: On 8 August 1942, Sibu was renamed to "Sibu-shu". After the naming ceremony, Japanese general Toshinari Maeda together with Japanese Resident of the Third Division of Sarawak had a group photo with his generals. 中文（简体）‎: 1942年8月8日，日本占领军司令前田利为主持将诗巫易名为“志布州”的仪式后，与治理诗巫的“州长”和各级军官合影。
context_page_description: Sibu is an inland town in the central region of Sarawak. It is the capital of Sibu District in Sibu Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. The town is located on the island of Borneo and covers an area of 129.5 square kilometres. It is located at the confluence of the Rajang and Igan Rivers, some 60 kilometres from the South China Sea and approximately 191.5 kilometres north-east of the state capital Kuching. Sibu is mainly populated by people of Chinese descent, mainly from Fuzhou. Other ethnic groups such as Melanau, Malay, and Iban are also present, but unlike other regions of Sarawak, they are not as significant. The town population as of 2010 is 162,676.
  Sibu was founded by James Brooke in 1862 when he built a fort in the town to fend off attacks by the indigenous Dayak people. Following this, a small group of Chinese Hokkien people settled around the fort to carry out business activities safely in the town. In 1901, Wong Nai Siong led a large scale migration of 1,118 Foochow Chinese people from Fujian, China into Sibu. The first hospital in Sibu, as well as the Sibu bazaars, were built by the Brooke government.
context_section_description: Japanese forces first landed in Miri on 16 December 1941, and conquered Kuching on 24 December. On 25 December, Sibu was bombed by 9 Japanese warplanes flown from Kuching. The Resident of the Third Division, Andrew MacPherson, believed that the Japanese would start to invade Sibu following the air attack. He and his officer later fled Sibu to the upstream of Rajang River. They planned to pass through Batang Ai and trek through the forests to reach Dutch Borneo. However, they were caught and killed by the Japanese at Ulu Moyan, Sarawak.
  In the evening of 26 December 1941, Sibu people started to ransack an unguarded government rice storeroom. Some villagers staying along the Rajang River also came to steal for daily necessities. The situation soon got out of control. British Sime Darby company, Borneo Company Limited, and Chinese businessmen became the victims of the riots. The Chinese businessman decided to form a security alliance to calm down the chaos. On 29 January 1942, a Japanese advance team was invited from Kuching to restore order in Sibu, who then later fled from Sibu back to Kuching. The power vacuum continued to exist in the third division until 23 June 1942, when the Japanese headquarters in Kuching sent Senda Nijiro to become the new Resident of the Third Division of Sarawak. After he took office, he immediately declared that Imperial Japanese Army would take total control of people's lives and property. On 8 August 1942, Sibu was renamed to "Sibu-shu".
  The Japanese started to impose expensive taxes on Chinese people. They also started a Sook Ching operation on suspected anti-Japanese individuals. Under extreme torture, some Chinese individuals gave a false list of names of anti-Japanese groups. These lists would later lead to the death of innocent individuals at the Bukit Lima execution ground, while some individuals were sent to a prison at Kapit.
caption: A photo was taken with Japanese generals and the new Resident of Third Division after Sibu was renamed to "Sibu-shu".
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