Talk:Double Tenth incident/GA2

GA review

H₂O is a damn fine reviewer, but I'm afraid that you're lumbered with me. :-(

Give me a day or so to collect my thoughts - it's the middle of the night here - and I'll post up my detailed review. --Malleus Fatuorum (talk) 02:00, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

OK, here it is:

• I said above that I thought the lead was a little bit on the short side, so I've extended it a little. Please take a look and make sure I haven't changed the sense of what was being said.

Thank you for your review & the copyedits done earlier. Yup, the lead looks good, aptly summarised the major points of the article. -- Aldwinteo (talk) 14:47, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

• "Sumida greatly suspected that these acts had been organised by internees in Changi Prison ...". These people were in prison. I'd have thought that was a great alibi. Why did Sumida suspect them? How would they have got in and out of the prison?

Courtesy of the Kempeitai tender "treatments" (See 'Kempeitai East District Branch' for details) & an extensive network of spys & informants during the Occupation, the Japs had prior intelligence on the existence of an underground war news network and a black market for food running in the European POW camps (operated in secret by the proud & stubborn Brits & Aussies) in the infamous Changi Prison. Due to the previous Selarang Barracks Incident in 1942 and the equally stubborn underground Chinese resistance which they faced frequently, not only make the Japs highly suspicious of almost anyone, including the internees, they were extremely harsh & swift too when meting out punishment on suspects including beheadings like this unfortunate Australian POW (Sometimes the beheaded heads were put on public display at major road crossings as a deterrent). No, they were imprisoned throughout the war as escapees were always swiftly caught & executed (Where can you find safe haven anywhere when Asia was nearly overrun by the Japanese back then?). They got vital info & supplies mainly thru the canteen operators & during supply runs to & fro the various POW camps. -- Aldwinteo (talk) 14:47, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

• "Sumida's chief suspect was Rob Scott ...". Can you say a little more about Rob Scott? Was he British? What was he in prison for? It says he was released (by the Kempeitai) and sent later to the infamous Changi Prison. Was he released and then arrested for something else some time later?

 Done. Yup, he was another proud & stubborn Brit, a barrister named Rob Heeley Scott, a prominent Foreign Office employee in Singapore, who was detained for his anti-Japanese propaganda earlier. He was interned & interrogated on various occasions (until nearly half dead at times) by the fearsome Kempeitai at their HQ on Stamford Rd, before being released and sent to the Changi Prison later. The die-hard was awarded a CBE by HRH Queen Elizabeth II after the war. -- Aldwinteo (talk) 14:50, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

• "Elizabeth Choy and her husband, Choy Khun Heng were running their canteen at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital, after all the patients and doctors had been moved from the Miyako Hospital." I'm not entirely sure that I understand this. Did the doctors and patients move from the Miyako to the Tan Tock Seng? Had the Choys been running the hospital canteen before the move?

The couple were working as civil servants for the British before the war. In order to sustain themselves, the couple worked at the Mental Hospital which was renamed Miyako Hospital during the Occupation (the predecessor of today Woodbridge Hospital) where the patients were later moved to Tan Tock Seng. -- Aldwinteo (talk) 14:50, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

• "The couple helped the Changi prisoners-of-war (POW) by passing on cash and parcels during their deliveries" What were they delivering?

Besides delivering cash and parcels such as fresh clothing, medicine & letters from the POW's families. They were also delivering news updates (in scribbled notes of the BBC news weekly broadcasted from British India or from the local resistance groups) to the internees on the war front in Europe & the Pacific. -- Aldwinteo (talk) 14:47, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

• The MoS says that images shouldn't be left-aligned immediately under a subsection header, as in Arrests and tortures.

 Done. Was trying to improve its layout earlier 'cos it looks 'heavily weighted' to the right in terms of overall look & feel. -- Aldwinteo (talk) 14:47, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

• "The sufferings spread to the entire civilian population of Changi Prison; rations were cut, and games, concerts, plays and school lessons were forbidden for months." This tends to imply that there might have been a military population in the prison as well, but they were unaffected, particularly as pows are mentioned in the article.

No, they were affected too, but not as much as those mentioned in the article. Even the local population outside the camps were not spared of the arbituary arrests & interrogations in the ensuing months, which included the Choys & even a prominent bishop. If you are keen to learn more on the colonial history of S'pore, do pay a visit at the Imperial War Museum when u head south to London next time. -- Aldwinteo (talk) 14:50, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

That's it as far as I'm concerned. I'm afraid that as the amount of work to address these issues is clearly considerable, I'm going to have to ... oops, sorry, reading from the wrong card ;-) The article is now on hold. --Malleus Fatuorum (talk) 19:18, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

As the article was written nearly a year ago, I was rather hazy on the finer details which u raised earlier. As a result, I got to spend nearly half a day to sift thru loads & loads (horrors!) of my past notes & files compiled previously in both hard & softcopies. -- Aldwinteo (talk) 14:47, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for clearing those points up, I've listed this article as a GA now. One thing I ought to have mentioned in the review is that the picture of 'Z' Special Unit needs to have a fair-use rationale written for it, else it might well be removed from this article. Nice work. --Malleus Fatuorum (talk) 21:13, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

A thunderous sigh of relief! As for the mentioned pix, I'm not the original uploader and even if it's being deleted by some dudes from the anti-fair use brigade later (I've crossed 'swords' with such folks previously), I can still use other ready replacements such as this pix & this too, courtesy of the good old folks from the Australian War Memorial. As such, I'll not bat an eyelid or lose sleep over its deletion then. Once again, I thank u for your 2nd opinion & help rendered in reviewing & passing this historical Singapore article to GA class mate. I can finally slip back & savour my usual cuppa of Earl Grey with peace of mind at last... Namo Amituofo -- Aldwinteo (talk) 01:22, 5 May 2008 (UTC)