ABSTRACT

In the pre-war period Japanese fishermen occupied a very important position in the fishing industry in Singapore where fish constituted a major source of protein for the Chinese, Malays and Indians.1 As Table 4.1 shows, large numbers of local Chinese and Malay fishermen were engaged in fishing; but, since their catch was not significant, the British colony had been heavily dependent upon imports of seafood before the Japanese fishermen began to supply large quantities of fresh fish in the second half of the 1920s. In 1924, for example, the fresh fish landed in Singapore amounted to 6,400 tons, of which 17 per cent came from the local waters (including the catch by the Japanese), 6 per cent from Johore, and 73 per cent from the Netherlands Indies’ various islands (Firth 1966:11). In 1937 it amounted to 13,000 tons, of which the local fishermen were responsible for 17 per cent, the Japanese 41 per cent, and the remaining 42 per cent brought largely from the Netherlands Indies (Malayan Year Book, 1937:92; Blue Book 1938:761).