Tan Chong Tee



Tan Chong Tee (1918 - 24 November 2012) was a Singaporean resistance fighter during World War II.

Tan was born into a Chinese family with ancestry from Fujian, China, at his family residence along Shrewsbury Road (in present-day Novena) in British colonial Singapore. When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, Tan participated in anti-Japanese activities such as boycotting Japanese goods and fund-raising to support the war effort in China.

Tan lost touch with his family in 1942 after the Japanese invaded and occupied Singapore. He then joined Force 136, a branch of the British military organisation Special Operations Executive, where he met and befriended Lim Bo Seng. Tan took part in Operation Gustavus but was captured in 1944 by the Japanese when the operation failed. He spent the next 18 months in captivity and was subjected to torture by the Japanese, who attempted to force him to reveal the identities of his fellows in Force 136. He was released after the Japanese surrender in 1945, which ended the war. Tan's elder brother, Tan Chong Mao, and their mother, were killed during the Japanese occupation of Singapore.

Tan wrote an autobiography FORCE 136: Story Of A WWII Resistance Fighter (ISBN 981-3029-90-0), which was translated by Lee Watt Sim and Clara Show, and published in 2001 by Asiapac Books as a comic book.