The seashores of Singapore used to be the killing fields of the Sook Ching massacre during the Japanese occupation in 1942. Operation Sook Ching was a Japanese military operation aimed at purging or eliminating anti-Japanese elements from the Chinese community in Singapore. From February to March of 1942, Chinese males between the ages of 18 and 50 were summoned to various mass screening centres and those suspected of being anti-Japanese, were loaded into lorries and transported to these sites. Then they were lined up along the edge of the sea and machine-gunned to death. Often their bodies were thrown into the sea.

Changi beach and the Punggol beach are the most notable killing fields. On 20 February 1942, 66 Chinese males were killed at Changi beach and 300 to 400 were killed at Punggol beach on 28 February,1942.