On 8 December 1941, Japanese troops landed in northern Malaya marking the start of the second world war in the Pacific.
Invasion forces moved quickly down the British colony – which is now called Malaysia – capturing Singapore in just 55 days.
Their occupation ended on 15 August 1945, when Japan surrendered to the allies after the US had dropped two atomic bombs.
Dorothy Variyan, who lived under Japanese rule for more than three years in south west Malaya, speaks to Jacqueline Paine.
This programme contains archive which uses outdated and offensive language.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
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(Photo: Members of an Australian anti-tank gun crew fire weapons at a Type-95 Japanese tank on a road temporarily blocked by a felled tree, outside Singapore, British Malaya, April 1942. Credit: Office of War Information/PhotoQuest/Getty Images)
