At the beginning of the Japanese Occupation, the park was used as a prisoner of war camp for Australian POWs. The POWs were later shifted to shacks behind the park so that the Great World Amusement Park could resume operation in December 1942 [1]. The park then became a massive gambling den, with hundreds of gamblings stalls lined up across the park. During the Japanese Occupation, everything was open air and open space, it was crowded on a good day, but empty when it rained [2]. These gambling stalls were frequented by the working class who usually went after work, and they were mostly Chinese men. There were the occasional women but they were usually middle-aged—these gambling stalls usually begin operation at 7 pm, and young women did not usually go out at night for fear of running into Japanese soldiers; even if they went out, it was for work and their employers would send them home after work [3].

Cinemas during the Japanese Occupation showed mainly war films of the Japanese victory in the pacific and Japanese films to encourage the “Japanese way of life” [4]. Besides gambling and film screenings, the regular person also went there in search of commodities that were not available during the occupation—there were many black market sellers operating in the parks [5].

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Because of the lack of import goods that the locals were used to, this period also saw the boom of local “geniuses” who invented alternatives to imported goods. They replaced Scott Emulsion’s cod liver oil with shark liver oil, ropes made of manila hemp were replaced with ropes made of pineapple leaves fibre, many other commodities were replaced with cheaper equivalents, and they were sold at exhibitions once or twice a year. Interestingly, these exhibitions were organised by the Japanese administration, and along with the exhibitions, they promoted the “Grow More Food” and “Public Health” campaigns [6].

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The other entertainment in the parks during the Japanese Occupation include boxing matches, carnival games, Malay Ronggeng (Malay dance) Chinese Opera, and “Open Cafes” (open-air cafes where many people went to relax after work and singers would go onto the stages to perform) [7]. There were also food stalls at the end of each row of gambling stalls like “little tea gardens” where the gamblers can go eat after they gamble [8]. There was also the popular Weng Choon Yuen Restaurant that operated throughout the Japanese Occupation [9].

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Though the Japanese administration was involved in the reopening of the park—albeit the operations were still managed by the locals who have previously managed the park—the Japanese troops did not patronise the amusement park. They only went in once in a while to run checks and to find wanted persons [10]. The motivations of the Japanese to reopen the park during war times remains unclear, but it was speculated that the Japanese Administration might have wanted a distraction for the locals assuming that if they spend their days gambling, they will cause less trouble; or that they wanted to instil in the public the idea that their occupation is permanent and this is how life will continue to be in the future.

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