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The from the home of the codebreakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.

Welcome to the June 2022 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast, The Pacific Turns.

In this It Happened Here episode, we returned to South Asia and the Pacific and the war against

the Japanese. After the disasters of Pearl Harbour, the Philippines and Singapore,

and near disaster in Colombo in the first few months of 1942, the summer months would bring the

Allies better fortune on the fighting fronts.

1942 would also see many changes for Britain's codebreakers in South and East Asia as they rushed to adapt to the changing

situation, a situation requiring the service of men and women from surprisingly diverse backgrounds

and communities. As usual, we're joined by Bletchley Park's research historian, Dr David Kenyon,

to tell us more. Grateful thanks to Sarah Langston and Dr Ben Thompson for voicing our archival documents.

This is Bletchley Park. It happened here.

First of all, David, let's look at the big picture. Can you recap on what happened in the Japanese War so far in early 1942?

Well, we've talked previously about Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 and the invasion

of Malaya. And from then on, for the first couple of months, it was really a success story

for the Japanese and things don't go well for the British Empire and the Dominions

and the USA. Singapore is captured by the Japanese in February and then we have the Easter Sunday

raid in April, which we've also talked about. In May, the Philippines surrender, the American

garrison of the Philippines surrenders. And so in the first four months of the year, five months of the year, the Japanese have really had it all their own way.

And if you tot up the casualties, both in terms of soldiers killed in action, but also prisoners

captured because huge numbers of prisoners are captured.

80,000 British and Dominion troops are captured at Singapore, for example.

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