Editing Penang (section)

=== World wars ===
[[File:Royal_Marines_Parade_in_Penang_(5316034010).jpg|thumb|[[Royal Marines|British Royal Marines]] liberating [[George Town, Penang|George Town]] on 3 September 1945.|left]]Penang emerged from [[World War I]] relatively unscathed, apart from the [[Battle of Penang]] during which the [[Imperial German Navy]] cruiser [[SMS Emden (1908)|SMS ''Emden'']] sank two [[Allies of World War I|Allied]] warships off George Town.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Barber|2010|pages=26–28 }}</ref> During the [[Interwar period|interwar years]], the British had acknowledged the need to fortify their armed forces in northern Malaya. However, complacency and lack of resources left British forces ill-prepared to confront the Japanese invasion at the onset of the [[Pacific War]]. Although Penang Island had been designated as a fortress, Penang fell without struggle to the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] on 19 December 1941 after daily aerial attacks.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Barber|2010|p=81 }}</ref> The British covertly evacuated Penang's European populace; historian Raymond Callahan since contended that "the moral collapse of British rule in Southeast Asia came not at Singapore, but at Penang".<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Bayly|2004|p=119 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=B. Frank |first=Richard |author-link=Richard B. Frank |title=Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War: July 1937-May 1942 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-324-00211-6 }}</ref>

Penang Island was subsequently renamed ''Tojo-to'' after [[Hideki Tojo|Prime Minister Hideki Tojo]].<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Bayly|2004|p=220 }}</ref> [[Kempeitai|Japanese military police]] imposed order by massacring [[Penangite Chinese|Chinese civilians]] under the [[Sook Ching]] policy, while women were forced into [[Comfort women|sexual slavery]].<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Barber|2010|pages=93–99 }}</ref> [[Swettenham Pier]] was converted into a major submarine base by the [[Axis powers|Axis Powers]].<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Barber|2010|pages=99–102 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Stevens |first=David |title=German U-Boat Operations in Australian Waters |url=https://seapower.navy.gov.au/history/feature-histories/german-u-boat-operations-australian-waters |access-date=19 December 2023 |website=[[Royal Australian Navy]] }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Eugene Quah |date=December 2023 |title=When Penang Was an Axis Submarine Base |url=https://penangmonthly.com/article/21056/when-penang-was-an-axis-submarine-base |access-date=27 December 2023 |website=Penang Monthly |language=en }}</ref>

Between 1944 and 1945, Allied bombers from India [[Air raids on Penang|targeted naval and administrative buildings in George Town]], damaging and destroying several colonial buildings in the process.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Langdon|2014|pages=4, 8 }}</ref><ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Barber|2010|pages=111–112 }}</ref> The [[Penang Strait]] was mined to restrict Japanese shipping.<ref>{{cite book |author=H. Kratoska |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bePxcx7BFLEC&pg=PA296 |title=The Japanese Occupation of Malaya: A Social and Economic History |publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-85065-284-7 |pages=296 }}</ref> Following [[Surrender of Japan|Japan's surrender]], George Town was the first Malayan settlement liberated by [[Royal Marines|British marines]] through [[Operation Jurist]] on 3 September 1945.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Barber|2010|pages=113–120 }}</ref>