Absent History: The Untold Story of Special Branch Operation in Singapore

Absent History is the first book to attempt to do so for the Special Branch in Singapore before World War II. The author, Ban Kah Choon, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore, utilizes a rarely tapped source, the Straits Settlements Police Journal, to provide readers with a basic outline and some useful vignettes of Special Branch activities in this important colony.

This book divides the history of the Special Branch before the war into three stages. The first examines the origins of the Special Branch from 1915 until the mid-1920s, the second looks at the decade from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s, and the third explores the remaining years up to 1942.