There were two main anti-Japanese resistance groups: the MPAJA and Force 136.

Force 136 was a subversive anti-Japanese organisation based in Malaya set up jointly by the British and Chinese government. Most of the recruits were from the Chinese community in Singapore who had managed to escape before the Japanese took control. Most of the members had chosen to return to Malaya to continue their fight against the Japanese despite having already escaped. It was their valour and love for their fellow countrymen which prompted their selfless actions.

The Force 136 members were trained in India in areas such as the use of firearms, sabotage work , wireless communication and jungle warfare. After the training, they were dispatched in small groups to Malaya via submarine and later air lifted into the jungles. While the British agents hid in the forest, the Chinese agents merged themselves with the general populace and worked as waiters or shop assistants collecting information and awaiting the opportunity to strike back. In Nov 1943, Colonel Lim Bo Seng arrived in Malaya near Pangkor Island where he was taken to meet Chin Peng , leader of the MPAJA and this resulted in the linking up of Force 136 and MPAJA.

The most famous figure associated with Force 136 is Colonel Lim Bo Seng who was a regional head of the Force 136 team that was caught , tortured and killed when he returned to Malaya to coordinate the struggle against the Japanese. Lim died in prison in Batu Gajah in 1944, at the age of 33. He was honoured posthumously as a national hero and patriot after the war. A memorial was erected for him at the Esplanade.

Tan Chong Tee, former intelligience member of Force 136 ,in an account to the Straits Times said, "He could easily have escaped but he wanted to bail me out ... I only found out that Lim Bo Seng had been arrested when I heard them torturing him outside my cell..... His thoughts were always for the men first. He refused to eat and used to tell the guards to give us food."