During World War Two, the Raffles Library and Museum had a brief interregnum as the Syonan Hakubutsu-kan, or Syonan Museum, under the directorship of vulcanologist Professor Hidezo Tanakadate and then Marquis Yoshichika Tokugawa, a relative of the Japanese emperor. This staff report, written by Eldred John Henry Corner, a former director of the Botanic Gardens and one of the few Europeans working with the Syonan Hakubutsu-kan, offers a glimpse into the identities and duties of the staff working at the museum at the time, many of whom were locals. One of them, a Mrs E. Reyes, was described as "an able and strictly honest person", and "continually tried to stop those members of the Museum staff who stole books from the Library and sold them in Bras Basah Road." Mentioned also was the tragic loss of another staff, Kader, who died in September 1945 in Sumatra, where he had evacuated to; and five unnamed Indian watchmen tasked to guard the Library, Museum, and the old Saint Andrews School at Stamford Road. This staff report was written at the end of the war, as notes for the incoming British Military Administration to decide on whether to continue keeping these staff members at the museum or to provide them financial compensation.
