 On 8 December 1941 , the Japanese occupied the Shanghai International Settlement . A couple of hours later , landings began at Kota Bharu in Malaya . An hour after that , the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor . On 10 December , Prince of Wales and Repulse , sailing to meet the Malaya invasion force , were sunk by Japanese air attack . After the disastrous Malayan Campaign , Singapore surrendered on 15 February 1942 . During the final stages of the campaign , the 15 @-@ inch and 9 @.@ 2 @-@ inch guns had bombarded targets at Johore Bahru , RAF Tengah and Bukit Timah . 
