Singapore and the Second World War.

11 Aug

While Germany's surrender in 1945 was of great significance in the West, Eastern Europe and Africa, it was a very different story for the rest of mankind in Asia, where the war lasted another four months. Nor was it the period during which hostilities were less numerous and less violent - quite the contrary. Japanese aggression is rarely mentioned in Western history and the global imagination outside Asia. In the Pacific theater, the main actors in the writing of history confine themselves to skimming the surface of the subject, concentrating on three major events: Pearl Harbor, Midway and the two atomic bombs. Yet Japan's aggression, its expansion and the violence of its occupation have nothing to envy that of the troops of the Third Reich (1). In order not to offend the new anti-communist ally that was "liberated" Japan. Japan's crimes and violence were more than ignored, and no duty of remembrance was ever really implemented in Japan, with the benevolence of the West. No denazification-type plan, no questioning of imperialism, no judgement of the emperor and his family, and so on. The void.

For many Asian nations occupied by Japanese troops, a threefold feeling remained, which is still deeply felt today in their relationship with Japan (2).

The first is that, without Japan's occupation, Western colonialism would have remained in place for a long time. Japan awakened the nationalism of the occupied countries within its ephemeral sphere of co-prosperity, for its own economic lobby. Japan has demonstrated, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the white man is not invincible, and this for the second time. Already in 1905, in the face of the Russian Empire (3), but this time, its lightning expansion and success in plunging all the other colonial powers into serious strategic complications, in a short space of time, shattered forever the West's idea of omnipotence.

The second feeling is that of learning from our old masters. Japan has emerged from the Middle Ages by modernizing excessively and arming itself in the Western style (4). Japan has learned to respect the strong in order to copy them. Unlike Africa, where most people see the white man as a profiteering colonizer, we see him more as an adventurous colonizer, with whom we are developing, through learning and exchange, the tools of our independence and the foundations of our future domination, which our cultures, sclerotic in their disciplinary absurdity, impose on us. All this, again thanks to Japan.

The third feeling is that of having been victims of Japan without having seen our executioners brought to justice. For the Japanese soldier was not only an occupier, he was also an exploiter of women, a pillager, a rapist, a mass murderer and a xenophobe.

A historical retrospective.

After a brilliant tactical assessment followed by active military measures, Japanese troops attacked the British garrison of Singapore, which finally surrendered to Japanese forces on February 15, 1942 (5). It was a slap in the face for the British high command. Just as Corregidor was a slap in the face for the US high command (6). The struggle was fierce. English and Japanese troops fought bravely. But the most gifted prevailed. Singapore produced its first heroes. First of all, Lieutenant Adnan Saidi, a Malay who died with honor in the face of the invaders, to whom Malaysia owes its motto (7). A commemorative plaque in Kent Ridge Park commemorates the bravery of him and his men.

Singapore is for the Japanese, as it was for the English, a major geostrategic location. Japan therefore launched a vast policy of assimilation in the islands: the island was renamed "Syonan" in Japanese (8), Japanese was compulsory in schools, the Kimigayo had to be known (9), Singapore's own currency was printed, people had to bow their heads to Japanese people, cinema and radio broadcast exclusively Japanese programs and works. The goal was simple. Singapore will be a Japanese colony.

Aspet of the conquering Japanese, they saw the Chinese and Indian minorities as a fifth column right from the start of their occupation, and implemented vexatious measures throughout Southeast Asia to control the Peranakans and Indians, the latter supposed by the Japanese occupation authorities to be pro-English elements. These discriminatory and xenophobic policies are known as "Sook Ching" (10). Many Peranakan (11) put their lives at risk by joining resistance networks. Elizabeth Choy (12), a Peranakan, is one of these heroines, a victim of Japanese violence. A member of a resistance network with her husband, providing aid and assistance to British prisoners, she was arrested by the Kempeitai (13), tortured and raped for 200 days. She never gave her name or any information. In view of her courage and obstinacy, the head of the Singapore Kempeitai cell, Lieutenant-Colonel Masayuki Oishi (14), finally had her released. The charges against her were not of a military nature.

Another of Singapore's major heroes is policeman Halford lovelle Boudewyne (15). A Eurasian who, at the risk of his life, will take unimaginable risks to inform the Allied military authorities about Japan's warlike intentions towards India, and to document Japanese crimes by taking evidence.

Conclusion.

The Second World War did not begin on September 9, 1939 and end on May 5, 1945. In Asia, the Second World War began on July 07, 1937, and ended on September 02, 1945. Singapore was militarily occupied by the Japanese from February 15, 1942, to September 12, 1945, when it was handed back to British forces during Operation Tiderace (16).But the damage was done. Despite a subtle policy of relaxed colonial status, Anglo Southeast Asia eventually gained independence.

Embun.

Notes.

1 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

2 :https://foreigndispatches.typepad.com/dispatches/2005/04/japanbashing_op.html

3 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War

4 : https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1750_meiji.htm

5 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Singapore

6 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Corregidor

7 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Saidi

« Biar putih tulang, jangan putih mata » ou « death before dishonor ».

8 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_Singapore

9 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimigayo