Nation-building in Singapore: AY 2015-6

SSA2204/GES1010: Lecture 4
SINGAPORE A Nation Forged by War?
A.

Introduction
1.

How war forged a nation: The Australian Experience

2.

Did war forge a nation? The Singapore Experience

B.

In The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18, war was seen
as a major force in the forging of the Australian nation. As Charles Bean
wrote, The Australian nation came to know itself through the
participation of some 300,000 of its men in the First World War.

In Singapore, the Japanese occupation during the Second World War, in

particular, has been often been portrayed as a defining moment in the
making of the Singapore nation.

Why did Japan invade Singapore?

1.

Japans rise to power was brought about by the interplay of a series of

international and regional forces (from the latter half of the 19 th century and
continuing into the first half of the 20 th century) that propelled Japan, through
a programme of modernization and colonial expansion, to become the
paramount power in East Asia through the extension of its influence and
control to Korea (1894, 1904-5), Manchuria (1931-32), and China (1937-45).

2.

By 1938, however, a series of diplomatic crises in Europe culminated in

the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe from September 1939. This
started a process that impelled Japan to turn its ambitions southwards to
Southeast Asia.

Taking advantage of the Wests distraction in Europe, Japan initiated a

number of steps to consolidate its position in East and Southeast Asia by
first declaring first the establishment of its new order in East Asia (1938)
and subsequently the formation of a Greater East Asia Co-prosperity
Sphere (1940) to include the Southeast Asian states as the resource
bases for the East Asian industrial heartland of Japan, China and
Manchukuo.

C.

Japan also concluded the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy (1940)
and Neutrality Pact with Russia (1941) to position itself for a southward
advance into Southeast Asia the former to ensure US inaction (unless it
was prepared to declare war also on Germany and Italy) and the latter to
ensure that Russia would not attack Japanese positions in north China as
they campaigned south.

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Japans moves brought her into conflict with the US, the other major Pacific
power. The US saw Japanese expansionism in Asia as linked to German
expansionism in Europe and responded by imposing economic sanctions on
Japan, culminating in a full trade embargo in 1941.

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Unwilling to return to the 1931 borders, which would imply accepting

national humiliation, Japan chose war and targeted the destruction of the US
Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

Why Fortress Singapore fell

1.

The Local School

Main argument: Local factors, particularly those associated with the

Malayan campaign (1941-42), played a decisive role in the fall of
Singapore.

11 The Strategic School

3.

The Naval Base School

D.

Main argument: Britains inability to provide adequate resources to

Malaya (1939-41) led to its swift defeat.

Main argument: Britains neglect of its imperial defences during the interwar period (1919-1939), a consequence of economic overstretch after the
First World War, was decisive in the development of the flawed
Singapore strategy based on the building of a naval base at Singapore
and the arrival of the British fleet from its permanent deployment in
Atlantic waters, to protect its eastern empire during times of crisis.

The Japanese Occupation and the making of the Singapore Nation

1.

The Transformation Perspective

This view argues that the Japanese Occupation was a major turning point
that transformed the history of the region. It had destroyed the myth of
western invincibility, precipitated the rise of new anti-colonial elites, and
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transformed the nature of nationalism that made possible the subsequent

dismantling of western empires in the region.
a. Rethinking [De]colonization
The war also led to the emergence of new mindset. This view has
been widely supported by many of Singapores post-war leaders
(like Lee Kuan Yew, S.R. Nathan, S. Rajaratnam, Said Zahari,
Fong Sip Chee), who traced their political awakening to the
Japanese Occupation.
b. Redesigning British Malaya: A separate Singapore nation?
The war led to the launch of the Malayan Union scheme in its
aftermath that resulted in Singapores severance from its Malayan
mainland.
c.

Reinventing Nationalism: A new Singapore nationalism?

The war not only produced new Singapore heroes but also created
new conditions that unleashed a territorial nationalism in its
aftermath spearheaded by a new set of nationalist leaders.

d.

Relearning lessons of the War

The war provided valuable lessons for Singapores subsequent
nation-building process, particularly in the importance of asserting
its own responsibility in defense and not depending on outsiders to
defend its sovereignty.

2.

The Continuity Perspective

This view argues that the Japanese Occupation was not really as
transforming an event as it was made out to be. It would be disingenuous
to generalize that it transformed the region. The myth of western
invincibility was not really destroyed in some cases, old elites continued to
be in power, and the nature of nationalism remained essentially
unchanged.
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The role of the Japanese Occupation in forging the Singapore nation

therefore requires greater clarity as to the nature and extent of the
change.

a.

Rethinking Decolonization
Decolonization was not inevitable after the war. In fact, the British
returned to Malaya and Singapore as colonizers, not decolonizers.
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b.

Reinventing Nationalism: A new Singapore nationalism?

It is not at all certain Singapores wartime heroes were fighting for
an independent Singapore.

c.

Redesigning British Malaya a permanent legacy?

Perhaps the only lasting legacy of the war is Singapores
separation from the peninsula.

E.

Conclusion
The war produced its own share of contradictions. No one could possibly have
foreseen that an independence movement would emerge in its aftermath and that
this would culminate in the island achieving self-government in 1959 and then
independence in 1963.

Assoc Prof Albert Lau

2 February 2016