SSA2205 Group Report

Analyze how the past has been represented and explore the importance

of the visual and narratives related to war and occupation to our society

(-ies).

National Museum of Singapore

Visited on 26 February 2013, 10 am.

Ho Si Min, Placida A0099508N

Kow Kang Yue, Don A0099470U

Ko Zhen Yu, Gordon A0087996Y

Soh Wen Yu A0087670W

Teo Zhan Teng A0087195R

The National Museum of Singapore is the oldest museum in Singapore. It

was first built in 1887 but its history goes all the way back to 1849 where

it was formerly known as Singapore Library-Museum. Singapore history

gallery is one of the permanent exhibition galleries in the National

Museum of Singapore along with the living galleries which exhibit on

Singapore’s culture such as fashion, food and entertainment. The history

gallery exhibits Singapore’s past and is divided into two subcategories

on its past: the events path and the personal path.

The Singapore’s past is segregated into different timelines and displayed

in 8 different sections; each with its event and personal path. These

paths are spatial routed to produce certain effects on the viewer by

“moulding experience - the perception, behaviour and aesthetic,

sometimes even political, judgement of spectator”.1 The different

sections represent a timeline where viewers can see the progress of

Singapore from the 14th century to Singapore gaining independence in

1965. It forms an experience as though viewers are part of the people

living in that period, informing and explaining the lifestyle in that

particular period.

The event path mainly exhibits the main events happening during the

period that the section was portraying, giving a general idea of the lives

and a brief introduction to the important people who contributed to

1
1 Gillian Rose, Visual Methodologies 3rd Ed. (Sage; 2012), 252.
2
society during that particular period. The personal path on the other

hand narrates more in-depth details of lives of the individuals living in

Singapore during the particular period. Most of the exhibits in this path

consists of narratives of the lives of specific individuals or recorded

interviews with these individuals.

The sections that we are interested in are the periods portraying the

resistance against the advance of the Japanese Royal Army, the

Japanese Occupation and the post war period. These three sections

have been segregated into different parts by the museum because they

can be seen as distinct phases of Japan’s influence over Singapore

during World War II.

The museum represents history of the war in non-offensive manner that

would not offend the Japanese tourists visiting the museum or affect

diplomatic relations with Japan, and reduce any hatred the locals might

have towards the Japanese. Although Singapore might not be so

dependent on trade with Japan to survive economically, she still has to

maintain a good relationship with them. Thus accounts of the war from

Japanese soldiers are mostly those who are questioning their country’s

cause for attacking Singapore.

It can be observed that more emphasis are placed on the the civilians

and soldiers who supported the resistance and almost none on those

who supported the Japanese. This is to ensure the racial harmony is

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maintained. For example, more emphasis was placed on the

disillusionment of the Indians as compared to the prior support of the

Indian army for the Japanese as a means to gain their own country’s

independence. No mention was made of the Malay’s support (Eg. Tani

Yutaka) of the Japanese as people who could help them get rid of the

British control.

The National Museum of Singapore concentrates more on giving an

overview of Singaporean history rather than focusing on one or two

important events in history as compared to museums such as Fort Siloso

or the Ford Factory. Thus most artifacts displayed are generally printed

artifacts such as posters, stamps and photographs, or artefacts that can

be displayed on a flat surface without external support as the space

allocated to this section is not large enough to contain larger artifacts

such as guns or wax figures that can be found in Fort Siloso. Thus the

main source of information in the exhibition is the audio tracks which are

made available to the visitors though a personal digital assistant (PDA).

During the museum trip, we observed that all the other visitors were

foreigners and were mostly in tour groups. A tour guide usually explained

the exhibits and artefacts to the foreigners. Out of the five groups that

we encountered, four groups were Japanese and their tour was

conducted in Japanese. A brief explanation would be given for a

particular section, and they were then given some time to view the

4
artefacts and exhibits closely. Every exhibit is numbered, and keying in

the number into the PDA would display a description of the exhibit on its

screen. Since they were not entitled to a PDA, the tourists are only able

to look at the exhibits and form their own interpretations of it. It was

observed that those in groups completed the tour much faster than

individuals.

The museum would also not be able to control the tour guides’

explanation to the tourists, and thus the main point of view that the

museum might want to portray to the visitor is lost. The museum would

also be unable to ensure the quality and the depth of the explanations to

the tourists. As most of the tour groups touring the museum were

Japanese, it is recommended that important artifacts have explanations

in Japanese placed next to them as they might not be proficient in

english. It is especially important that they understand this period of

Singapore’s history from the Singaporean point of view other than their

own point of view.

Unlike those in group tours, some individuals were seen to be following

the guided tour that was set by the museum with the PDA as a personal

guide to explain each exhibit. Similarly, our group followed the guided

tour that was preset by the museum and listening to the audio and video

clips that was available on the PDA.

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It can be inferred that the museum has two main target groups: tourists

and Singaporean students. It is one of the tourist attractions in

Singapore2 and thus is under pressure to increase its revenues by

attracting more tourists to Singapore. It also has many outreach

programmes for children and public school students aged 6 - 14. The

museums also provide free admissions to students in order to attract

students to come be it for academic or recreational reasons. The target

groups affects how the museum displays the their exhibits, such as

ensuring that different emotions will naturally be felt by people of

different nationalities. How they might feel depends on what their roles

or their ancestor’s roles were during the time of the Japanese

occupation. Seeing different kinds of artifacts may bring different

emotions to people of different nationalities too. For example, looking at

a bayonet used by the Japanese or an old photograph of the Chinese

societies. Japanese visitors might sense the biases of the museum

towards the Allied soldiers and civilians as little to none of the articles

that were displayed were supporting or about the Japanese cause. “It

has been asserted that Singapore was merely a ‘battlefield’ of foreign

powers, where ‘local’ inhabitants mainly migrants and a proportion of

British subjects were nothing more than spectators and victims of

2 Wen Wei, Jamie Ee and Kai Ling Ng. "Some Tourist Attractions Losing
their Appeal." The Straits Times, Apr 07, 2011.
http://search.proquest.com/docview/860563188?accountid=12691.
6
 3
‘someone else’s war’.” Thus the museum is trying to make the war more

significant for Singaporeans by highlighting the experiences of the

civilians and several ‘local’ groups that fought in the war to a larger

extent than most war museums in the world. By presenting it this way,

the younger generation of Singaporeans are also more likely to view

these events from a point of the older generation who experienced the

events.

From what we observed, the museum seems to be effective in depicting

the wartime scenario and the hardship of the civilians through the use of

audio and visual aid. To further enhance the experience, PDAs were given

to each visitor. Other than information given orally through the PDA,

additional textual information can be found in the PDA, and some

exhibits come with short video clips. The use of the different formats

provides a more interactive way of learning the history of the Japanese

Occupation. The PDAs are also in sync to the audio produced by the

videos played as part of the physical exhibit. So once a visitor enters the

demarcated area, the audio track on the PDA will be synced with the

video, and he will be able to listen to the video. One benefit of this is a

quieter museum, as the audio tracks from the videos will not distract

3 Muzaini, Hamzah and Brenda S. A. Yeoh. "War Landscapes as

'Battlefields' of Collective Memories: Reading the Reflections at Bukit
Chandu, Singapore." Cultural Geographies 12, no. 3 (2005): 345-345.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1474474005eu335oa.
http://search.proquest.com/docview/200879784?accountid=12691.
7
other visitors not watching the video, maintaining a conducive learning

environment in the museum.

Spotlights are used on the exhibits, helping visitors to focus on the

artifacts. The lighting creates a dreary atmosphere which helps visitors

feel the exhibition by using mainly sound effects to convey the reality of

the war and thus creating an ambience that simulates war such as the

sound of bombings. To show how the people’s life is during the Japanese

occupation, the exhibition uses old photographs and tools of what they

use during the occupation. This gives visitors a more vivid experience of

the Occupation.

Furthermore, there is a history path for the children, with audio tracks

and videos that are more accessible for the children, thus improving

their understanding of the exhibits.

To further enhance the objective of understanding the war, an extra

exhibition could perhaps be set up based on the Japanese point of view.

By putting one into the Japanese shoes, one might gain a new

perspective of the Japanese’s position during the World War II.

Understanding their motivation and higher intent through their point of

view could be a new experience and provide a balanced view towards

Singapore’s history during that period.

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However, one must still question the true intention of how the museum

exhibits the war as withholding or highlighting certain information might

be what the museum intends to do so as to sway the views of the regular

visitor.

In terms of periodization, the museum organises their exhibits

chronologically. It is important to follow the timeline so as to provide a

flow between events as the audience progresses through the exhibition.

It also helps the audience to better understand the exhibits as he travels

deeper into the exhibits as the knowledge acquired would be able to add

on top of one another nicely with, connected. The artifacts are classified

according to what they were used for, who used them, or what they

represent in the Japanese Occupation of Singapore.

The Museum could organize their exhibits based on viewpoints. For

example, documents, uniforms, weapons and other artifacts that were

used by the Japanese could be placed together, and so on for the British

and civilians. Links could be drawn between the artifacts that involve

more than two parties, an example would be the British and Japanese

surrender documents. This would place more emphasis on the

relationships between the parties involved, and also help the viewer

draw comparisons between artifacts that were created for similar

purposes but for different people.

9
The Museum could also organize the artifacts base on their application.

For example, propaganda posters from the British and Japanese could be

placed together to encourage comparisons between the two, in terms of

target audience, how the the goals were achieved, how successful they

were, just to name a few. However the two different ways of displaying

the artifacts raised may not be very coherent when placed in the larger

context of the timeline of Singapore history. However, they can be

implemented in other war museums in Singapore for a more thought-

provoking experience.

Figure 1: Mamoru Shinozaki

The Museum tried to balance their portrayal of the Japanese during the

occupation by displaying a photograph of Mamoru Shinozaki (Figure 1)

along with photos with other soldiers. There was a brief historical

narrative of him and what he did during Japanese occupation. He was a

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Japanese government official stationed in Singapore before and during

the Japanese Occupation. Shinozaki is known for his humanitarian acts

during the Japanese Occupation such as issuing government passes that

saved many Chinese and Eurasian lives. He was eventually appointed as

the government’s Chief Welfare Officer and Chief Officer of education.

After the war ended in 1945, he was one of the key witnesses for the war

trials of the Japanese officers who were involved in the Sook Ching

massacre.

It should be noted that this was one of the few accounts of the Japanese

that were found on display in the museum. One reason this might have

been displayed could be to honour his efforts to help the locals in

Singapore during the war. While it can be viewed as an effort by the

museum to soften the harsh image of the Japanese, it also makes one

question how extreme the Japanese were during the occupation that it

caused some their own to go against them.

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Figure 2: Matchbox cover (Pro- Japanese)

However, there were matchbox covers designed with pictorials which

depict Japanese superiority on display. On this particular matchbox

cover (Figure 2), there are two people chained together who represent

the United States of America and United Kingdom which can be seen

from the flags sewn on their tattered clothes. Chains on connecting them

symbolise them as allies during the World War 2, and also their defeat by

the Japanese army. The white flag being tied on the spade indicates the

victory of the Japanese. The large amount of bones on the ground signify

the huge losses that these two mighty countries suffered at the hands of

the Japanese. A dull expression can be seen on their faces which is to

portray the disillusion of the countries and to instill the viewer with the
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sense that they are giving up. The confidence of the Japanese is

contrasted to the dull expressions of the people which can be seen in

the Japanese characters which mean ‘Sure win’ in Kanji. From this, it can

be inferred that this artifact is a pro-Japanese artifact.

This matchbox cover was one of the many that the Japanese distributed

in Singapore and also dropped from planes in Shanghai and the

Philippines. The civilians were encouraged to collect as many covers as

they could. The matchboxes were frequently used by civilians in their

everyday lives, and they were used as propaganda to convince civilians

living under the Japanese during World War 2 that the Japanese were

superior to the Westerners, and therefore the civilians should support

them. The matchboxes could also affect the morale of any resistance,

prompting them to reconsider their plans before going against Japan.

One of the reasons that this artifact is on display is to show how the

Japanese tried to assert their governmental influence via propaganda to

the countries they occupied during the war.

In the museum, there were photographs of how the local Chinese were

killed and weapons used during the Sook Ching massacre. These articles

can stir up great anger and memories for the people who survived the

Japanese occupation. Most of the people who experienced the Japanese

Occupation of Singapore would never forget the operation Sook Ching (‘a

purge through cleansing’ in mandarin). Operation Sook Ching is the

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massacre of thousands of local Chinese whom were believed by the

Japanese to be anti-Japanese.

After the British surrendered, Singapore were renamed into Syonan-to

which meant ‘Light of the South’. The Japanese realized that many local

Chinese were still very loyal to the British or to mainland China and were

very anti-Japanese. The military authorities led by General Tomoyuki

Yamashita then executed Operation Sook Ching to get rid of those anti-

Japanese elements. Screening centres were set-up all over the cities to

gather and screen through Chinese men aging from 18 to 50. Those who

did not pass the screening were sent via trucks to remote places, mainly

the Punggol beach or Changi beach for mass execution. The screening

was based on inaccurate information, and many innocent lives were lost.

Official figures show that up to 6,000 victims were killed, however,

unofficial figures estimate the actual numbers to be from 25,000 to

50,000 victims.4

These photographs gives us concrete evidence of how the Japanese

exerted power in order to keep order within Singapore. It is clear that the

Japanese had to assert violence through the killings to make the local

population fear them in order to maintain order and to enforce their

authority. The Japanese did not have true support from the people and

thus despite ‘occupying’ Singapore, never really ruled it. It also brings us

4Gunn, Geoffrey C.2007. “Remembering the Southeast Asian Chinese

massacres of 194145.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 37(3): 273291.
14
to question the motives of the executions as the Sook Ching massacre

only involved local Chinese which shows us that the Japanese had some

sort of prejudice towards the Chinese in particular.

The explanations for the above artifacts and other artifacts in this

section is usually presented to the visitor in the audio form, through the

PDA provided. The tone used in the narrative audio is deep and sad while

describing the dark times of Japanese Occupation. It tries to portray the

voice of the petrified civilian who was under the hardship of the

suppressing Japanese’s occupation. Throughout the journey, the tone of

the narrative audio changes based on the events of the Japanese

occupation. The tone used allows us to better relate to what the civilians

had gone through together with the visual aids provided. From the tone,

we felt that they were tired and lost as the tone was slow and soft.

Eventually, the tone became loud and joyous when the Japanese

surrendered and left. The use of the tone in the audio actually influences

the visitors subconsciously on an emotional level, which is likely to make

them empathize with the events in the occupation.

The main viewpoint through which the museum addresses the Japanese

occupation of Singapore is the defending soldier’s point of view and the

civilians’ point of view. Occasionally, certain viewpoints of some of the

Japanese are also mentioned. It can be observed that the Japanese

viewpoints that were featured actually belonged to the Japanese who

15
doubted or went against their own cause. The museum tries to give

these viewpoints more authenticity by recording the excerpts in the first

person narrative, expressed with the emotions the person might have felt

while speaking, even though the excerpts might not be directly quoted

from a survivor of the war. This is usually supplemented with visual aids

such as artifacts that might have been used by people in the same role

or position as the ‘speaker’. This means that the “object is dislocated

from the everyday context that the museum tries to evoke” 5, and the

interpretation of how the object might have been used is very heavily

influenced by what it is placed next to.

The exhibition of the war in the National Museum of Singapore seems to

serve as a transition between the the colonial past of Singapore and

start of Singapore’s fight for her independence and nation-building. It is

depicted as the point at which the civilians of Singapore started to

awakened and realise that the British were unfit to be the rulers of

Singapore, and realise they were ‘not to depend on others for our defence

any further’. It is as though the civilians in Singapore had discarded their

identities as Chinese and Indians immigrants and native Malays and

taken up the identity of a Singaporean, and the war was the unifying

factor.

5 Gillian Rose, Visual Methodologies 3rd Ed. (Sage; 2012), 243.

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War museums offer cultural exchanges and have certain social

obligations or responsibilities in common with regards to increasing

cultural accessibility and understanding and cross cultural

communication. Political reasons could also play an important part in

shaping the museums representation of Singapore’s history to promote

Singapore’s sense of identity and enhance the importance of national

security. In addition, as mentioned in Benediktsson’s paper, museums

can present unique opportunities for consuming and experiencing

cultural heritage for tourists and it can be seen as a business

opportunity. Singapore, being a tourism hub, could made use of

Singapore’s extraordinary progress as compared to other SEA countries

to attract tourists to gain more insights about Singapore’s past and it is

well aligned to Singapore Tourism Board 2015’s vision which is to

“develop Singapore as a leading Asian leisure destination by providing an

enriching experience that is Uniquely Singapore”.6

To conclude, it has been observed that the National Museum of

Singapore has presented to us the history and artifacts of the Japanese

occupation in a wholesome and dynamic way. It is a vital source of

information and education for Singaporeans of different age groups and

races to understand more about the past of the country. However, it can

be felt that much of the history or many artifacts that are presented are
6 Benediktsson, G. (2004) “Museums and Tourism”. Master Dissertation,
International Museum Studies, Goteborgs Universitet (documento
policopiado).
17
trying to influence the visitors to look at it with a certain bias. This slant

in the representation of the occupation of Singapore could cause

younger generations to analyze the war differently, thus potentially

affecting the future relationships of the Singapore and Japan. Although

the Museum is firstly a place where artifacts - important primary sources

of the war - and information are collated and made available to the

public, its significant influence in shaping the attitude and memories of

future generations cannot be ignored. Together with the rest of the war

museums in Singapore, It must also be acknowledged as places where

the exchange of viewpoints between the Japanese and Singaporeans

occurs, and should help facilitate both sides towards a better

understanding of the war and its importance or lack of in today’s world.

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Wen Wei, Jamie Ee and Kai Ling Ng. "Some Tourist Attractions Losing

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D. Wong, ‘Memory suppression and memory production: the Japanese

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19
Muzaini, Hamzah and Brenda S. A. Yeoh. "War Landscapes as

'Battlefields' of Collective Memories: Reading the Reflections at

Bukit Chandu, Singapore." Cultural Geographies 12, no. 3 (2005):

345-345. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1474474005eu335oa.

http://search.proquest.com/docview/200879784?accountid=12691.

Benediktsson, G. (2004) “Museums and Tourism”. Master Dissertation,

International Museum Studies, Goteborgs Universitet (documento

policopiado).

Falk, J. e Dierking, L. (1992) The museum experience. Washington D.C.:

Whalesback Books.

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