RI Impact of Japanese Occupation

END OF JAPANESE RULE IN SINGAPORE • 12 Sep: Surrender Ceremony held at the Municipal building • “Whispering terror” in the weeks before the arrival of Allied forces • Chinese youths sought out and killed collaborators • Breakdown of law and order • Widespread looting • Copycat reprisals against Japanese soldiers

Allied prisoners of war piling out of the main gate of the Changi Prison after the British liberation of Singapore in September of 1945

END OF JAPANESE RULE IN SINGAPORE “I said it then, and I still say it today—that day was the end of the Dark Age of Singapore.” - Heng Chiang Ki Straits Times, 11 Sep 1995 “We cheered the British and jeered at the Japanese. I felt great. It was as if I had started living all over again.” - Ngui Jim Chiang Straits Times, 11 Sep 1995

IMPACT OF OCCUPATION • Desire for independence • Loss of respect for British rule because of their failure to protect Malaya. • Myth of white superiority collapsed: quick victory of the Japanese showed that Europeans were not superior to Asians. • Effect of Japanese propaganda claiming to liberate Asia from colonial rule and encouraging ‘Asia for Asians’ • Banding together of different races against common enemy in a time of adversity. • Some people therefore believed in the need to rid Singapore of foreign masters and rule their own nation.

IMPACT OF OCCUPATION • Expansion of Malayan Communist Party (MCP) • Most MPAJA members were supporters of the MCP • Posed as people’s heroes after the Japanese surrender and so managed to win supporters • Given men, training, weapons which they hid after the war • Made a legal party after the war in recognition of their efforts • British needed to fulfill their mandate to restore order and living conditions

IMPACT OF OCCUPATION • Expansion of Malayan Communist Party (MCP) • Most MPAJA members were supporters of the MCP • Posed as people’s heroes after the Japanese surrender and so managed to win supporters • Given men, training, weapons which they hid after the war • Made a legal party after the war in recognition of their efforts • British needed to fulfill their mandate to restore order and living conditions

IMPACT OF OCCUPATION “The regime was welcomed back with genuine relief because it was benign, its weaknesses were sins of omission, its memory was not marred by cruelty, or dragooning the population. Nevertheless, the only ultimate justification for a colonial power was its ability to protect, and in this the British colonial regime had been tried and found wanting. The old unquestioning trust in British protection had been shattered forever.” - C.M. Turnbull

IMPACT OF OCCUPATION “The halo of victory must shine on the Union Jack, but today there remains little vestige of its glory of former times.” “The bronze statue of Raffles appeared on its pedestal for the second time; but without anyone knowing the reason, its colour appeared to have faded.” - COL Masanobu Tsuji

IMPACT OF OCCUPATION “The prestige of the white man per se has gone. He can now be natural and himself, for he is seen to be a human being, who can be defeated, who can make mistakes, who is often arrogant and crude and yet who has his points… Asia has awakened to its shame and arisen to take its destiny into its own hands… In the new era there will be an end of Empire.” - Tan Cheng Lock