Dont forget to fight singapores history education and war commemoration, 1945 2005

DON’T FORGET TO FIGHT! SINGAPORE’S HISTORY EDUCATION AND WAR COMMEMORATION, 1945-2005 YOSUKE WATANABE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2012 DON’T FORGET TO FIGHT! SINGAPORE’S HISTORY EDUCATION AND WAR COMMEMORATION, 1945-2005 YOSUKE WATANABE (Doctor of Philosophy), NUS A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF JAPANESE STUDIES NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2012 Acknowledgements This dissertation is my analysis on how and why a particular portrait of a national past was reconstructed and disseminated in close connection with the political elite’s interests of the times especially focusing on the portrait of the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. I started such a project due to my concern with the perpetuating war memory controversy between the Japanese and the peoples from other Asian countries. In Japan, the Second World War is generally remembered as suffering inflicted on Japanese civilians that include American indiscriminate air-raids on Tokyo and Osaka, atomic-bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and children’s evacuation to Japan’s countryside. Atrocities committed by the Japanese Army such as the Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731, and the Sook Ching Massacre are not major components of war memory transmitted to younger Japanese. On the other hand, the Nanjing Massacre and the Sook Ching Massacre occupy major parts of the transmitted war memories for younger generations in China and Singapore, respectively. The problem here is that each people remembers and passes down their own suffering but is relatively ignorant of another people’s pain. What I tried to reveal in this dissertation was that how such a i ‘self-centred’ or patriotic understanding of the war was reconstructed and disseminated for what purpose in the context of the nation-state system. My concern with war memory issues was triggered by my personal experiences. In 1994, I travelled to Beijing to attend a one-year Chinese language course during which I had many opportunities to discuss ‘history issues’ with my Chinese and Korean friends. Luckily, our debates were always not so heated because at that time I was a university student of international relations, therefore, had basic knowledge of various atrocities committed by the Japanese. Once they found that I knew those atrocities and did not justify the Japanese invasion, they no longer continued the discussion. However, a big surprise to me was that almost all Chinese university students I met at that time had only knowledge and image of the Japanese during the Second World War but were totally ignorant of the present Japan. For example, nobody knew that a post-war Japan had maintained a peace constitution with relatively small armed forces only for its self-defence. I felt that the transmitted war memory to the younger Chinese was selective and one-sided. Another incident that made me look into war memory issues happened in Japan. In 2001, as a staff member of an NGO in charge of ii conducting international friendship programmes, I was writing a report based on feedback forms from participants of a Japan-Korea friendship programme. In many forms, I found Japanese participants’ comments like: “In discussion sessions, I could not discuss history matters with Korean counterparts due to a lack of historical knowledge. I felt awkward with them.” Having read many comments of this kind, I thought that ignorance of another country’s history and memory could constitute an obstacle even to the success of a youth friendship programme. Then, I deepened my conviction that if we would leave such war memory or historiographical gaps between peoples in Asia, it would invite unnecessary conflicts among them in the era of globalisiation. In 2002, I returned to my academic life by moving to Singapore. A reason for choosing Singapore was that despite the fact that Singapore suffered a harsh Japanese invasion and occupation, unlike China and Korea, younger Singaporeans hardly had anti-Japanese sentiment; I was interested in how and why this was possible. Although I not yet have a clear answer to this question, what I can say now is that the transmitted war memory to younger Singaporeans is very different from the one passed down to younger Chinese and Koreans. iii In the case of Singapore, according to Diana Wong, war memory was once ‘suppressed’ soon after its independence in 1965 and later ‘produced’ on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Second World War. Having encountered this article, I became aware of the fact that war memory was in part reproduced in close connection with the political elite’s interests of the times. Thereafter, I decided to a closer analysis on how and why the Singapore government reconstructed and disseminated the official war memory through history education and war commemoration. As implied above, my intention to write this dissertation is to contribute to finding a solution to war memory controversy by revealing the process of how and why a government reconstructed a national past and disseminated a particular portrait of the war among people. It is not my intension to hang the responsibility of war memory controversy only on the Singapore government or any other governments of Asia. What I want to argue here is that, as will be discussed in this dissertation in more detail, the perpetuation of war memory gaps between different nations is caused not only by contextual factors but by structural factors (anarchical nature of the nation-state system and the mechanism that each nation-state unites people). iv I wrote this dissertation chiefly because such structural factors tend to be overlooked in current discussion on war memory controversy in East Asia. Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude to all those in the Department of Japanese Studies and, particularly, my research committee members who supervised my project without which this dissertation could not be materialised. I would like to thank Dr. Simon Avenell, my main supervisor, for reading a few versions of the manuscripts and giving me pithy advice despite the fact that the topic of my research was not his specialty. I would like to thank Dr. Teow See Heng for his constant support and help to improve the manuscripts. He gave me detailed and constructive comments and introduced me many books and articles relevant to this dissertation regardless of the fact that he was not a main supervisor. Also, I am grateful to Dr. Timothy Amos and Dr. Timothy Tsu for giving me good advices since I started this project. I cannot fail to express my gratitude to Dr. Kevin Blackburn (National Institute of Education, Singapore) who shared with me information of primary sources regarding this project and introduced me key persons who were involved in Singapore’s war commemoration programmes. Many thanks are due to Mr. George Yeo, Mr. Kwa Chong Guan, Mr. Pitt Kuan Wah, Ms. Tan Teng Teng, Dr. John Miksic, v Dr. Yong Mun Cheong and Dr. Doreen Tan who shared with me their precious experience during the period when they were involved in the commemoration projects or history syllabus revisions. Finally, millions of thanks are due to my family members for their unchanging support to me. This dissertation could not be materialised without any of the above people’s support and help. Again, I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me a help to make this dissertation possible. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements i Table of Contents vii Summary ix List of Tables xii List of Photographs xiii List of Abbreviations xv Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Concepts and Theory 36 Chapter 3: Marginalisation and Resurgence of History Education, 1945-1991 70 Chapter 4: Inculcating Singapore’s Identity: History Education and Museum Development 138 Chapter 5: Commemorating the Second World War, 1991-1994 199 Chapter 6: Commemorating the End of the War - 1995 269 Chapter 7: National Education and History Textbooks, 1996-2005 342 vii Chapter 8: Conclusion 364 Bibliography 376 viii Overseas Chinese]”, in Sensō Hanzai No Kōzō [The Structure of War Crimes], edited by Tanaka Toshiyuki, 175-205. Tokyo: Ōtsuki Shoten, 2007. 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Interview by the author. Singapore. 23 Oct 2012. Tan, Teng Teng. Interview by author. Singapore. 10 Jul 2012. 411 Yeo, George. Interview by author, Singapore. 22 Oct Nov 2012. Yong, Mun Cheong. Interview by author. Singapore. 22 Oct 2012. 412 [...]... history education and war commemoration Also, this thesis examines how and why the Singapore government construct particular portraits and message pertaining to the war through state-led programmes to mark the 50th anniversary of the Second World War between 1991 and 1995 The message that the government intended to spread was, in one sentence, ‘don’t forget to fight for Singapore; be prepared for war. .. World War Between 1991 and 1995, the government, in cooperation with related organisations, organised commemoration activities to mark the 50th anniversary of the war, such as war exhibitions, war plaques, history camps, and ix commemorative ceremonies In these activities, the political elite intended to spread the message of ‘don’t forget to fight for Singapore; be prepared for war even in peacetime’ and. .. same year, Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama’s apology for Japan’s invasion and colonial rule in 1995, and the inclusion of wartime comfort women into history textbooks in the latter half of the 1990s The ‘propaganda of former war enemies’ in the prospectus seems to be the Allied Powers’ wartime propaganda such as portraying the war as a just war between the right liberals and the cruel fascists Instead... cases of China and Singapore, the end of the Cold War prompted each country to make attempts to promote patriotism through history education and war commemoration In the case of Singapore, as suggested above, the government actively disseminated the official interpretation and message pertaining to the 19 Ibid., 10, 16-17 12 war – ‘be prepared for war even in peacetime’ – by referring to a historical lesson... regard to recognising the necessity to ‘correct’ the current ‘masochistic’ history education The Society’s prospectus states: Especially in the field of modern history, the Japanese are treated like criminals who must continue apologising for generations to come After the end of the Cold War, this masochistic tendency further increased, and in current history textbooks the propaganda of former war enemies... in history textbooks of different years 146 Figure 2 Eleven war plaques, types of site, and the dates of unveiling ceremonies 283 Figure 3 Five other war sites, types of site, and the dates of unveiling ceremonies 284 Figure 4 Pages and percentages devoted to the portrait of the Japanese Occupation and post -war years in history textbooks of different years 353 xii List of Photographs 1 The Civilian War. .. Japan as an aggressor to ravage its Asian neighbours Believing that we must slough off such a one-sided historiography and reconstruct a right history education, a group of teachers and educators concerned established the Association for Advancement of Unbiased View of History in 1995… In 1996, the 5 Sven Saaler, Politics, Memory and Public Opinion: The History Textbook Controversy and Japanese Society... the war Some of the messages were, in 1997, adopted as the NE (National Education) messages, which were and are more systematically sent to Singaporean students through history education and commemorative events after the launch of National Education This study examines how and why the Singapore government had been inculcating national identity and patriotism in the minds of youth through history education. .. principle, agrees to this analysis, their argument was made based on limited sources – only four 20 Goh Chor Boon and Saravanan Gopinathan, History Education and the Construction of National Identity in Singapore”, in History Education and National Identity in East Asia, ed Edward Vickers and Alisa Jones (New York: Routledge, 2005) , 218-220 21 Ibid., 219 15 textbooks published between 1985 and 1999 – the... Rep to (Tokyo: Dentsū Sōken, 1995), 13 10 Saaler, Politics, Memory and Public Opinion, 33 7 This view seems to be shared by other members of the Society Its prospectus states that the purpose of establishing the Society is to create new history textbooks that “will offer a balanced and dignified portrait of Japan and the Japanese”, and they state that their “textbook enables children to take pride and . DON’T FORGET TO FIGHT! SINGAPORE’S HISTORY EDUCATION AND WAR COMMEMORATION, 1945-2005 YOSUKE WATANABE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2012 DON’T FORGET TO FIGHT! SINGAPORE’S. TO FIGHT! SINGAPORE’S HISTORY EDUCATION AND WAR COMMEMORATION, 1945-2005 YOSUKE WATANABE (Doctor of Philosophy), NUS A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT. Thereafter, I decided to do a closer analysis on how and why the Singapore government reconstructed and disseminated the official war memory through history education and war commemoration. As