War Memory and the Making of Modern Malaysia and Singapore

476 Pages·2012·33.294 MB·English

by  Kevin Blackburn, Karl Hack

War Memory
and the Making of Modern
Malaysia and Singapore

War Memory
and the Making of Modern
Malaysia and Singapore
Kevin Blackburn and Karl Hack
© 2012 Kevin Blackburn and Karl Hack
Published by:
NUS Press
National University of Singapore
AS3-01-02, 3 Arts Link
Singapore 117569
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.nus.edu.sg/nuspress
ISBN 978-9971-69-599-6 (Paper)
All rights reserved. Th is book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be
invented, without written permission from the Publisher.
National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Blackburn, Kevin, 1965–
War memory and the making of modern Malaysia and Singapore / Kevin
Blackburn and Karl Hack. – Singapore : NUS Press, c2012.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN : 978-9971-69-599-6 (pbk.)
1. World War, 1939–1945 – Social aspects – Malaysia. 2. World War,
1939–1945 – Social aspects – Singapore. 3. Collective memory – Malaysia.
4. Collective memory – Singapore. 5. Malaya – History – Japanese occupation,
1942–1945. 6. Singapore – History – Japanese occupation, 1942–1945.
I. Hack, Karl. II. Title.
D744.7
940.53595 — dc22 OCN755871946
Cover image : On the sidelines of a ceremony, joss sticks are burnt and off erings
are made at Singapore’s Civilian War Memorial. Th is ceremony happens every
15 February, to remember the fall of Singapore and the war dead of the Japanese
Occupation.
Typeset by : Scientifi k Graphics
Printed by : C.O.S. Printers
Contents
Plates & Maps vii
Note on Spellings xi
Preface xiii
Individuals
Chapter 1 Introduction 3
Chapter 2 Personal Narratives of British Defeat and
Japanese Occupation 14
Communities
Chapter 3 Th e European Prisoner of War as Hero and Victim 53
Chapter 4 Th e Chinese War Hero 96
Chapter 5 Chinese Victimhood 135
Chapter 6 Indian Nationalism and Suff ering 174
Chapter 7 Malay Warriors and Pemuda 207
Chapter 8 Malay Victims 243
Nations and States
Chapter 9 Memory and Nation-Building in Malaysia 255
Chapter 10 Memory and Nation-Building in Singapore 292
Chapter 11 Conclusion 334
Glossary 343
Notes 345
Bibliography 416
Index 439
v

Plates & Maps
Plates
Plate 2.1i Th ree war veterans at the September 2005 “Forum
with the Wartime Generation”: Kalyan Ram Das
(left); Don Lee (centre); and Choi Siew Hong
(right). 15
Plate 2.2ii K.R. Das and his Japanese friend, Kikuchi Sekine,
in Singapore, 1942 25
Plate 2.3i Mohd Anis bin Tairan being interviewed by Kevin
Blackburn, 2004 46
Plate 3.1iii Australian ex-POWs watching Japanese POWs
labour on Singapore’s Padang, September 1945 59
Plate 3.2i Singapore Cenotaph 66
Plate 3.3i Kranji War Memorial, Singapore 69
Plate 3.4iv Malaya Tribune cartoon on postwar conditions,
5 September 1946, frontpage 75
Plate 3.5v Elizabeth Choy 78
Plate 3.6i Changi Chapel as built by the Singapore Tourism
Board. Modern construction built in the Changi
Museum, to echo the original outside chapels of
the wartime POW camp 86
Plate 3.7i Changi Prison before demolition in 2004 87
Plate 3.8i Th e Changi Murals: Th e Nativity Scene 92
Plate 3.9i Th e Changi Murals: Th e Last Supper 92
Plate 3.10i Th e Changi Murals: Th e Crucifi xion 93
Plate 3.11i Th e Changi Murals: Australian tour party 93
vii
viii Plates & Maps
Plate 4.1vi Cheng Seang Ho at the opening of the Kranji War
Memorial, 1957 111
Plate 4.2vii MPAJA 4th Regiment demobilisation parade in
Johor Bahru, 1 December 1945 114
Plate 4.3viii Lim Bo Seng with Force 136 colleague John Davis 126
Plate 4.4vi Opening of the Lim Bo Seng Memorial, 1954 129
Plate 5.1v Remains from the 1960s Chinese Chamber of
Commerce exhumation of the Singapore sook ching
massacre sites 139
Plate 5.2ix Th e 1980s exhumation of the mass graves of the
sook ching massacre in Negeri Sembilan (I) 143
Plate 5.3ix Th e 1980s exhumation of the mass graves of the
sook ching massacre in Negeri Sembilan (II) 143
Plate 5.4x Jalan Kebun Teh sook ching massacre Memorial 145
Plate 5.5xi Cartoon of the scales of justice, Nanyang
Miscellany, 1947 149
Plate 5.6xii Th e Winning Design for the Civilian War Memo-
rial, by Swan and Mclaren, 1963 166
Plate 5.7i Th e Civilian War Memorial, Singapore 167
Plate 5.8i 15 February Ceremony at the Civilian War
Memorial in Singapore 171
Plate 6.1v Subhas Chandra Bose inspecting the Rani of
Jhansi Regiment 176
Plate 6.2iii Emaciated patients in a hospital hut at Nakom
Paton, on the Burma-Th ailand Railway 179
Plate 7.1v Lieutenant Adnan Saidi 213
Plate 7.2vii Malay Regiment in traditional dress uniform,
around 1941 213
Plate 7.3xiii Sergeant Hassan poster 230
Plate 7.4i Th e life-sized image of Hang Tuah at the National
History Museum in Kuala Lumpur (1996–2007) 235
Plates & Maps ix
Plate 7.5i Tugu Negara 239
Plate 8.1iii Malay workers on the Burma-Th ailand Railway 246
Plate 8.2iii Women unloading petrol from trains at Th am-
byuzat, Burma, on the Burma-Th ailand Railway 246
Plate 9.1i National Museum of History (1996–2007), Kuala
Lumpur 264
Plate 9.2xiv Leftenan Adnan poster 266
Plate 9.3xv Embun poster 270
Plate 9.4xv Paloh poster 272
Plate 9.5i September Martyrs Memorial, Nilai, 2003 280
Plate 9.6i “Monument in Memory of Malayan Heroes in
the Resistant [sic] Movement against Japanese
Invasion”, Nilai 283
Plate 10.1xvi Fort Siloso Live! 2001 fl yer 306
Plate 10.2i Fort Siloso Live! 2001 — schoolchildren see
“Japanese soldiers” take their teacher “prisoner” 307
Plate 10.3xvii Price of Peace opening title 308
Plate 10.4xvii A War Diary opening title 309
Plate 10.5i Singapore schoolchildren commemorating the
war dead at the Kranji War Memorial on the
Battlefi eld Tour, 1997 328
Maps i
Map 3.1 Malaya, 1941 57
Map 3.2 Changi Historical Area 80
Map 4.1 Dalforce Deployment in the Battle for Singapore,
February 1942 104
Map 7.1 Battle of Pasir Panjang, 13–14 February 1942 215
Map 10.1 Singapore’s Civic Centre and its Civilian War
Memorial 295
x Plates & Maps
i Courtesy of Kevin Blackburn and Karl Hack
ii Courtesy of K.R. Das
iii Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial
iv Coutesy of the Malaya Tribune
v Courtesy of the National Archives of Singapore
vi Courtesy of Singapore Press Holdings
vii Coutesy of the Imperial War Museum
viii Coutesy of Patta Tolputt
ix Courtesy of Hayashi Hirofumi and Senda Jiro
x Courtesy of Star online, Malaysia
xi Coutesy of Nanyang Miscellany, 1947
xii Unknown photographer
xiii Courtesy of Shaw Brothers
xiv Courtesy of Grand Brilliance
xv Courtesy of Filem Negara Malaysia
xvi Courtesy of Sentosa Development Corporation
xvii Courtesy of MediaCorp