Oral History Accounts of the Japanese Occupation VOICES THAT REMAIN
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BIBLIOASIA APR – JUN 2017 Vol. 13 / Issue 01 / NL Notes of society. The Japanese Occupation project, in Singapore, mostly presented positive, if not (Facing page) Victorious Japa- however, aimed to record history from a variety glowing, views of the Japanese administration. nese troops marching into Fuller- of perspectives – and would cut across socio- The Japanese Occupation interviews have ton Square on 16 February 1942. economic lines. helped to shed light on the harsh realities of life The British had surrendered The first phase of the Japanese Occupation in Syonan-to, the large number of interviewees the previous day and Singapore would be renamed Syonan-to project took four-and-a-half years, from June often proving to be effective in corroborating (or (“Light of the South”) by its new VOICES 6 1981 to December 1985. Potential interview- disqualifying) competing claims. Interviewees masters. © IWM (HU 2787). ees were identified through “media publicity,7 were selected based on their first-hand familiar- (Below) This portrait of a pho- organisations like the National Museum, Sentosa ity with the subject matter. Structured outlines tographer’s assistant, taken Museum, Senior Citizens’ clubs, community cen- were used to ensure some measure of consist- after the Japanese Occupa- tion, clearly shows the effects tres, individual recommendations and handbills ency and uniformity in the topics covered, while from the years of deprivation. THAT REMAIN distributed at pictorial exhibitions organised by interviewers were trained to pick up on unique All rights reserved, Lee, G. B. the National Archives of Singapore”.8 At the close experiences for follow-up. (1992). Syonan: Singapore Under of the project, 175 persons had been interviewed, Weighing in on the significance of the the Japanese 1942–1945 (p. 44). Oral History Accounts of the J. H. Siow (Ed.). Singapore: Sin- totalling some 655 recorded hours. Japanese Occupation collection, James H. gapore Heritage Society. Japanese Occupation Subject to conditions placed by the inter- Morrison writes: (Bottom) A father and daughter viewees, the recordings were made available to having a simple meal of porridge government officials, researchers and members “In a virtual lacuna of documentation and nuts. During the Japa- of the public. The first major showcase of the contemporaneous with the event, nese Occupation, many people suffered from malnutrition or interviews took place in February 1985 on the remembrances either spoken or written died of starvation. Courtesy of 43rd anniversary of the Fall of Singapore.9 are, of course, prime documentation…. Wikimedia Commons. For one month, the Archives and Oral His- The Singapore Oral History Department’s tory Department (OHD) – the entity formed by collection of materials on the Japanese the merger of the National Archives and Records Occupation during the Second World War Centre and the OHU in early 198110 − organised a is meticulously collected, scrupulously Oral history accounts of the Japanese Occupation month-long exhibition on the Japanese Occupa- organized, and immediately accessible tion at its former premises at Hill Street Building to users. They provide one of the more take on added poignancy, says Mark Wong, as we (today’s Old Hill Street Police Station).11 comprehensive collections of one former This first-ever exhibition on the occupation colony’s view (or views) of the war.”16 mark the 75th anniversary of the Fall of Singapore. years12 used information that had been gathered from oral history interviews as well as a selection As the project was intent on collecting of pictures, maps, charts and documents.13 Many data that would enable the reconstruction of of the artefacts displayed were either donated the lives of those affected by the Japanese or borrowed from the interviewees.14 Occupation − both civilians as well as military On 15 February 1942, the British surrender to of the NAS’s Japanese Occupation of Singapore A year later, to mark the end of the first personnel − a broad approach was taken to the invading Japanese forces heralded the start Oral History Collection. phase of the project, the OHD published a include several key themes. These include the of three-and-a-half years of occupation when In 1981, the Oral History Unit (OHU; now catalogue of interviews containing information pre-war anti-Japanese movement; the British oSingapore was known as Syonan-to (“Light of renamed as the Oral History Centre) launched such as date, duration and synopses. Recognis- defence of Singapore; social and living conditions the South”). a major project to record memories of the Japa- ing that there are more stories to be told, the under occupation; the Sook Ching massacres; As we mark the 75th anniversary of the Fall nese Occupation of Singapore. Although it was project continues to this day whenever suitable the Japanese defence of Syonan-to against the of Singapore, we are fast approaching a turn- the impending and inevitable loss of Singapore’s interviewees are found. Allied Forces; the role of the resistance forces; ing point in our history. Anyone with a passing wartime generation that prompted this effort, the and the Japanese surrender and its aftermath. memory of the occupation years would be well idea of collecting interviews about the war and The Value of Oral History into their 80s today, and the day will come when occupation had been conceived when the OHU we can no longer obtain first-hand accounts was first established in 1979.1 Today, the Oral History Centre (OHC), as it was from people who survived the atrocities of this That year, the OHU announced plans to finally renamed in 1993, is a unit under the NAS. period. This situation raises some fundamental embark on two key projects – “Pioneers of Sin- Altogether, it has amassed over 360 interviews questions about our national history: how do we gapore” and “Political Development of Singapore, and 1,100 hours of recordings pertaining to know what we know about the past if no one alive 1945–1965”;2 the third project on the Japanese the Japanese Occupation.15 These interviews Mark Wong is an Oral has actually experienced it? Occupation would be on hold until “more experi- have become a key collection of the OHC for a History Specialist at the Oral Fortunately, the National Archives of Sin- ence has been obtained by the Unit”.3 number of reasons. History Centre, National gapore (NAS), as the official custodian of Singa- The first two projects were narrower in Most importantly, the interviews have Archives of Singapore, where pore's collective memory, has been collecting their scope and selection of interviewees. The helped to fill an enormous gap in our knowledge he conducts oral history primary historical records of the war and occupa- Pioneers initiative (at one time also referred to of the war and occupation. The chaos of war and interviews in areas such as tion years. These take the form of government and as the Millionaires project4) recorded the recol- the regime change posed many challenges for education, the performing arts, the public service and personal documents, photographs, audio-visual lections of business and social leaders from the recordkeeping, made worse in the final days the Japanese Occupation. recordings, maps and other formats. early- to mid-1900s, while the Political Develop- leading up to the official Japanese surrender He co-curated the exhibition, ment project focused on political leaders familiar on 2 September 1945 when the administration Law of the Land: Highlights Giving a Voice to the Past with the rise of politics in the period after World systematically destroyed records of its work in of Singapore’s Constitutional War II up to Independence.5 Singapore. Copies of the heavily censored Syonan Documents, now on at the The shift from living memory to official archives Both projects were attempts to under- Shimbun and other newspapers that survived, National Gallery Singapore. gives us occasion to re-evaluate the significance stand history through the movers and shakers while providing a valuable record of daily life 56 57 BIBLIOASIA APR – JUN 2017 Vol. 13 / Issue 01 / NL Notes The intention was to record a plurality of of poorer or marginalized Singaporeans in the Japanese Occupation of Singapore's Oral An interview in progress – using the Uher Report Monitor 4200 open-reel tape recorder − at voices so that they could serve as a counter- whose experiences don’t fit easily into the History Collection so that we and the generations the Oral History Department in Hill Street in 1982. Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. balance to the predominantly Western-centric dominant narratives of the occupation.… I who come after us can continue to listen − and memoirs of British and Australian soldiers came into the oral history interviews with learn − from their experiences. and politicians that had begun appearing after this idea that the Japanese administration the war and the types of histories that were was omnipresent in wartime life because subsequently written. The Fall of Singapore of organizations like the Overseas Chinese VOICES FROM THE OCCUPATION has been framed as Britain’s worst military Association, Eurasian Welfare Association, disaster – but what did occupation really mean and the auxiliary police force. However, “When the Japanese came in, during the for people in Singapore? through the interviews of the city’s poorer first fortnight, they beheaded eight people To this end, the interviews systematically residents like Mabel