YHU3316, Historical Immersion: Under Japanese Occupation Semester 2, 2021 Tuesday and Friday, 10:30–12:00; Stephen Riady Centre, LT53 Note: Classes end 10 minutes prior to the timetabled end time

Dr. Clay Eaton, Postdoctoral Fellow of Humanities Office Location: Saga College, RC1-01-03D (Tutor Room) Office Hours: TBD. Sign up at https://clayeaton.youcanbook.me/ Email Address: [email protected]

Course Description:

The histories of Singapore and the Japanese Empire collided in 1942, when a Japanese army captured the city and renamed it Syonan, the “Light of the South.” For three-and-a- half years, Syonan served as the “nerve center” of Japanese-controlled , and the occupation experience transformed the lives of local residents. The historical record of the occupation is incomplete, however, and to understand it historians must use all the methodological tools at their disposal. At the same time, historians of the war are embedded in their own social contexts and their work can have a complicated relationship with how the occupation is remembered by the broader public. This course provides an in-depth study of war and occupation in Singapore, as well as an introduction to the work of history and its place in society as a whole.

Learning Objectives:

The purpose of Historical Immersion courses in our Common Curriculum is to introduce students to the complex task of understanding the past. The intense focuses of these courses on specific moments in time is meant to expose students to the ambiguity of historical sources and conflicts between different narratives of the same event. By the end of the semester, students will understand the difficulty of knowing the “whole truth” of historical events, even those that took place less than a century ago.

By the end of the semester, students will be able to: • Critically analyze both primary and secondary sources • Demonstrate familiarity with different types of primary sources (government documents, newspapers, oral histories, memoirs, etc.) • Conduct a short research project on one aspect of the Japanese occupation of Singapore • Recognize the influence of public memory on popular perceptions of history

YHU3316, Singapore Under Japanese Occupation/ Semester 2, 2021 1 Course Materials:

Required Text

There is only one text that you will need to read in its entirety for this course. This is Albert Camus’ The Plague (1947). This novel is commonly understood as an allegory of the German occupation of France (Camus himself was a member of the French Resistance), but I think you will find that its descriptions of life under quarantine feel disturbingly familiar. You will need to read this novel during the semester break so that we can discuss it in our first class. Please be sure that you purchase the correct translation.

Camus, Albert. The Plague. Translated by Robin Buss. London: Penguin Books, 2013.

Suggested Texts

Thanks to the brilliant work of the library, the rest of our readings are available through our e-reserves on Canvas and you will not have to purchase any other texts. However, if you are interested in pursuing this subject further, I strongly recommend the following books, which are available through RBR:

Akashi Yoji and Yoshimura Mako, eds. New Perspectives on the Japanese Occupation in Malaya and Singapore. Singapore: NUS Press, 2008. Bayly, Christopher and Tim Harper. Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941– 1945. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press, 2005. Blackburn, Kevin and Karl Hack. War Memory and the Making of Modern and Singapore. Singapore: NUS Press, 2012. Cheah Boon Kheng. Red Star Over Malaya: Resistance and Social Conflict During and After the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1941–1946. Fourth Edition. Singapore: NUS Press, 2012. Farrell, Brian. The Defence and Fall of Singapore. Second Edition. Singapore: Monsoon Books, 2015. Kratoska, Paul H. The Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1941–1945: A Social and Economic History. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997. Nakano Satoshi. Japan’s Colonial Moment in Southeast Asia 1942–1945: The Occupiers’ Experience. London: Routledge, 2019.

If you are interested in any particular subject matter, please feel free to ask me for recommendations.

YHU3316, Singapore Under Japanese Occupation/ Semester 2, 2021 2 Course Assessment Breakdown:

In-Class Participation (Including Presentation): 25% Weekly Canvas Posting: 5% Secondary Source Analysis Essay: 20% Annotated Bibliography: 10% Final Research Paper: 30% Field Reports: 10%

Description of Assignments:

Participation and Primary Source Presentations – 25%

Class discussion is a cornerstone of our teaching method at Yale-NUS, especially within the Common Curriculum. Students are expected to be consistent, active participants in class discussion over the course of the semester. However, this does not mean you will receive a higher participation grade simply by speaking more. Comments that are neither constructive nor substantive will not contribute to your participation grade, while making space for less active students to participate in discussion will. Attendance is also required and will figure into your participation grade.

During Weeks 6 through 10 we will look closely at specific topics related to the Japanese occupation of Singapore, and in the second (Friday) seminar of each week a number of students will give individual presentations on primary sources related to that topic. Potential sources might include an administrative document, a selection of newspaper articles, a personal collection held at the National Archives, a series of propaganda photos, or selections from an oral history. These sources will comprise the reading (or listening) assignment for that seminar, and so presenters are required to provide me a copy of or link to the source they will analyze one week before their presentation.

Weekly Canvas Postings – 5%

Students are required to write responses to discussion questions that I will make available on Canvas one week ahead of time, as well as submit their own discussion questions. Postings will be due at 11:59pm every Thursday night, the evening before our second seminar of the week.

Secondary Source Analysis – 20%

For students of history, secondary sources provide a gateway into the study of a particular historical event or process. However, the author(s) of a secondary source are products of their own socio-political moment and, in order to write a cohesive history, must limit the primary sources they use and the facts that they present. In this short paper, students will choose one book chapter or journal article and analyze its argument and use of sources. What is the author trying to say? How might that lead them to focus on some primary sources instead of others? How do they position themselves vis-à-vis other historians? What is their contribution to the field of wartime

YHU3316, Singapore Under Japanese Occupation/ Semester 2, 2021 3 history? What might be the blind spots of their approach? Assignments must be posted to Canvas before Chinese New Year, by 11:59pm on 10 February (Wednesday).

Annotated Bibliography – 10%

In preparation for their final papers, students will produce an annotated bibliography— a compilation of primary and secondary sources accompanied by brief descriptions and evaluations of their content—on a topic of their choosing. The purpose of this assignment is to introduce students to a range of sources that will be useful for their final paper. Annotated bibliographies do not require students to provide one cohesive and compelling argument. Rather, this assignment will be evaluated based on the thoroughness of each students’ survey of relevant sources and evaluation of those sources. Assignments must be posted to Canvas by 11:59pm on 27 March (Saturday).

Final Paper – 30%

For their final assignment, students will write a paper on a topic of their choice related to the Japanese occupation of Singapore. Students must make use of at least two different types of primary sources in their papers, which may include but are not limited to the sources discussed in class. These papers should not present a simple narrative of the occupation, but should include an argument about historical change. Why did (foodways/labor relations/gender roles/family structures/religious institutions/leisure activities/national identity/political participation) change during the Japanese occupation? What remained the same, and why? These may seem like simple questions, but they require long answers. Students are required to meet with me to discuss their research topics immediately after recess week. Final papers must be posted to Canvas by 11:59pm on 30 April (Friday).

IMPORTANT NOTE: The National Archives of Singapore is an excellent source for research into wartime Singapore, and many of its collections, including oral histories and photographs, are available online. However, you must request permission to view government or private records in the archives, and the APPROVAL PROCESS FOR THESE REQUESTS CAN TAKE UP TO 10–12 WEEKS. I strongly suggest going through the online catalogue of the archives and requesting items that you may be interested in early in the semester.

Field Reports – 10%

While this course has, in the past, included field trips to wartime sites around Singapore, because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on large gatherings outside of the classroom, we will be unable to conduct our normal trips this semester. Instead, students will be asked to visit and write two brief reports about two separate sites related to the Battle of Singapore or the Japanese occupation. These sites might include museums, monuments, historical walking trails, cemeteries, or ruins. Reports should address the wartime history of this site as well as its connections to contemporary memories of the war in Singapore. Reports may be submitted to me via Canvas at any time during the semester, but one must be submitted before Recess Week (by 19 February), and the other must be submitted before Reading Week

YHU3316, Singapore Under Japanese Occupation/ Semester 2, 2021 4 (by April 16). I will distribute a list of eligible sites during the first weeks of class, but students may write their reports on alternate sites pending my approval.

If regulations permit, I will lead an optional walking tour of wartime sites in downtown Singapore during the Recess Week.

Late Assignment Policy:

Students are expected to plan and manage their workloads, and to ensure they do not lose work through IT malfunction. Students are expected to submit work on or before the deadlines specified in the syllabi or as advised in class. Papers submitted late will be penalized by one grade point per day or part thereof: e.g. an unpenalized mark of A- will be converted to B+, B+ to B, etc.

Attendance:

Students are expected to attend all classes. Each student is entitled to one unexcused absence from class, but otherwise may only miss class with a valid MC, AD note, or with prior approval from the instructor. Absences that have not been accounted for will negatively impact your participation grade.

Academic Integrity Policy:

Yale-NUS College expects its students to abide by the highest standards of academic integrity as a matter of personal honesty and communal responsibility. Acting with academic integrity requires that (a) students do their own work, (b) students not interfere with the work of others, (c) students accurately and honestly represent the content of their work, and (d) students properly attribute others’ work. Violations of the College’s academic integrity standards undermine both the community and the individual growth of students. Accordingly, they will be addressed with the utmost seriousness and sanctions ranging from grade penalties to expulsion. Examples of violations of academic integrity include plagiarism, copying or sharing homework answers, submitting work completed for one course as ‘new’ work for another course, or fabricating or falsifying research data. For more information please visit the Student Services website, Policies and Procedures section: https://studentlife.yale- nus.edu.sg/policies/academic-integrity/

The Yale-NUS Library provides resources on citations and plagiarism here: http://library.yale-nus.edu.sg/avoiding-plagiarism/

Laptops and Social Media:

Use of laptops is allowed in my classroom. Use of phones is not. Please keep phones stowed away for the duration of the class. Laptop users who are unable to stay off of social media or messaging apps for 80 minutes need to re-evaluate their #lifegoals. Resist temptation.

YHU3316, Singapore Under Japanese Occupation/ Semester 2, 2021 5 Nondiscriminatory Language and Conduct:

This course encourages non-discriminatory language and conduct. Students should not use racist, sexist or other discriminatory language in class discussions or written work. Discussion can only succeed if we respect each other’s opinions and allow others to make their case, even if we disagree with them. NO TROLLING ALLOWED. If you are making comments in bad faith to disrupt the conversation or engage in personal attacks, this will adversely affect your participation grade.

Schedule of Course Topics and Readings Optional readings in green

Week 1: Introductions 12 January – Course Introduction • Camus, Albert. The Plague. Translated by Robin Buss. London: Penguin Books, 2013. [READ OVER BREAK] • Judt, Tony. Afterword to The Plague, by Albert Camus, translated by Robin Buss. London: Penguin Books, 2013. 239–249. 15 January – Social Complexity in Prewar Singapore • Frost, Mark R. “Emporium in Imperio: Nanyang Networks and the Straits Chinese in Singapore, 1819–1914.” In Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Feb. 2005): 29–66.

Week 2: Clash of Empires in Southeast Asia 19 January – Between Empires: The Second World War in Singapore • Turnbull, C.M. “Syonan: Light of the South, 1942–1945” In A History of Modern Singapore, 1819–2005. Singapore: NUS Press, 2009. 195–221. • SKIM: Frost, Mark R. and Yu-Mei Balasingamchow. “Syonan-to, 1942–1945.” In Singapore: A Biography. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, National Museum of Singapore, 2009. 278–319. 22 January – Light of the South: Singapore in “Greater East Asia” • Nakano Satoshi. “Introduction: The Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia as a Historical Experience.” In Japan’s Colonial Moment in Southeast Asia 1942– 1945: The Occupiers’ Experience. London: Routledge, 2019. 1–25.

Week 3: Genres of History – Men in Uniform 26 January – Military History • Farrell, Brian. “Invasion” and “Surrender.” In The Defence and Fall of Singapore. Second Edition. Singapore: Monsoon Books, 2015. 389–436. • Read through the Adam Park Project Website, with special attention to the Gallery and Virtual Museum: http://www.adamparkproject.com/ 29 January – Political History I • Akashi Yoji, “Colonel Watanabe Wataru: The Architect of the Malayan Military Administration.” In New Perspectives on the Japanese Occupation in

YHU3316, Singapore Under Japanese Occupation/ Semester 2, 2021 6 Malaya and Singapore, edited by Akashi Yoji and Yoshimura Mako. Singapore: NUS Press, 2008. 33–64. • Benda, Henry J., James K. Irikura, and Kōichi Kishi. “Document No. 1.” In Japanese Military Administration in Indonesia: Selected Documents. Translation Series, No. 6. New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 1965. 1–3.

Week 4: Genres of History – Surviving the Occupation 2 February – Political History II • Cheah Boon Kheng. “The MCP and the Anti-Japanese Movement.” In Red Star Over Malaya: Resistance and Social Conflict During and After the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1941–1946. Fourth Edition. Singapore: NUS Press, 2012. 57–101. OR • Aljunied, Syed Muhd Khairudin. “Perjuangan Under the Flag of the Rising Sun.” In Radicals: Resistance and Protest in Colonial Malaya. Dekalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 2015. 71–100. • Manickam, Sandra Khor. “Wartime Imaginings of an Archipelagic Community: Fajar Asia and the Quest for Peninsula Malayan and Indonesian Unity.” In Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3 (July 2017): 347– 363. 5 February – Economic and Labor History • Kratoska, Paul H. “Rationing and Food Production.” In The Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1941–1945: A Social and Economic History. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997. 247–283. • Nakahara Michiko. “Malayan Labor on the Thailand–Burma Railway.” In Asian Labor in the Wartime Japanese Empire, edited by Paul H. Kratoska. Singapore: NUS Press, 2006. 249–264.

Week 5: Genres of History – Social Change 9 February – Social History • Abu Talib Ahmad. “Marriage, Divorce, and Religious Life Among Malay- Muslims.” In Malay-Muslims, Islam, and the Rising Sun: 1941–1945. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2003. 151–196. 12 February – Chinese New Year, NO CLASS

Secondary Source Analysis due at 11:59pm, 10 February (Wednesday)

Week 6: Topics and Sources – Refugees 16 February • MacKinnon, Stephen. “Wuhan’s Refugee Crisis.” In Wuhan, 1938: War, Refugees, and the Making of Modern China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. 44–60. • Selections from Syonan Times • FILM SCREENING: Back to 1942, directed by Feng Xiaogang, Huayi Brothers Media Corporation, 2012. 19 February – Presentations • Student Selections

First Field Report must be turned in by 19 February (Friday)

YHU3316, Singapore Under Japanese Occupation/ Semester 2, 2021 7 Recess Week – No Classes

Week 7: Topics and Sources – Imperial Administration 2 March • TBD, Selection from my book manuscript • Shinozaki, Mamoru. “Chinese Massacre” and “Overseas Chinese Association.” In Syonan, My Story: The Japanese Occupation of Singapore. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish International, 2011. 40–56. 5 March – Presentations • Student Selections

Week 8: Topics and Sources – Women at War 9 March • Mahani Musa. “Malayan Women during the Occupation.” In Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Vol. 89, Part 2, No. 311 (December 2016): 101–124. • Ueno Chizuko and Jordan Sand. “The Politics of Memory: Nation, Individual and Self.” In History and Memory, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 1999): 129–152. • Oral History interview of Mabel de Souza, National Archives of Singapore 12 March – Presentations • Student Selections

Week 9: Topics and Sources – Propaganda 16 March • Kushner, Barak. “Propaganda for Everyone.” in The Thought War: Japanese Imperial Propaganda. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006. 1–18. • Selections from Saaler, Sven and Christopher W.A. Szpilman, eds. Pan- Asianism: A Documentary History, Volume 2: 1920–Present. London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011. • Selections of visual sources 19 March – Presentations • Student Selections

Week 10: Topics and Sources – Health and Disease 23 March • Bay, Alexander R. “Beriberi: Disease of Imperial Culture.” In Beriberi in Modern Japan: The Making of a National Disease. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2012. 52–86. • Outterside, Amy. “’War Against the Mosquito’: Allies, Italians, and Malaria During the Occupation of Puglia, 1943–1946.” In Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Vol. 22, No. 5 (2017): 571–586. • Shingapōru Shiseikai. “Kōsei eisei gyōsei (Welfare and Hygiene Administration).” In Shōnan Tokubetsu-shi shi: Senji-chū no Shingapōru. Tokyo: Nihon Shingapōru Kyōkai, 1986. 184–193, 287–288. (MY TRANSLATION, TO BE CIRCULATED) 26 March – Presentations • Student Selections

YHU3316, Singapore Under Japanese Occupation/ Semester 2, 2021 8 Annotated Bibliography due at 11:59pm, 27 March (Saturday)

Week 11: After the Occupation – The Fallout 30 March – Paths not Taken • Harper, Timothy. “The Malayan Spring.” In The End of Empire and the Making of Malaya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 55–93. 2 April – Good Friday, NO CLASS

Week 12: After the Occupation – Memory and Nation-Building 6 April – “Blood Debt,” Independence, Expulsion, and the Civilian War Memorial • Blackburn, Kevin and Karl Hack. “Chinese Victimhood.” In War Memory and the Making of Modern Malaysia and Singapore. Singapore: NUS Press, 2012. 135– 173. 9 April – War Memory in Japanese Politics • Seraphim, Franziska. “Introduction.” In War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945–2000. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006. 1–31. • Frei, Henry. “Japan Remembers the Malaya Campaign.” In Malaya and Singapore During the Japanese Occupation. Edited by Paul H. Kratoska. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Special Publication Series No. 3. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1995. 148–168.

Week 13: After the Occupation – The Ever-Present War 13 April – The ‘90s Memory Boom • Blackburn, Kevin and Karl Hack. “Memory and Nation-Building in Singapore.” In War Memory and the Making of Modern Malaysia and Singapore. Singapore: NUS Press, 2012. 292–333. • Hamzah Muzaini and Brenda S.A. Yeoh. “Reflections at Bukit Chandu and the Politics of ‘Race.’” In Contested Memoryscapes: The Politics of Second World War Commemoration in Singapore. London: Routledge, 2016. 69–90. 16 April – War Memory in Contemporary Singapore • Lee, Russel. “Japanese War Stories.” In The Almost Complete Collection of True Singapore Ghost Stories, Book 6. Singapore: Angsana Books, 1995. 46–64. • TBD – selection of recent newspaper articles and essays.

Second Field Report must be turned in by 16 April

Final Paper due at 11:59pm, 30 April (Friday)

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