---
# System prepended metadata

title: Japanese Occupation
tags: [History, Y2]

---

# Signs Singapore Had Fallen

-   Change of flags (Union Jack → Japanese)
-   Renaming Singapore to “Syonan-To”
-   Soldiers removing uniform and fleeing (POWs)
-   Severed body parts
    -   scare public
    -   fear
-   Couldn’t buy food
    -   Use of rationing
-   Learning Japanese in schools
    -   bowing to the east
    -   manipulated to sing Japanese songs

# War Survivor Experiences

-   Japanese forced Chinese men to “register”
    -   killed
    -   racial discrimination
-   had to sweep rice of the ground

## Why not kill EVERYONE in Singapore?

-   Manpower
-   Ammunition
-   Waste resources

# Methods the Japanese used

-   Carrot and stick ⇒ establish legitimacy
    -   Establish fear
    -   Violence
-   legitimacy → trust & right to rule

## Kempetai

-   Military police force
-   relied on informers (spies) (proceeds to get backstabbed)
-   created an atmosphere of fear

## Imprisoning Allied Soldiers

-   Rounded up Allied troops and imprisoned them as POW
-   Dispelled the myth of British superiority and built up the image of Japanese as a strong Asian power

## Meting out Harsh Punishments

-   Executed anyone caught stealing and displayed their heads in public
-   Methods of interrogation by kempetai included water torture, electric shocks, dislocating limbs, etc.

## Sook Ching

-   Mass brutality instailled fear in many, especially the Chinese community → kept them in line with japanese rule
-   Eliminated (perceived) anti-Japanese elements among the local people

## Winning loyalty

-   Snitching

## Different Treatment

-   Race
    -   Poorly
        -   Chinese
        -   Eurasians
        -   POWs
    -   Better
        -   Indians
        -   Malays
-   Loyalty to Japanese
-   Willingness to work for Japanese

## Japanese Culture

-   English names were changed to Japanese ones
-   Teaching of Nippon-go
-   Promotion of Nippon-seishin
-   Japanese lessons in newspapers
-   Sports for the masses

## Education System

-   Rejected British emphasis on academic subjects
-   Favoured character building, physical education and vocational education
-   English and Chinese language was restricted
-   Malay and Japanese only

## Propaganda

-   Appeals to emotions
-   Simple and easy to understand
-   Indoctrination to influence the minds of the locals
-   Idea of prestige
-   Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
-   Portrays the Japanese as liberators
-   Benevolent rulers

# Resistance and collaboration

-   Dependent on personal interests
-   Collaborated for personal safety

# Daily life of people

## Health and Safety

-   Unsanitary
    -   Pneumonia + dysentery
    -   insufficient funds to rebuild
    -   overcrowding of people
-   Insufficient food
    -   Beriberi
    -   malnourishment
-   Lack access to clean water
    -   dysentery

## POWs

-   5000 men were squeezed into a space for 600
-   Prevent them from resisting
-   Dispel the myth of western superiority
-   Used them as free, forced labour
-   Worked on the Thailand-Burma railway, aka ‘Death Railway’
-   Meant to transport resources
-   16000 died in the process

# Food Shortage

## Why?

-   Not safe to export and import food
-   Japanese kept food supplies to themselves

## Rationing

-   Purchased food supplies in rationed amounts using the cards issued to them.
-   Could only receive fixed quantity of rice, salt, sugar, etc.
-   Very long queues
-   People at the back could not get food

### Black Market

-   Demand high, supply high
-   prices skyrocket
-   hyperinflation

## Banana Money

-   First introduced on 23 February 1942
-   Roughly worth to the value of the Straits Dollars
-   As economic conditions deteriorated, more money was printed by the administration → banana money became useless

## Grow More Food Campaign

-   People dont depend on Japanese
-   cut cost on trade and import
-   encourage self-sufficiency
-   produce tapioca, sweet potato, yam

## Relocation

-   Wider plots of land to grow food and build settlements
-   Encourage self-sufficiency
-   Endau and Bahau
    -   Chinese → Endau (generally successful)
    -   Eurasians and Chinese Roman Catholics → Bahau
-   Why did Bahau fail
    -   Hilly land and clay soil which was not very fertile
    -   Settlers were mainly white-collar workers who had little experience in agriculture
    -   Land was a hotbed for mosquitoes that spread malaria

# Japanese Surrender

## Mood of the people

-   Happy
-   Relieved → Not under Japanese rule
-   Hopeful
-   Japanese collaborators → Fearful of the repercussions

## Changes

-   People were no longer afraid of the Japanese
-   Japanese forced to do hard labour → POW

## British Military Administration

-   Restore a basic sense of order
-   fix issues from Japanese

# The End
- Battle of Coral Sea
- Battle of Midway
- 1994 - Re-invasion of the Philippines
- March 1945 - Battle of Iwo Jima and Okinawa
- Allied bombers and planes could be seen
- Atomic bomb dropped
- Little boy + fat man