Khamsi, Khatera; Han, Christine; (2013) The portrayal of the Japanese Occupation in Singaporean textbook narratives. In: Morris, Paul and Shimazu, Naoko and Vickers, Edward, (eds.) Imagining Japan in Postwar East Asia. Routledge: London. (In press).

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Abstract

Today widely considered a successful example of nation building and national identity formation, Singapore was – upon its independence in 1965 – ethnically divided, and lacked a collective identity. Faced with the challenge of fostering social cohesion and ensuring national survival, the post-independence political elite used schooling as vehicle for forging a common national identity. Over the subsequent decades, there has been a shift in focus within the official narrative, from national survival, to national success and global competitiveness. In line with this shift, history education – and the ‘Singapore Story’ in particular – has come to be seen as an increasingly crucial instrument of official efforts to mould and reshape national identity Central elements of the Singapore Story – the official account of Singapore’s development from a third- to first-world country – feature portrayals of other nations, such as Britain, Japan, and regional neighbours. The Japanese occupation of British Malaya is the only experience of war in living memory for Singaporeans, and invoking this has come to be seen as key to developing a collective memory to underpin the construction of national identity. Japan therefore lends itself to the role of an ‘Other’ or foil for this unified sense of nationhood. However, relatively little attention has been paid by scholars to the role played by portrayals of Japan in the formulation of Singaporean national identity. This chapter examines the shifting portrayal of the Japanese Occupation in school textbooks. It analyses eight government-authored primary and lower secondary history and social studies textbooks published since 1985, focusing on elements including story line, character, ‘discourse’, pictorial representations, and the use or arrangement of space. It concludes with a discussion of the overall role played by Japan in textbook accounts of the Singapore Story.

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