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    During the Japanese occupation of Singapore from 1942 to 1945: 1) Life was very difficult for citizens who struggled with poverty, poor health, and fear of the Kempeitai secret police as the Japanese disrupted the economy and food supply. 2) To establish control, the Japanese implemented Japanese language education programs and took control of business supplies, establishing a monopoly over scarce resources. 3) Faced with food shortages, citizens grew alternative crops like tapioca and sweet potatoes, showing their resilience during a time of great hardship under Japanese rule.

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    During the Japanese occupation of Singapore from 1942 to 1945: 1) Life was very difficult for citizens who struggled with poverty, poor health, and fear of the Kempeitai secret police as the Japanese disrupted the economy and food supply. 2) To establish control, the Japanese implemented Japanese language education programs and took control of business supplies, establishing a monopoly over scarce resources. 3) Faced with food shortages, citizens grew alternative crops like tapioca and sweet potatoes, showing their resilience during a time of great hardship under Japanese rule.

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    During the Japanese occupation of Singapore from 1942 to 1945: 1) Life was very difficult for citizens who struggled with poverty, poor health, and fear of the Kempeitai secret police as the Japanese disrupted the economy and food supply. 2) To establish control, the Japanese implemented Japanese language education programs and took control of business supplies, establishing a monopoly over scarce resources. 3) Faced with food shortages, citizens grew alternative crops like tapioca and sweet potatoes, showing their resilience during a time of great hardship under Japanese rule.

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    Hagen Lee
    During the Japanese occupation of Singapore from 1942 to 1945: 1) Life was very difficult for citizens who struggled with poverty, poor health, and fear of the Kempeitai secret police as the Japanese disrupted the economy and food supply. 2) To establish control, the Japanese implemented Japanese language education programs and took control of business supplies, establishing a monopoly over scarce resources. 3) Faced with food shortages, citizens grew alternative crops like tapioca and sweet potatoes, showing their resilience during a time of great hardship under Japanese rule.

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    Introduction

    On 15th February 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese, signalling the end of British rule,
    and the start of a period where citizens lived in constant fear with struggles that plagued their
    daily life, like the scarcity of necessities. 

    Despite these struggles, citizens were still able to cope in their own ways, such as growing
    their own produce in the face of food shortage. 

    So, how do these events remain relevant in the Singapore of today?  

    Findings
    The Japanese Occupation is significant in the struggles it caused the people of Singapore, in
    terms of economy and food. (Source 1) This becomes clear when one who experienced the
    Occupation described that “life was really very hard” and “[most] people were not happy”,
    because “[the people were] becoming poorer and poorer and [their] health was also affected,
    and the fear of this Kempeitai”. This sheds light on the deplorable living conditions then, and
    how the Japanese had treated the people harshly.

    To make people accept Japanese rule, the Japanese enrolled people in Japanese language
    classes. (Source 2) thereby controlling and compromising the culture of people in Singapore
    for the Japanese to establish complete control over their lives and actions, going as far as to
    re-educate them in the forms of language and cultural practices.

    The struggles extended to the small enterprises in Singapore selling products, as supplies
    like food were disrupted and the Japanese took control over majority of the supplies,
    ensuring a monopoly of the already scarce resources available to Singaporeans and using
    this as leverage to ensure the loyalty of the residents to the Japanese. It is only through
    expressing support for the Japanese that businesses were able to prosper, though this
    lasted only in the beginning when there were still resources.  (Source 3)

    Yet, the citizens were able to try and cope with these problems, finding roundabout solutions
    to the food shortage. 

    When faced with a shortage of rice, the citizens grew their own tapioca and sweet potatoes
    (source 4). It is symbolic of the hardship the people faced during the Occupation — having to
    work for hours under the sun. It is this hardship that perhaps helped to mould the
    Singaporean spirit of resilience and our work ethic, which carried on till today.

    Market prices had a rapidly rising trend in the Japanese occupation. Prices of common
    supplies such as rice had increased by nearly 3000 times, (source 5) resulting in many
    citizens being unable to afford sufficient food. As a result, many citizens had to conduct
    barter trading or resort to the black market for products they were unable to find in the
    Japanese-operated Syonan-To.

    Reflections:
    As we worked on this project, we faced challenges in the process of source finding and
    focusing on specific impacts that are relevant to the present day.  To overcome these
    challenges, we did additional research and held group discussions to appropriately make
    decisions together. 

    In the future, we could do more cross referencing of sources to draw a more conclusive
    point.

    Source 1:

    Extract of the transcript of an oral interview given by Ismail bin Zain, who had experienced
    the Japanese Occupation, recorded on 5 September 1985. 

    During the 3½  years of Japanese Occupation, well, life was really very hard. We were not
    happy. Most people were not happy actually. They prefer if the British can come back earlier,
    so much the better. We are becoming poorer and poorer and our health was also affected,
    and the fear of this Kempeitai, this and that; so many problems. On the whole we were not
    happy. We liked the British to come back as soon as possible. 

    But one thing we must not go strike off, I think the war in the Southeast Asia, was as I told you
    before, a blessing in disguise, isn't? If not for this war, I don't think Asian nations that are now
    already independent, could get independence so soon. That is one thing, I should think that is
    a blessing in disguise, because of the Japanese who are in this part of the world. 

    On the whole, we hate the Japanese. As I told you just now, one year more the Japanese
    were here, I don't know what will happen .

    Source 2:

    A group photograph of a Japanese language class taken in 1942 during the Japanese
    Occupation. 

    Source 3:

    A propaganda leaflet titled “Make Fortune by Co-Operating with Japan” from 1943.
    Source 4:

    This is a photograph of Eurasian women working in the fields of Bahau in 1943.


    Source 5:

    A notice on the market prices of common supplies in Syonan in 1942. 

    Bibliography
    Source 1: 

    Tan, B. L. (1985, 5 September). ISMAIL bin Zain. Oral History Centre.


    https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/oral_history_interviews/record-details/f3781c7c-115d-
    11e3-83d5-0050568939ad
    Source 2: 

    Soh, C. L. (1942). GROUP PHOTOGRAPH OF A JAPANESE LANGUAGE CLASS DURING THE


    JAPANESE OCCUPATION [Photograph]. National Archives of Singapore.
    https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/watermark/picas_data/tn_pcd/19980005063-8073-
    3222-4837/img0110.jpg

    Source 3:

    Chelliah, D. E. S. (1943). Make Fortune by Co-Operating with Japan [Illustration]. Biblioasia.


    https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-15/issue-1/apr-jun-2019/wartime-victuals

    Source 4:

    Lee, G. B. (2005). [People were encouraged to grow vegetables, sweet potatoes and tapioca during
    the Japanese Occupation.]. In The Syonan Years: Singapore Under Japanese Rule 1942–
    1945 (p. 165).

    Source 5:

    Lee, G. B. (2019). Wartime victims: Surviving the Japanese occupation. NLB BiblioAsia. (n.d.).
    Retrieved September 2, 2022, from https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-15/issue-1/apr-jun-
    2019/wartime-victuals 

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