The Japanese Occupation: a look behind the NE spiel


My little bird on talking to someone who lived through the Japanese Occupation: he worked as a translator as well as radio presenter to help propagate the japanese language and culture to the singaporeans.
finally got a first-hand account of the occupation yay.
even got a photocopy of probably the only single such jap occupation propaganda songs' book in existence.

Me: :0
the thing's solid enough to photocopy?
stored it properly eh

Little bird: yes. amazingly so.
apparently he did not touch the book again after the japanese army left.

one of the song lyrics (with my smattering of jap): "Spirit at my highest, marching/i'm carrying the ashes of one of my dead comrades/i aim to be the first person to step into the streets of singapore tomorrow morning."
to not photocopy scores like these is criminal!

there's another interesting one which i can't decipher v well...but it's entitled "warriors of the sky"... *** (who hasn't touched japanese language for 5 decades now) says it's about kamikaze pilots.

Me: so communist haha

Little bird: if you believed pap propaganda you woulda thought that all the people in singapore were determined to overthrow their new colonial masters, which is hardly the case.

singaporeans then, as is now, were apolitical :)
primary concern was of the shortages the war brought about.
growing tapioca, sweet potatoes, the lot you learnt about in your NE class :)
i won't go into those but everyone wanted jobs. (like now)
and the primary source of jobs was to work for the government (like now) :)

Me: plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

I don't remember explicit propaganda about the people wanting to overthrow the colonial masters
but there was a general mood [we were given to believe existed]

Little bird: have things really changed since 1819 where the local populace is concerned? :) i doubt it...
the mentality of the local populace where political awareness is concerned.

interesting that when we see all the wwii drama serials we seem to get all these anti-jap sentiments coming out strong during the occupation...it may not seem much to u but it was a big eye-opener to hear what life was like from him.
you woulda guessed just from watching singaporean tv that every singaporean aspired to overthrow the japs for independence.

Me: haha but in reality?

Little bird: it seems that singaporeans were as politically apathetic then as they are now! :)
hehe so much for NE