"Syonan" no more

The name of the gallery may have been changed, but history remains.

REMEMBER SYONAN AND WHAT IT STOOD FOR.

The gallery has been renamed "Surviving the Japanese Occupation", a name that evokes little reaction. ...

Dr Yaacob said: “Over the past two days, I have read the comments made on this issue, and received many letters from Singaporeans of all races. While they agreed that we need to teach Singaporeans about the Japanese Occupation, they also shared that the words “Syonan Gallery” had evoked deep hurt in them, as well as their parents and grandparents.”

Stressing this was never the intention, Dr Yaacob said: “I am sorry for the pain the name has caused. I have reflected deeply on what I heard. We must honour and respect the feelings of those who suffered terribly and lost family members during the Japanese Occupation.”

Singapore was renamed Syonan-to by the Japanese in 1942, following the British surrender. It means "Light of the South".

WHY DID NLB CHOOSE THE NAME 'SYONAN' FOR THE GALLERY?

NLB said that after consulting historians and its advisory panel, it "decided that no other name captured the time and all that it stood for. "The period when Singapore was known as Syonan was a very important part of our history. The new name of the gallery reminds us how brittle our sovereignty can be, as Singapore lost not only its freedom, but also its name during the Japanese Occupation. It is a sombre reminder not to take our peace and harmony for granted, and to appreciate the need to defend ourselves."

Well, that name is no more.

In all intent and purpose, the name "Syonan" would have been a grim and powerful reminder of this dark period of our past.

The name of the gallery may have been changed, but history remains. Remember Syonan and what it stood for. Visit the gallery and learn history.

All the unnecessary furore over the naming of a gallery: Syonan Gallery

It's the naming of a gallery WITHIN the museum, NOT the name of the museum which has not changed.

The gallery detailed the 3 years and 8 months of occupation by the Japanese and what more appropriate name to call it than Syonan, the name change by the Japanese. ...

Do we erase 'Syonan' from our vocabulary and textbooks? Are we honouring the Japanese when we tell our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren that for 3 years and 8 months, Singapore was Syonan-to? Of course not.

We want future generations of Singaporeans to learn this bit of dark history.

Call it what it was: Syonan.

"Syonan" is a grim reminder of what can happen to a people if they are unable to defend themselves.

If we allow ourselves to become complacent, if we do not take our defence seriously, if we are careless about our defence, if we become defenceless, Syonan is a reminder that someone can just come in and change the name of our country.

To those websites who saw an opportunity to stir by calling the name a betrayal, every time you downplay the need for national service, every time you instigate Singaporeans to take a negative attitude towards national service or total defence, you are betraying the security of Singapore. See More

Building A World Class Education System From Scratch (Part 2)

SURVIVAL-DRIVEN PHASE (1959 - 1978)

In this phase, the focus was on enrolment and ensuring that every child goes to school because most of the population were illiterate and only the affluent were educated. 

This phase saw the rapid construction of schools and the doubling of the teaching force from from 10,500 in 1959 to over 19,000 by 1968.

At the end of this phase there was near universal primary education.

However, the quality of education was not high. There was high education wastage with almost 30% of primary school children failing to progress to secondary school. English proficiency was also low.

Out of every 1000 pupils who entered primary one, only 35% eventually obtained 3 or more 'O' level passes.
 

EFFICIENCY-DRIVEN PHASE (1976 - 1996)

The education system moved away from the one-size-fits-all system to a system that creates multiple pathways for students in order to reduce the dropout rate, and to enable a more effective deliverance of classroom teaching where teachers were able to focus on teaching students of similar abilities.

This followed from the Goh Keng Swee Report on education which recommended that students be streamed into different tracks based on their aptitude.

CDIS (Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore) was created in 1980 to develop a suite of supporting teaching materials that could be used off-the-shelf by less-experienced and less-skilled teachers.

Workshops were also held to explain to teachers how to use the materials effectively.

This second phase also saw the establishment of independent (1988) and autonomous (1994) schools.

By 1995, the Singapore education system had become one of the top performing systems in the world.

ABILITY-BASED ASPIRATION-DRIVEN PHASE (1997 - present)

This focuses on enabling every child to attain to his or her maximum potential.

The growth of the global knowledge economy required a paradigm shift in Singapore's education system towards a focus on innovation, creativity and research.

In 1997 a new educational vision called "Thinking Schools, Learning Nation" was launched. (See then PM Goh Chok Tong's speech here: http://bit.ly/1Hga8MR)

As Mr Goh Chok Tong said in his speech in 1997, learning will not end in the school or the university.

Quote:

"We have to prepare ourselves for a bracing future - a future of intense competition and shifting competitive advantages, a future where technologies and concepts are replaced at an increasing pace, and a future of changing values.

Education and training are central to how nations will fare in this future. Strong nations and strong communities will distinguish themselves from the rest by how well their people learn and adapt to change. Learning will not end in the school or even in the university. Much of the knowledge learnt by the young will be obsolete some years after they complete their formal education. In some professions, like Information Technology, obsolescence occurs even faster. The task of education must therefore be to provide the young with the core knowledge and core skills, and the habits of learning, that enable them to learn continuously throughout their lives. We have to equip them for a future that we cannot really predict."

Thinking Schools, Learning Nation encompassed a wide range of initiatives over a number of years that were designed to tailor education to the abilities and interests of students, to provide more flexibility and choice for students and to transform the structures of education.
A broader array of subject matter courses was created for students and a portfolio of different types of schools specialising in arts, mathematics and science and sports were created."

"Teach Less, Learn More"

In 2004, the government developed the “Teach Less, Learn More” initiative to move instruction further away from the rote memorization and repetitive tasks.
In 2009, art, music and physical education gained a larger role in the overall curriculum.

The Ministry has also rolled out new initiatives dedicated to providing financial aid for students in need, signaling a renewed commitment to educational equality.

OVERWHELMING ADJUSTMENT TO PREPARE FOR A CHANGING WORLD 

Today, the Singapore's education system is going through an overwhelming adjustment to prepare the young for a changing world.

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung used the analogy of a computer to describe this adjustment. From the outside, the computer looks unchanged, but inside, its operating system is changing, its algorithm is changing.

"It's changing the way we do things, uncovering students' talents, developing them to the fullest," he said.

We need a mindset change too. Education Minister Ng Chee Meng said we need to build resilience in students so that they know how to bounce back in a world that is having to cope with disruptive changes.

In this respect, both parents and educators must take a step back and allow students to deal with challenges and setbacks on their own and not be too quick to intervene, no matter how good our intentions are, Mr Ng said.

Our students must dare to 'chiong', he said.

He also spoke of the need to reduce the "growing skills gap between what we learn in schools and the jobs graduates are applying for.

He gave the assurance that his ministry will continue to place strong emphasis on 21st-century competencies, including critical and inventive thinking, communication and collaboration skills, as well as global awareness and cross-cultural skills.


References: http://bit.ly/1L1rewo http://bit.ly/1K5PeRm http://bit.ly/1Hga8MR

3 YEARS AND 8 MONTHS OF EXTREME HARDSHIP AND SUFFERING AS AN OCCUPIED PEOPLE

It was the FIRST DAY of the CHINESE NEW YEAR, the YEAR OF THE HORSE when the British surrendered Singapore to the Japanese.

DPM Teo Chee Hean's speech:

One of the fiercest battles before the surrender – the Battle for Bukit Timah - took place near the Ford Factory.

The Japanese reached Bukit Timah on 11 February and met strong resistance from the Straits Settlements Volunteer Force comprising local civilian defenders who fought bravely and fiercely with rifles, shotguns, and hand grenades tied to their waists and swords strapped to their backs.

With the capture of Bukit Timah hill, the Japanese gained a stranglehold on Singapore’s water supply – which they promptly cut off. This was a strategic move that contributed to the British surrender.

It was here at the Ford Motor Factory, where General Yamashita of the Japanese Imperial Army had set up his headquarters, that Lieutenant-General A E Percival, commander of the British forces, signed the surrender papers on 15 February 1942. That was the first day of the Chinese New Year.

The day after the British surrendered, Singapore was renamed “Syonan-to” or “Light of the South” by the Japanese invaders.

But FOR THE PEOPLE OF SINGAPORE, IT MARKED THE BEGINNING OF DARK TIMES, WHICH WAS TO LAST 3 YEARS AND 8 MONTHS.

Singaporeans went through extreme hardship and suffering as an occupied people.

Conditions were desperate. There was not enough food; there was no healthcare.

WORSE THAN THE PHYSICAL HARDSHIP WAS HAVING TO LIVE IN CONSTANT FEAR.

The walls of this gallery tell the stories of torture and massacres. Many families lost loved ones and suffered grievously.

The gallery here at the old Ford Motor Factory is a powerful and poignant reminder to all Singaporeans that WE ONCE PAID A TERRIBLE PRICE BECAUSE WE COULD NOT DEFEND OURSELVES.

We must learn from this most painful lesson of what could be taken away from us if we are not able to defend ourselves.

The need to learn from our past cannot be overstated. It provides the backdrop that helps us make sense of our present and guides us so that we do not repeat the same mistakes.

This gallery ensures that the history of the Japanese Occupation in Singapore is not forgotten, and that the important lessons it holds are conveyed to future generations of Singaporeans.

Singaporeans must know that we should never take our nation’s peace and stability for granted, and that we ourselves must be responsible for our own defence. Without security as a strong foundation, we cannot develop and progress as a nation.

That is why we have invested so much in our defence since we became an independent nation – by requiring our men to do National Service and steadily developing the capabilities of the Singapore Armed Forces.

Anyone who may be tempted to think that our small island will be an easy target – like it was in 1942 – must be left in no doubt about the resolve of Singaporeans and our commitment to defend our nation, and that the Singapore Armed Forces can and will repel any aggressor and defend Singapore.

We want to live in a stable and peaceful region. But like many other countries which have seen the ravages of invasion and occupation, we have learned through bitter experience that in order to remain secure and to enjoy peace, we must first be prepared to fight to defend ourselves.

https://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/press_room/official_releases/sp/2006/17feb06_speech.print.noimg.html

THIS MOMENT in history...'UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER'

General Percival made the decision to surrender on 15 February 1942. The water supply on Singapore Island had virtually dried up, petrol supplies were almost exhausted, military supplies were running low and the constant bombardments of the city were causing shocking civilian casualties. Percival realised that his only options were to fight to the death or surrender. He personally arranged the ceasefire and signed the surrender document at the Ford factory that same evening.

6.20 p.m. The exact moment when the British surrendered Singapore to the Japanese.

Never Again: The Fall of Singapore

On Feb 15, 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese.

On 10 December 1941, Japanese bombers sank two British warships, the Repulse and the Prince of Wales, off the coast of Malaya. This was a serious blow for Britain and its naval strength. Singapore’s defences were severely weakened. In all, 840 sailors were lost.

The British expected an attack on Singapore to come from... the sea. There were no permanent defences on the landward side, and Singapore’s big guns pointed towards the ocean and couldn’t be turned around.

However the Japanese advanced by land and the troops moved quickly down the Malay Peninsula, many on bicycles.

Allied troops, including the soldiers of the Australian 8th Division, tried valiantly to hold back the Japanese advance, but were forced down the Malay Peninsula and across to the island of Singapore.

On 8 February, the Japanese landed in the north-west of the island in collapsible boats. It is believed that 13,000 troops crossed into Singapore that night.

Twenty-four hours later a second Japanese landing force, the Imperial Guards division, crossed into Singapore at Kranji and via a repaired Causeway.

By the morning of 10 February there were Japanese troops on most of north-west Singapore.

Within six days they were on the outskirts of Singapore city, which was also now under constant air attack.

After gaining full control of Pasir Panjang Ridge on 14 February, Japanese troops moved into the Alexandra area.

Despite the fact that the Alexandra Military Hospital was marked by red crosses, Japanese troops charged into the hospital and killed a British officer who had gone out to meet them with a white flag.

The Japanese troops then entered an operating theatre and killed the patient on the operating table as well as the staff attending to him.

Another group of soldiers then entered the wards and bayoneted the patients indiscriminately. Later, the Japanese were said to have gathered about 200 patients and staff outside the hospital, tied them up with a rope and crammed them into three small rooms for the night. The next day they were tied together in threes and executed. It is estimated that around 280 staff and patients were killed over two days.

On 15 February Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, the British commander in Singapore, called for a ceasefire and made the difficult decision to surrender.

The battle of Singapore, the Gibraltar of the east, the impregnable fortress, lasted only one week from 8 Feb to 15 Feb 1942.

Japanese capabilities were arrogantly underestimated. Thousands of Allied troops, including many from Malaya and Singapore, were killed and injured in desperate defence.

The fall of Singapore was the British Army's greatest humiliation but the disaster was most acutely experienced by the population of Singapore. They paid a grievous price.

"Hindsight enables us to understand that there were serious errors of leadership as the Japanese 25th Army attacked down the Malayan peninsula.

So it is not surprising that one of the lessons that the late Lee Kuan Yew took from the fall of Singapore was that Singaporeans should never rely on any but themselves for their security. And that is why the Singapore Armed Forces are the best funded, best equipped, best trained and most professional forces in South-east Asia." - - Scott Wightman, British High Commissioner to Singapore.

Joined together again in death

They were inseparable.

She was his closest friend, his “tower of strength”, for more than three-quarters of his life.

At Raffles College, she had beaten him to be the top student in English and economics at the end of the first term, giving Lee stiff competition for the coveted Queen’s Scholarship. 

With their friendship blossoming by September 1944, Lee Kuan Yew invited Kwa Geok Choo to his 21st birthday dinner, “an event not without significance” in those days.

In the months before he left in September 1946, they spent a lot of time together and took photographs.

Lee wrote in his memoirs: “We were young and in love, anxious to record this moment of our lives ... We both hoped she would go back to Raffles College, win the Queen’s Scholarship to read law and join me wherever I might be.

“She was totally committed. I sensed it. I was equally determined to keep my commitment to her.”

In 2003, in an e-mail interview with ST Senior Correspondent M Nirmala, Mrs Lee Kuan Yew said the qualities she admired most in Mr Lee was his powers of persuasion.

She said:

(a) He persuaded me to marry him, but I would have to wait for him for three years while he studied in England to qualify as a lawyer.

(b) He persuaded a British army officer to give him a priority passage on the troopship Britannic to get him to England.

(c) When he got to London, he persuaded Professor Hughes Parry, head of the Law Faculty of London School of Economics, to take him in two weeks after term had started, although he had turned others away.

(d) After a few miserable weeks in London, he persuaded W. S. Thatcher, the Censor of FitzWilliam House, Cambridge, to take him in one term late.

(e) When I was awarded the Queens Scholarship in July 1947, he persuaded W. S. Thatcher to write to the Mistress of Girton College about taking in his girlfriend, me.

(f) He met the Mistress and persuaded her that I was exceptional and worth taking in for that academic year.

(g) The Education Department in Singapore doubted that I had been offered a place in Girton College; they had not been able to get Eddie Barker a place in Cambridge even though he had won the Queens Scholarship the previous year (1946). Eddie did not get in till the following year. Kuan Yew persuaded Girton College to send a telegram to the Singapore authorities to confirm they would take me in 1947, and so they sent me to England in September that year.

So I did not have to wait three years before he married me.

In life, they were inseparable. In death, they were joined in their ashes according to their wishes.