Japanese war memorial in Singapore an insult to those who lived through the Japanese Occupation and heroes buried in the Kranji War Memorial
With the name of the exhibition on World War II at the Former Ford Factory finally changed to “Surviving the Japanese Occupation: War and its Legacies”, the “Syonan” naming debate has more or less come to closure.
It was encouraging to see fellow Singaporeans weighing in on the matter, which shows that they care about how the history of the Japanese Occupation is presented. However, it is also important to be aware of how the Japanese are remembering the Japanese Occupation.
In the Japanese Cemetery Park (日本人墓地公園) on Chuan Hoe Avenue, the tombstone carved with words “Tombstone of the Martyrs”, erected by defeated Japanese soldiers after the war, has existed for decades.
martyr [noun]: a person who suffers very much or is killed because of their religious or political beliefs, and is often admired because of it. (Cambridge English Dictionary)
Despite being a civilian cemetery in its early years, the burial of Japanese Prisoners-of-War there, and the monument erected by defeated Japanese soldiers dignifying the Japanese war dead as “martyrs” has transformed the relatively innocent nature of the cemetery.
Unfortunately, some choose to close an eye on it, while many are apparently unaware of its significance, especially those who cannot understand the Chinese characters on the tombstones.
Not surprisingly, in recent years, it has become a symbol of Japanese militarism: right-wing Japanese groups such as the “Agency to Console the Souls of All Who Died in the Greater East Asia Crusade” (大東亜聖戦全戦没者慰霊事業団) even flew to Singapore to worship the war dead, and uploaded the videos to YouTube.
Together with the prayer hall next to it, which houses tablets of dead Japanese troops, it is no exaggeration to say that the war memorial in the Japanese Cemetery Park now functions as a Yasukuni shrine outside Japan, right here in Singapore.
Its existence sends an ambiguous message on how Singapore remembers the Japanese Occupation. Maintaining an amicable relationship with Japan does not mean we have to tacitly allow the Japanese war memorial to be used to revive Japanese militarism.
If the word “Syonan” has hurt the feelings of those who lived through the Japanese Occupation, the Japanese war memorial in Singapore is certainly a worse insult to them, as well as the heroes buried in the Kranji War Memorial (above).
In Korea or China, the existence of such a Japanese war memorial that dignifies the Japanese war dead would be unimaginable.
Unless we are happy to pretend that this “Yasukuni Shrine” does not exist in Singapore, the war memorial in the Japanese Cemetery Park should be removed.
