War Memory and the Making of Modern Malaysia and Singapore

Chapter 3: The European Prisoner of War as Hero and Victim

The European Prisoner of War as Hero and Victim 53 Chapter 3 The European Prisoner of War as Hero and Victim This chapter traces the wa British and Australians tried to shape the memory of the Fall and Occupation of Malaya. It details their attempt to turn their defeat, and shame at Malaya’s wartime fate, into something that could buttress empire, and provide a balm for the traumas many of them had experienced. It makes sense to start here, because Europeans who had been POWs and internees returned to play a major part in the postwar colonial state, and as such were in a position to try and set the tone for war memory in Malaya and Singapore alike. As decolonisation gathered pace in the 1950s, the local political elites would have to deal with the legacy of European monuments and commemorative practices. The process of trying to shape war memories began soon after British and Indian troops started reoccupying Malaya, with their arrival in Singapore from 5 September 1945. They quickly set about selecting images of European victories and heroism which they could project to the local population. Soon afterwards, they also began to refashion the public image of the European POW and internee, to be a hero as well as a victim. This work seemed urgent. For the preceding three and a half years had all but destroyed the prestige of the orang puteh (white man). For Europeans, this decline in prestige had been as sudden as it was traumatic. Right down to December 1941, they had continued to live as Malaya’s privileged elite of civil servants, masters of business, professionals, planters, and agency house managers: their tropical lifestyles graced by amahs, cooks, gardeners, and Cold Storage shops. While the war in Europe had brought blackouts, rationing, and the Blitz to London, it actually fuelled demand for Malaya’s dollar-earning tin and 53 54 War Memory and the Making of Modern Malaysia and Singapore rubber. Food and the locally brewed Tiger Beer flowed freely, nighttime dances continued at Raffles Hotel. The sight of soldiers in khaki on the streets, and aircraft above, lent to “Fortress Singapore” an air of invulnerability. For the white population, life in this rapidly growing cosmopolitan city of 720,000 had never been better.*1 The Cathay cinema had opened near the seafront, and air conditioning had found its way into a few shops and houses.2 Even the enervating humidity need not trouble Europeans over-much. In the daytime, they could drive by car or ride in a “coolie”-drawn rickshaw; in the evenings, they could sip stengahs (whisky and soda water over ice), or lounge in the cool of a verandah, soothed by scent of frangipani, or the rustle of coconut trees. There were not much more than 30,000 Europeans in Malaya and Singapore by early 1941, including women and children, out of a total population in excess of four million. Many of the women and children were evacuated before Singapore was surrendered. By then, some of the men had been killed defending Malaya. Several thousand more surrendered after fighting in the Federated Malay States and Straits Settlements Volunteers. After 15 February 1942, the latter were marched to the Changi POW camp. Later, many would labour on the BurmaThailand Death Railway, alongside POWs such as Don Lee, whose story we told in Chapter 2. In addition, about 3,000 British civilians, together with a few hundred children, became internees. Most of these were incarcerated first in Changi gaol — with its cells and guard towers — then from May 1944 at Sime Road. At the Sime Road camp, attap-roofed huts were surrounded by a few banana plants, to which internees soon added flowers. Governor Sir Shenton Thomas was among the small number of civilians who, together with senior military officers, suffered the further angst of being shipped off to labour in Japan (in his case) or Formosa (Taiwan). In this way, a high percentage of prewar Malaya’s adult British males became POWs or internees. For them, the war brought utter transformation, from a life of relative privilege to one of gnawing hunger, fear, and a struggle for survival. Defeat and captivity seared memories and eroded confidence. To grasp these surreal somersaults * Singapore’s population was 560,000 in 1931 and 938,144 in 1947. The European Prisoner of War as Hero and...