Topic: The Japanese Occupation of Singapore
Letter 1 (excerpts):
Being half-Japanese and half-Singaporean, my sons are no exceptions (children of Japanese ancestry being apprehensive about participating in National Day celebrations in Singapore schools). They confessed to me that some pupils had hurled offensive words at them during such events.
I feel one of the main reasons for this is a lack of sensitivity among teachers. When my older son was in Primary 5, his Chinese teacher told the class that Japanese were bad and stupid to attack the US during World War II.
This teacher later told us that he had made such a remark because he did not realise that he had a half-Japanese pupil in his class.
Letter 2 (excerpts):
I can understand her frustration and anger in learning that her child was inadvertently discriminated against by the school teacher. However, I believe this was an isolated case.
In our multi-ethnic society, whether in school or in the working place, foreigners, including the Japanese, are readily accepted...
I was born and raised in Singapore, and I have studied, lived and worked with people of different ethnic groups and religions.
To me, no other country is as peaceful and as harmonious as our multi-ethnic city.
Let us rest assured that in Singapore, bad memories of World War II have been put aside. I am very sure that instead of being held down by the past, we should be looking forward to an exciting future in building a city of possibilities.
I must confess that I never thought about how references to the Japanese Occupation would go down with Japanese/half-Japanese children in our schools till I read Letter 1. Indeed, it must be tough for them, especially if they get such rude remarks 'hurled' at them by both friends and teachers.
Letter 2 looks to me a typical defensive, no,-how-can-there-be-anything-wrong-with-us, everything-here-is-nice-and-rosy kind of letter. This kind of letter really makes my hair stand! I doubt that what Letter Writer 1's child went through was an 'isolated case'. And anyway, I think Letter Writer 2 missed the point of Letter 1.
I agree with Letter Writer 1 that history teaching should be done with more sensitivity. However, I'm not sure if we could say it's entirely the teacher's fault for not being sensitive. The teacher is very likely a product of our education system. What are we taught in school about the Japanese Occupation? That we suffered (of course we need to learn this) and that it was all the fault of the Japanese.
It was only when I did Japanese history for my 'A' levels and in uni that I learnt about the Japanese perspective. I don't want to go into who/what was right or wrong, but I just want to say that it is important to know different perspectives. My own parents, grandparents and their families suffered a lot during that time but it is still important to have a fuller picture of what happened.
Similarly, it was only at uni that I gained a better insight into issues such as the motivations of leaders like Hitler and Stalin (again, not that they were 'right' or whatever, but there were certain reasons why they did what they did), why the Americans possibly needn't have dropped the atomic bombs to 'end the war', etc.
Unfortunately, most Singaporeans do not even do history for the 'O' levels (I'm not wrong about this, am I? As far as I know, geography beats history and lit hands down for popularity.), let alone at the 'A' levels and uni. If they don't have any personal interest in history and don't read on their own, they will remain with their two-dimensional, or worse - one-dimensional -, views about history, e.g. that this person/country was 'bad' and 'stupid', and that other person/country was 'good' and 'right'.
It appears that Letter Writer 2 and the Chinese teacher cited in Letter 1 may belong to this category. Can we blame them? They learnt and remembered what was in the textbook.
Letter 1 (excerpts):
Being half-Japanese and half-Singaporean, my sons are no exceptions (children of Japanese ancestry being apprehensive about participating in National Day celebrations in Singapore schools). They confessed to me that some pupils had hurled offensive words at them during such events.
I feel one of the main reasons for this is a lack of sensitivity among teachers. When my older son was in Primary 5, his Chinese teacher told the class that Japanese were bad and stupid to attack the US during World War II.
This teacher later told us that he had made such a remark because he did not realise that he had a half-Japanese pupil in his class.
Letter 2 (excerpts):
I can understand her frustration and anger in learning that her child was inadvertently discriminated against by the school teacher. However, I believe this was an isolated case.
In our multi-ethnic society, whether in school or in the working place, foreigners, including the Japanese, are readily accepted...
I was born and raised in Singapore, and I have studied, lived and worked with people of different ethnic groups and religions.
To me, no other country is as peaceful and as harmonious as our multi-ethnic city.
Let us rest assured that in Singapore, bad memories of World War II have been put aside. I am very sure that instead of being held down by the past, we should be looking forward to an exciting future in building a city of possibilities.
I must confess that I never thought about how references to the Japanese Occupation would go down with Japanese/half-Japanese children in our schools till I read Letter 1. Indeed, it must be tough for them, especially if they get such rude remarks 'hurled' at them by both friends and teachers.
Letter 2 looks to me a typical defensive, no,-how-can-there-be-anything-wrong-with-us, everything-here-is-nice-and-rosy kind of letter. This kind of letter really makes my hair stand! I doubt that what Letter Writer 1's child went through was an 'isolated case'. And anyway, I think Letter Writer 2 missed the point of Letter 1.
I agree with Letter Writer 1 that history teaching should be done with more sensitivity. However, I'm not sure if we could say it's entirely the teacher's fault for not being sensitive. The teacher is very likely a product of our education system. What are we taught in school about the Japanese Occupation? That we suffered (of course we need to learn this) and that it was all the fault of the Japanese.
It was only when I did Japanese history for my 'A' levels and in uni that I learnt about the Japanese perspective. I don't want to go into who/what was right or wrong, but I just want to say that it is important to know different perspectives. My own parents, grandparents and their families suffered a lot during that time but it is still important to have a fuller picture of what happened.
Similarly, it was only at uni that I gained a better insight into issues such as the motivations of leaders like Hitler and Stalin (again, not that they were 'right' or whatever, but there were certain reasons why they did what they did), why the Americans possibly needn't have dropped the atomic bombs to 'end the war', etc.
Unfortunately, most Singaporeans do not even do history for the 'O' levels (I'm not wrong about this, am I? As far as I know, geography beats history and lit hands down for popularity.), let alone at the 'A' levels and uni. If they don't have any personal interest in history and don't read on their own, they will remain with their two-dimensional, or worse - one-dimensional -, views about history, e.g. that this person/country was 'bad' and 'stupid', and that other person/country was 'good' and 'right'.
It appears that Letter Writer 2 and the Chinese teacher cited in Letter 1 may belong to this category. Can we blame them? They learnt and remembered what was in the textbook.
Comments
Don't be surprise, our youngsters don't have the faintest idea of who is Lim Bo Seng to begin with.