The Japanese War Memorials of Singapore

Abstract

Monuments of commemoration, such as war memorials, convey strong ideological meaning and symbolism, to the extent that they are often used by political regimes as tools of propaganda. This paper looks at the case of the Japanese war memorials in Singapore that marked Japan's victory over Britain in the fall of Singapore. During the Japanese occupation of Singapore, they were used by the Japanese military authorities as public places where the population of Singapore showed its submission to Japan and its imperial ideology. After the Second World War, they were destroyed and neglected, but their ruined sites, even fifty years later, still symbolized Japanese domination in popular memory.