Objective history is purely factual and totally uninfluenced by feelings or opinions. By this definition, the Singapore Story is not an objective history.
The Story is a cropped version of the Singapore history, and the nation’s ruling political party heavily influences its interpretation. It is a biased representation of the past, and it served the purpose of perpetuating a specific narrative to the people. That narrative emphasizes strongly on the vulnerability of the country, and the importance for a constant, stable government that is the PAP. The Singapore Story is a biased narrative and a whitewashed history.
Chronologically, the Story is biased because of selective amnesia . It is a careful selection of facts, where those that suit
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Fundamentally, this element of interpretation enters into every fact of history. Lee Kuan Yew himself mentioned the subjectivity of his recollections in the Story . The PAP Old Guard is the primary narrator of Singapore’s official history, and they recounted their experiences as the party’s account of history . With just one principal narrator of the nation’s history, and with that narrator being the ruling party since independence, there is a very clearly only one perspective in the Singapore Story. In fact, other interpretations of the Singapore history, mostly put in the press by former opposition leaders, were rejected or silenced. For example, both Barisan Socialis chairman Lee Siew Choh and the Communist Party of Malaya leader Fang Chuang Pi sought to provide a more balanced view of the Singapore-Malaysia merger . However, since both views undermined the preferred history, their interpretations were rejected from the Singapore Story. In both instances, the interpretations were adequately supported, as was the official story. Completely marginalizing rival interpretations would mean that the Singapore Story is not objective, as objective history considers different perspectives.
The Singapore Story is a purpose-driven narrative. Throughout the Story, the vulnerability of the nation is heavily propagated. The Japanese invasion, British surrender, and subsequent Japanese occupation, were thoroughly elaborated
On the 15th of February in 1942 one of the biggest defeats of the British Empire was accomplished by the Japanese, Singapore was surrendered. The Fall of Singapore was relatively destructive to the relationship between Britain and Australia. Australia relied on Britain holding Singapore as it was the last defence against the Japanese and it was feared that Japan would go on and invade Australia if it fell, Australia openly showed that they could not rely on the British for defence by becoming a strong ally with America and asking them to help with the feared Japanese invasion. Australia feared the threat of invasion constantly throughout the war, when Singapore fell the Australian government predicted a certain attack by the Japanese.
Life is not always easy, at some point, people struggle in their life. People who are in the lower class have to struggle for a job every day and people who are in upper class also have their own problems to deal with. These ideas are very clear in Mary Oliver’s “Singapore”, Philip Schultz’s “Greed” and Philip Levine “What Work Is”. In "Singapore" a woman is likely lower class because she works at the airport and her job is to clean the bathroom. In both “Greed” and “What Work Is”, the speakers make the same conclusion about the struggle in the lower class. “Greed” furthermore discusses how Hispanics get a job first before whites and blacks because they take lower wages. All three poems deal with class in term of the society. The shared idea
History will never forget the pain because it takes an ethnic or even a nation to remember it. The Nanjing Massacre, which is my home country’s pain and shame, is not going to be forgotten and ignored either. The Raping of Nanking by Iris Chang, a Chinese American writer has reshaped my view on the atrocities the Japanese soldiers had committed and raises a question: Why we need to remember the past and face it? Remembering history does not just mean to be blocked by the past and stop moving on but looking for the lessons the history has taught us and prevent the world from making the same mistakes again.
Starting in the early 1930’s, the Japanese began to display their great imperialistic dreams with ambition and aggression. Their goal was to create a "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" where they controlled a vast empire in the western Pacific.1 In September of 1939, Japan signed the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis Treaty, allying themselves with Germany and Italy in an effort to safeguard their interests in China from the Soviet Union. Japan’s only major obstacle left lay in the significant size of the United States Pacific Fleet. To rid themselves of this, Japan attacked the United States Pacific Fleet in hopes of crippling it enough to prevent any further hindrance from the US. Although Japan began the War in the Pacific on the offensive, winning many battles and gaining significant territories, the tide quickly turned in favor of the US because of the their dominating industrial capacity. Thus, the Japanese began to resort to ghastly measures to prevent a humiliating defeat.
When most American people think of Germany, they think of sports cars made for the autobahn, sauerkraut, Adolf Hitler, and the Holocaust. Compared to Germany, when most American people think of Japan they think of sushi, Godzilla movies, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War II was such a significant event in history that almost 70 years after it came to an end, today’s younger generations often associate former Axis controlled countries with the war. People around the world are filled with disgust and immense hate when they hear the name Hitler, mainly because of his leadership under the Holocaust; which was the discriminatory mass genocide of 11-17 million people, the vast majority of which were European Jews. Hirohito, former Emperor of Japan, should strike a similar bell with people when they hear his name because Japan carried out genocide on Chinese civilians and soldiers in World War II. Japan’s attack on the Chinese city of Nanking, was one of the most atrocious events in history. This event has been named both the Nanking Massacre and the Rape of Nanking. The torturous, violent techniques used by the Japanese army upon Chinese civilians and soldiers including dehumanizing them, addicting them to drugs, and other perverse and violent acts, are some of the most grosteque methods ever recorded that could only be thought of by sadistic Japanese soldiers. The events committed by the Japanese army in Nanking, are equally as disgusting as the acts that Nazi Germany committed and should become a major topic involved with World War II in the future, despite the lack of light shed on it in the past for various reasons.
On the other hand, Ssu-ma Ch’ien was another major figure in the Chinese historians. He carried on the work that his father Ssu-ma Tan left to record the contemporary history and developed it into a history masterpiece called “Records of The Historian” that encompassed the history of China and the world seen from China from the founding of the state down to his own time. He sets a standard for objective history...
The men stationed in the Pacific Theatre of World War II faced many challenges and hardships. The fighting that occurred with the Japanese far surpassed the level of brutality in the European theatre. Some American military units faced relentless fighting throughout the entire war, while other units waited for the entire war for orders to deploy into combat, and never actually saw any action. Only a few stories surrounding both ends of the spectrum of men in the Pacific Theatre exist, and even a fewer number do the men and women that served during that time justice. One of these authors who captured the nature of life during World War II in the Pacific Theatre, James Michener, did so in the novel Tales of the South Pacific. Michener not only offers an in-depth perspective of life during the time, but also brings up key themes of issues that existed during that period. He introduced a new outlook on the South Pacific during World War II, showing that a variety of people scattered around the Pacific joined for the common goal of a successful military operation. The primary purpose for this collection of tales from around the South Pacific focused on telling the tale of everyone who spent the war there. Michener used varying points of view within the plot line to strengthen this point. Within the main focus he brings up three themes: the first being of camaraderie and fellowship, the second the issues of power struggle, and finally racism in World War II. Michener utilizes diction to help characterize individuals to help literary convey these three themes. James Albert Michener brings up the issues of racism and power struggle in the South Pacific, while portraying the men that lived there during that period and the fellowship they s...
Lords’ purpose in writing this book is to be able and show the different accounts of the persons that day that lived the event and their side of the story. The book starts with the Japanese side of the story and the anticipating weeks leading up to the attack. Lord does not show the good and evil of earthier side but just perspectives of both ends and the way each thought of the event. In the beginning of the book it goes by how life is on the base and how the people living their go day by day with their activities. Therefore, leading to the actually day of the attack and explaining it by the time as things are happening.
This paper will compare Gordon W. Prange's book "At Dawn We Slept - The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor" with the film "Tora! Tora! Tora!" directed by Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, and Toshio Masuda. While the film provides little background to the attack, its focal point is on the Pearl Harbor assault and the inquiry of why it was not prevented, or at least foreseen in adequate time to decrease damage. Prange's book examines the assault on Pearl Harbor from both the Japanese and American viewpoints to gain a global view of the situation and the vast provision undertaken by Japanese intelligence. The film and book present the Japanese side, the American side, the events that lead up to the attack, and the aftermath.
Tremewan, C. (1994). The political economy of social control in Singapore. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Comparative advantage means that an industry, firm, country or individual are able to produce goods and services at a lower opportunity cost than others which are also producing the same goods and services. Also, in order to be profitable, the number in exports must be higher than the number in import. From the diagram we seen above, Singapore is seen to have a comparative advantage in some services. The services are Transport, Financial, business management, maintenance & Repair and Advertising & Market Research, etc. These export services to other countries improve the balance of payment. On the other side, Singapore is seen to have a comparative disadvantage in some services. The services are Travel, Telecommunications, Computer & Information,
Film critics and audiences have dubbed I Not Stupid an excellent commentary on the education system and government paternalism. The movie stars three school children who have been channelled into the undesirable EM3 stream, and shows the trials and tribulation of these children and their parents. I Not Stupid has been described as a "coming of age movie"1 for its rare ability to criticise the government and its policies and bring pertinent issues to light, so much so that many are surprised that it managed to get past the not-too-kind local board of censors. This presents us with an interesting question - with its explicit references to the government and its blatant criticisms of government policies, how did this political satire get past the censorship board? Was it a case of the censors deciding that this sort of criticism was acceptable once in a while? Or perhaps the censors just saw the movie differently. At first mention, the latter might sound very unlikely. However, if we ask ourselves what the real butt of the satire is, we might begin to realise that there is a possibility that this movie is not intended to be a political satire at all. In fact, it is my contention that the butt of the satire in this movie is the Singaporean mentality, and not the government.
History is a story told over time. It is a way of recreating the past so it can be studied in the present and re-interpreted for future generations. Since humans are the sole beneficiaries of history, it is important for us to know what the purpose of history is and how historians include their own perspective concerning historical events. The purpose and perspective of history is vital in order for individuals to realise how it would be almost impossible for us to live out our lives effectively if we had no knowledge of the past. Also, in order to gain a sound knowledge of the past, we have to understand the political, social and cultural aspects of the times we are studying.
In Carr’s article, The Historian and His Facts, and Causation in History, he states that the study and interpretation of history reflects our own position in time and what we can take out of it as a society. It’s all about the viewpoint of the individual researching or telling the event. Carr supports this idea by stating that, everyone draws their own conclusions. This idea of having your own conclusions is the case for writing and recording history as a historian from the beginning of human history. Every historian has a bias or a viewpoint on a historical topic and event. Some historians focus only on one side of the event while, others focus on multiple sides, but pick which one they believe is a bit better. Some historians only focus on the human aspects of an event and reach the conclusion that only humans drive history. On the other end of the spectrum a historian could only focus on the environmental factors of an event and reach the conclusion it was only that, that shaped history. Carr refers to this idea as “Necessarily selective” in which they pick what they want to write...
The political use of history is essentially interlinked to the political culture of the society and identity building of the nation (Kangaspuro, 2010). There is a broad consensus developing across the social sciences that history is an essential ingredient in constructing and maintaining the imagined community of nationhood (Liu, J.H., Hilt...