Singapore in World War II

The warrior-philosopher Sun Tzu's maxim that, "if you cannot be strong, and yet cannot be weak, this will result in your defeat" (21) best characterizes Singapore's rise and fall during World War II. Having suffered through protracted periods of colonial imperialism, the island of Singapore off the Malay Peninsula had long served in its precarious capacity as pawn to the empire builders ranging from Czarist Russia to Britain to Japan (Watson 82). In the years leading to the British capitulation of the Singapore Naval Base in 1942, Singapore meant different things to different nations. The stark disparity of objectives among the major Far East Asian players would become apparent during World War II.

The Far East players consisted of Britain, the United States and Japan. To Britain, Singapore was a symbol of its Victorian heyday as the preeminent world super-power of the 19th century. The United States, while a close ally of Britain, had little interest in preserving ancient history, since it was bent on its own course of expansionist policy and global influence. Japan had allied itself with Britain in World War I, but much had changed in the aftermath of a Versailles charged with "Yellow Peril" racist rhetoric (McIntyre 223). Having been left out of the feeding frenzy that ensued upon the vanquished, and despite its Anglo-Japanese Alliance with Britain, Japan embarked on an aggressive plan to gain control of Far East Asia.

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as important as the Island was in the Far East, America was not prepared to support Singapore at the expense of security in the Atlantic and Mediterranean regions. The American position was propelled by the promise of raw materials of the Far East and the overt desire to avoid antagonizing Japan (McIntyre 103). Consequently, America's most valuable possession in the Far East, the Philippines, was written off as indefensible (Morton 87). While Churchill made repeated requests for the presence of the U.S. Asiatic fleet in Singapore during 1940, Roosevelt was embroiled in a presidential election year for an unprecedented third term in office. The bitterness of World War I and the Great Depression had made the nation xenophobic. Any dabbling in Asia would be unpopular, so not even one U.S. squadron could be sent to Singapore without political repercussions (Watson 117). There were also other considerations. America drew security in its overwhelming natural and material resources. Unwilling to invest in a protracted conflict, the U.S. would look for an opportunity to launch a massive, all-out strike against the enemy at the earliest possible moment. Therefore, the U.S. was willing to risk losing the Philippines in the short

Category: Foreign - S