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The role of State Shinto and sport in integrating Singapore into the Japanese Empire, 1942–45
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 April 2024
Abstract
During the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, military and civilian officials governing Singapore used a combination of State Shinto and sport to assist in culturally assimilating Singapore into Japan's Empire. A planned massive sports complex was to be located at Singapore's own State Shinto shrine, the Syonan Jinja, which was partly modelled on Japan's Meiji Shrine which regularly held on its own grounds sports events and games that mixed the rituals of State Shinto with athleticism. Participation in sport was used to assimilate local populations into an imperial identity, united under the helm of the Japanese Emperor.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The National University of Singapore
References
1 The kunrei-shiki romanisation was adopted by Japan in 1937 and used in the 1940s. It is in many historical documents. In this article, where the kunrei-shiki romanisation appears in quotations and names of the 1940s it has been kept. Elsewhere, the now standard Hepburn romanisation of Japanese will be used. For example, it is common in Singapore historiography to use the 1940s kunrei-shiki romanisation for the name the Japanese military gave to Singapore so that it is written as Syonan-to (Light of the South Island) rather than the Hepburn romanisation and rendered as Shonan-to.
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25 Ibid., p. 104.
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27 Takashima, Teikoku Nihon to supotsu, p. 112.
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30 Yoji Akashi, ‘Education and indoctrination policy in Malaya and Singapore under the Japanese rule, 1942–1945’, Malaysian Journal of Education 13, 1–2 (1976): 1–2.
31 Syonan Times, 21 Feb. 2602 (1942).
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34 Yasuto Inamiya and Michio Nakajima, ‘Shinkoku’ no zan'ei: kaigai jinja atochi shashin kiroku [Remnants of ‘Sacred Country’: Photographic records of the sites of overseas shrines] (Tokyo: Kokusho, 2019).
35 Koji Osawa, ‘Shonan jinja: Soken kara shuen made’ [The Shonan Shrine: From its founding to its demise], in Shingaporu toshi-ron (Ajia Yugaku 123) [Singapore City Theory (Intriguing Asia 123)], ed. Mikio Shibata and Junkai Guo (Tokyo: Bensey, 2009), p. 160.
36 Syonan Times, 8 May 2602 (1942).
37 Hardacre, Shinto and the state, p. 38.
38 Syonan Times, 8 May 2602 (1942).
39 Ibid.
40 Syonan Times, 23 July 2602 (1942).
41 Syonan Times, 13 Nov. 2602 (1942).
42 Ibid.
43 Asahi Shimbun, 25 July 1942.
44 Syonan Times, 13 Nov. 2602 (1942).
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid.
47 Asahi Shimbun, 31 July 1942.
48 Osawa, ‘Shonan jinja’, p. 153.
49 Syonan Times, 23 July 2602 (1942).
50 Syonan Sinbun, 25 Dec. 2602 (1942).
51 Ibid.
52 See Clay Eaton, ‘Governing Shonan: The Japanese administration of wartime Singapore’ (PhD diss., Columbia University, 2018), p. 9 and chap. 4.
53 Syonan Sinbun, 16 Feb. 2603 (1943).
54 Ibid.
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid.
57 Ibid.
58 Mamoru Shinozaki, Syonan—My story: The Japanese Occupation of Singapore (Singapore: Times International, 1982 [1975]), p. 118.
59 Mamoru Shinozaki, ‘Shingaporu senryo to Shonan jidai: Watashi no senchu-shi’, [The occupation of Singapore and the Shonan era: My story], Minami jujisei: Kinen fukkoku-ban (Singapore: Southern Cross, Memorial Reprint Editions), vol. 1, 1978, p. 63. See also the description of the ceremony in Shingaporu shiseikai [Singapore Municipal Association], Shonan tokubetsu-shi shi: Senji-chu no Shingaporu [Syonan special municipality history: Singapore during the war] (Tokyo: Nihon Shingaporu Kyokai, 1986), pp. 212–13.
60 Blackburn and Lim, ‘The Japanese war memorials of Singapore’, pp. 321–40.
61 Syonan Times, 23 July 2602 (1942).
62 Syonan Sinbun, 29 Jan. 2603 (1943).
63 Syonan Sinbun, 9 Feb. 2603 (1943).
64 Osawa, ‘Shonan jinja’, p. 153.
65 Syonan Times, 1 Nov. 2602 (1942).
66 Ibid.
67 Syonan Times, 24 July and 25 Nov. 2602 (1942); and Syonan Shimbun, 2 Mar. 2604 (1944).
68 Hotta, Pan-Asianism and Japan's war, p. 201.
69 Syonan Times, 20 Oct. 2602 (1942).
70 Ibid.
71 Ibid.
72 Ibid.
73 Ibid.
74 Ibid.
75 Ibid.
76 Satoshi Nakano, Tonan Ajia senryo to Nihonjin: Teikoku Nihon no kaitai [The occupation of Southeast Asia and the Japanese: The dismantling of the Japanese empire] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2012), chap. 2.
77 See Thomas R.H. Havens, Marathon Japan: Distance racing and civic culture (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2015).
78 Syonan Times, 13 Nov. 2602 (1942).
79 Syonan Times, 3 Dec. 2602 (1942).
80 Ibid. Actually, the winner of the 1936 Olympic marathon was a Korean, Sohn Kee-chung, competing as part of the Japanese Empire team, but nonetheless Japan did have a history of strong marathon and long distance runners.
81 Syonan Times, 13 Nov. 2602 (1942).
82 Syonan Times, 7 Dec. 2602 (1942).
83 Syonan Times, 13 Nov. 2602 (1942).
84 Syonan Shimbun, 8 Oct. 2604 (1944).
85 Syonan Sinbun, 17 Apr. 2603 (1943).
86 Syonan Sinbun, 23 Feb. 2603 (1943).
87 Ibid.
88 K.R. Das, ‘The Bharat Youth Training Centre’, in Netaji Centre, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: A Malaysian perspective (Kuala Lumpur: Netaji Centre, 1992), p. 54.
89 Syonan Sinbun, 6 Aug. 2603 (1943).
90 Takashima, Teikoku Nihon to supotsu, pp. 116, 180–85.
91 Syonan Sinbun, 3 Nov. 2603 (1943).
92 Syonan Shimbun, 31 Oct. 2604 (1944).
93 Syonan Sinbun, 22 Sept. 2603 (1943).
94 Syonan Sinbun, 20 Oct. 2603 (1943).
95 Syonan Sinbun, 6 Nov. 2603 (1943).
96 Syonan Sinbun, 14 Oct. 2603 (1943).
97 Syonan Sinbun, 18 Oct. 2603 (1943).
98 Syonan Sinbun, 4 Nov. 2603 (1943).
99 Syonan Shimbun, 3 Nov. 2604 (1944).
100 Syonan Shimbun, 27 Oct. 2604 (1944).
101 Syonan Shimbun, 20 Oct. 2604 (1944).
102 Syonan Shimbun, 28 Oct. 2604 (1944); and Mamoru Shinozaki, My wartime experiences in Singapore, ISEAS Singapore Oral History Programme Series no. 3 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1973), p. 115.
103 Syonan Shimbun, 2 Nov. 2604 (1944).
104 Syonan Shimbun, 4 Nov. 2604 (1944).
105 Ibid.
106 Saaler, ‘Pan-Asianism in modern Japanese history’, p. 2.
107 Hotta, Pan-Asianism and Japan's war, p. 221.
108 Syonan Shimbun, 9 Mar. 1944.
109 Syonan Shimbun, 2 Mar. 1944.
110 Syonan Shimbun, 9 Mar. 1944.
111 Oral History Department, Syonan: Singapore under the Japanese: A catalogue of oral history interviews (Singapore: Oral History Department, 1986).
112 Tan Wee Eng, interviewed by Tan Beng Luan on 12 June 1985, accession no. 000566 reel 6, Oral History Centre, National Archives of Singapore, transcript, p. 55.
113 Shinozaki, My wartime experiences in Singapore, p. 115.
114 See Aplin, Sport in Singapore, pp. 7–22.
115 Philip Carlyle Marcus, interviewed by Lim How Seng on 4 Aug. 1988, accession no. 000183 reel 2, Oral History Centre, National Archives of Singapore, transcript, p. 15. For the council, see Syonan Times, 18 Oct. 1942.
116 Syonan Sports Association, accession no. 81, microfilm no. 1144, Oral History Centre, National Archives of Singapore.
117 Tan Wee Eng, accession no. 000566 reel 6, transcript, p. 56.
118 Ibid., pp. 59–62.
119 Chia Boon Leong, interviewed by Chong Ching Liang on 24 Sept. 1997, accession no. 000813 reel 5, Oral History Centre, National Archives of Singapore, transcript, p. 75.
120 Chia Boon Leong, interviewed by Chong Ching Liang on 29 Sept. 1997, accession no. 000813 reel 7, Oral History Centre, National Archives of Singapore, transcript, pp. 99–100.
121 Tan Wee Eng, accession no. 000566 reel 8, transcript, pp. 77–8.
122 Ibid.
123 Philip Carlyle Marcus, accession no. 000183 reel 2, transcript, pp. 15–18.
124 Soh Teow Seng, interviewed by Low Lay Leng on 13 July 1983, accession no. 000274 reel 5, Oral History Centre, National Archives of Singapore.
125 Ibrahim Isa, interviewed by Low Lay Leng on 7 Oct. 1983, accession no. 000242 reel 16, Oral History Centre, National Archives of Singapore, transcript, p. 209.
126 See Hotta, Pan-Asianism and Japan's war, p. 223.