Singapore 1941-1942 (Louis Allen)

Louis Allen was an intelligence office in South-East Asia during the Second World War. After the war, he worked as a lecturer in the University of Durham. This book combines his experience in the war, his understanding of the Japanese language, and the academic rigour into a highly readable and insightful volume for anyone wanting to learn a bit more about the Malayan Campaign.

Books on this subject always seek to understand why Singapore fell and who to blame for it. This one is no different, but it adopts a more macro perspective. Some of the grounds he covered were not new and were also in other books that I've read. Examples of these are the deployment of war materiel (vis-a-vis what was going on in Europe and North Africa), the failure to activate Operation Matador, and the leadership of Percival and Brooke-Popham. What is of value in the book is the author's discussion of things that are novel (to me). First of these is the role of the Thais in this fiasco.

That Operation Matador was to be on Thai soil is well-knowned. What is seldom discussed is the role of Thailand. Caught between an obviously aggressive and ambitious power and an old imperial power which, while slowly declining, was still a huge force to be reckoned with, the Thais tried to navigate by duplicity; on the one hand declaring that they will resist any intrusion into their territory, while on the other, hedging their bets by seeking protection both the powers (pg 90). In the end the British's concern that they would be seen as aggressors scuttled Matador, the Japanese, however, would have no such worries. The Thais gave a token resistance and soon the way was open to the Japanese to go down to Malaya.

Secondly, the author also brought into view a few somewhat obscure figures who appeared to have played important parts. Brigadier Ivan Simson, the Chief Engineer, though not unfamiliar, did not appear prominently in the other books I have read so far. In this book his role in planning for the defence of Singapore was given good coverage. He was frustrated in his attempts to build a more durable defence, but his introduction into the book gives the readers an idea of this added dimension in the defence of Singapore and why she ultimately fell to the Japanese.

More interestingly is the introduction of C. A. Vlieland, the Secretary of Defence. This is one civilian who was never mentioned in any book, but who was quite prescient in his assessment of what would happen to Singapore if the Japanese struck. His views of how the defence of Singapore should be coordinated among the various factions of the civlian population and the military would have served the defence purpose well had it not been undermined later by the then GOC Malaya Command, Lieutenant-General L. V. Bond. Those interested in the Malayan Campaign should find out more about Vlieland.

Talking about the 'various factions of the civilian population' would lead us naturally to the third novelty the author brought to this discussion, the issue of race in Malaya. This is one issue that is largely ignored in the literature and perhaps one that is too sensitive to include. But this author tackled it with commendable academic honesty.

Simplistically, there were five races of people in Malaya and Singapore then, the Europeans, Malays, Chinese, Indians and Eurasians. The big question that the book discussed was whether the locals (latter four of the five) should be enlisted in military defence of Malaya. Loaded in this question are the issues of the British's belief of 1) the attitude of the locals towards the Japanese and therefore their attitude towards being ruled by another imperial power, 2) the capacity of the locals to be trained into a credible defence force, and 3) whether there is a difference between the different races towards the first two questions.

Of the four groups of locals, the last two were perhaps too small in numbers to make a discussion meaningful. The Malays received some rather disparaging remarks about their abilities (pg 255) but would go on to give a good account of themselves in several battles (Bukit Chandu being a well-known example). The Chinese, would interestingly be viewed as potential Communist and were not really trusted (pg 185, 250, 255). Events in the decade after the war would prove this view to be of some merit, but at that time the failure to deploy these people was a waste. It probably would not have changed the course of the campaign, but might have bought more time which might just have made a difference. We were reminded in the book that by the time the Japanese reached Johore, they were so low in ammunition that there was event talk that they might have to surrender (pg 174).

Perhaps the most important thing the author did for me was to clarify that Singapore was not really important to the Japanese in the whole scheme of things. Peninsula Malaysia was a lucrative territory to gain for its rubber and tin. The main target however, was the oil in the East Indies. Singapore might at most have been a public-relations victory, strategically, Singapore was of no value. Indeed, the loss of Singapore did not create much of a consternation in London (pg 15), there were more important things nearer home to worry about.

The author ended the book with a very interesting paragraph, referring initially to the contents in the diary of a dead Japanese soldier:

No purely military or strategic advantage can be compared to what those illustrations represented not only for the Japanese soldier who carried the diary, but also for the peoples of Asia. Clumsily, cruelly, hesitantly, he liberated them from the domination of Great Britain and her European allies. Even when Japan was defeated, she had made it impossible for the Allies to return to Asia on their own terms. (pg 263)

This paragraph carried two important ideas. The first one was similarly expressed by Eri Hotta in her book Pan-Asianism and Japan's War 1931-1945: the Japanese actually believed in their justness cause, they just failed to execute it properly. Those who knows the language and were more familiar with the culture appear to believe this to be true - the intention was good, the execution was poor. Personally, I think there were grounds for the Japanese to believe that their culture was superior in comparison to the the peoples of Asia (China and South-East Asia), but at least in the case of the Malayan Campaign, I do not believe that the motivation was liberation and then infusion of a superior culture.

The second one was the upshort (a word the author use frequently) of the war, whoever won or lost militarily, the people's desire for self-determination was awaken. This might not be the original intention of the Japanees, but it happened, and worked in some cases and failed in many others. The legacy of the campaign would be long and impactful.

Overall an important book that contributes to the body of knowledge on the Malayan Campaign. I am somewhat surprised that it is not more read by those who are interested in this history. Granted, its description of the actual battle was not detailed or graphical, but that was not the intention of the author in the first place. The knowledge gained from reading this book is in no way inferior to many other books and the rich appendices in this book makes it invaluable to a researcher into this part of history.

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The Elements of Eloquence (Mark Forsyth)

I had not intended to review this book, it being out of the genre of this blog, but towards the end of the book the author included something that struck a cord with me and so I thought I wanted to say my piece.

First of all, I must confess that I do not know that there are so many elements in the English language, especially their funny names (e.g., Hendiadys, Chiasmus, Adynaton, etc.) I had enough trouble with nouns, verbs, adjectives already. Nevertheless, not knowing that they exist (or their names) does not mean that I do not use them; I used them thinking that they were as common as 'standard grammar'.

While these elements are tools of writers, it is really the readers (or listeners) who keep them alive. As such, I could relate to most of what was written in this book except for one - Versification. This practice of designing a sentence in verse form (te-TUM te-TUM te-TUM) was beyond me because Singaporeans emphasise the wrong syllables in our use of English, for example SylLABle would be SYllaBLE to us. There is much to learn.

The author obviously knows much and has read much. He was humourous, educational, and elegant throughout, but it was when he was talking about Anaphora that I was rather moved by his use of Sir Winston Churchill's use of anaphora to send two messages while skillfully only allowing his audience to remember one (pg 197). You can say that Churchill was honest, yet achieved his goal of exalting his countrymen to fight. No wonder he was considered a great orator.

But it was really at the conclusion of the book that the writer wrote something that I agreed very much. In explaining his motivation for writing the book he wrote:

Above all, I hope I have dispelled the bleak and imbecilic idea that the aim of writing is to express yourself clearly in plain, simple English using as few words as possible.

I have, for a long time, wondered about the English language in comparison to Chinese. While today's use of Chinese has been greatly simplified compared to the past (as has English), the Chinese  language has retained many elements such as 成语 and 谚语 which enrich and add colour to the language. English, especially the brand that I learned in Singapore, has constantly emphasised the use of as few words as possible and the eradication of anything that felt cumbersome. I am not talking about redundant words here (like 'free gift', although according to this book, 'gift' which is understood to be free, sounds different from 'free gift' to the listener, read this book), but even in structure, we have been taught to be as 'standard' as possible. Perhaps being non-native speakers, our teachers felt that it would be beyond us to appreciate the beauty in the language. Or perhaps we had an utilitarian motive for learning the language: to connect to those who could do good for our economy. In the end, English became a 'business' language, stripped of all its live, learnt for the sole purpose of landing a job.

English is a beautiful language. Not being an English major, I surely have not the ability to appreciate it fully. But as a language that I've learnt for the better part of 40 years, I cannot accept that it is only as I know it. There would not be so much to celebrate about English literature otherwise and to start to understand why people read Shakespeare, read this book.

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最后的帝国 （恩斯特·柯德士 / 王迎宪）

Ernst Cordes was a German journalist who covered China in the tumultuous period in the 1930's. This book is a travelogue detailing the important trip he made to Manchukuo after its formation in 1931 as a result of Japan's annexation of the three eastern provinces in China, namely Heilongjiang (黑龙江), Liaoning (辽宁) [Used to be named Fengtian, 奉天], and Jilin (吉林). This book was originally published in German in 1936 and the version reviewed here is a translation by Wang Ying Bin (王迎宪).

Although the object of the author's trip was to interview the re-installed emperor, Pu Yi, the section that described that interview was very short, and likely because that was how the interview was. But the interview, while potentially able to provide a good historical record, would not provide readers with the rich account of China (not just Manchukuo) at that time. Fortunately for us, Cordes was conversant in Chinese and was therefore able to communicate with the many common man (老百姓) he met along the way. Add to that his keen sense of observation, and we have a book that is able to paint a most lively picture of what life was like in Manchukuo.

Manchukuo at that time was just going through a spate of construction and this one could easily get from the description provided by the author. The palace where he interviewed Pu Yi was none too grand compared to the Forbidden City the deposed emperor was more used to. More vivid was the 'chicken coop' where the immigration officer worked on the author's arrival. It was a temporary structure hastily constructed while the actual building was being built.

More interesting surely was his description and depiction of the people in Manchukuo. As it happened, Manchukuo was a rather cosmopolitan place. There were the Chinese aplenty, the Japanese predictably, and Russians, surprisingly. The Russians were mainly people who escaped the Russian Revolution and could no longer go back. Each of these races appeared to live separate lives and occupied different strata of the society.

The Japanese were an occupying power, despite all the political theatre of Manchukuo being an independent country, there was no question who was boss. The Japanese were by then a confident and powerful race. Unlike the Chinese, they did not treat Westerners with reverence, and perceiving themselves to be highly superior to the Chinese, they treated the Chinese like dirt. Throughout the book, there were examples of the Japanese's efficiency mixed with brutality. But they also had their quirks (like taking their pants down when they felt hot), but more importantly, their militarism, which even extended to the toys and military-themed candies meant for children.

The author's was at his best however, when he was talking about the Chinese. And if there was one word to describe Chinese live, it was cheap. First of all, then, as with half a century later, Chinese labour could be bought at rock-bottom prices. Already then, the author recognised that at those prices, no European country would be able to match the prices of products coming out of Manchukuo. Secondly, Chinese themselves would gladly give up their lives for a small price. The incredible example of how a general managed to stage a battle with live bullets and real people dying by just offering the winner $500 said it all, this was all done in the name of producing a documentary about the warlords fighting amongst themselves.

If that sounded unbelievable, the description of the everyday life of an average Chinese would substantiate that story. From his own accounts of how the Chinese labourers were treated, to the poverty he witnessed from how the Chinese had to sell their children, to how people were dying in the streets. His description of the filthy restaurant where he had a delicious dinner with the poorest of the Chinese would give one an idea of the general hygiene condition the Chinese put up with everyday.

The best account however, was his own encounter with the bandits who were trying to rob the train he was riding in. Soon after the bandits were repelled by the Japanese soldiers tasked to secure the train, the Chinese passengers seemed to be able to put the whole episode behind them so quickly that it appeared to never have happen (他们谈笑风生). The journalists would later report their disappointment when referring to the incident, saying that "only one baby was killed, everyone else was safe."

Interestingly, throughout the book there wasn't a mention of the Manchus, who were supposed to be of a different race from the Han Chinese. It could be that he could not tell the difference, or more likely, the Manchus had by then been assimilated into the Han race. The author himself made this comment about how Chinese culture is one that easy absorbs another and it appears that the Japanese are the only ones who knew it all along and had deliberately maintain a chasm between themselves and the Chinese. There were few inter-marriages and the few attempts from the more idealistic Japanese to see Chinese as the same (the tea-ist view) ended up in frustration more for the Japanese than the Chinese. If the author failed to discern between the Manchus and the Chinese, he was more than able to aptly describe the difference between the Chinese and the Japanese - 此黄非彼黄。(This yellow is not [the same as] that yellow.) He put it down to the races being 'fundamentally different' (本性差异). Indeed, the Japanese appeared to be a race that was determine to show the world that they were to be reckoned with. The Chinese, on the other hand, appeared to only base their existence on their 5000 years of history and was more than laid back about their lives. The Manchuria Incident (which precipitated the formation of Manchukuo and Japan's eventually withdrawal from the League of Nations) went unchallenged militarily for years. The Chinese themselves, while unhappy about the annexation, nevertheless appeared ambivalent about it (pg 123).

When this account was being written, there was still no agreement on who killed Zhang Zhuolin. Much would eventually happen in China. This book is by no means a scholastic account of China in the early 1930s, it is however a vivid account of what China was through the eyes of a very observant and interested journalist. Capturing a moment in China's history, he served Chinese history enthusiasts greatly by painting a picture of the life of an ordinary Chinese and was able to help one understand the events that would follow later.

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