Educational Policy and Performance in Singapore, 1942 - 1945

Education in Singapore during the period of the Japanese Occupation (February 1942 - September 1945) cannot be usefully considered in isolation from the broader context of its times, nor without relating it to the system of education which had evolved up to the time of the invasion. The British colonial system is relevant in so far as it had imprinted certain habits of thought upon those who had experienced it, and had created a self-perpetuating momentum which, try as they might, the Japanese could not entirely reverse. Nevertheless, for some young people of the island, school became the point of intellectual contact with the ideology of their new ulers, the 'pivotal institution' for a novel process of cultural indoctrination. The purpose of this paper is to consider Japanese educational policy, the factor militating against its full implementation, and the extent to which the system that emerged served as an agent for change.