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Source A: Fortress Singapore The Battlefield guide, Romen Bose, Angeline Pang, Yap Siang Yong, Times Book International, 2nd Ed. 1997, NLB Lee Kong Chian Reference Library Level 11 959.5703FOR

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Source A: Fortress Singapore The Battlefield guide, Romen Bose, Angeline Pang, Yap Siang Yong, Times Book International, 2nd Ed. 1997, NLB Lee Kong Chian Reference Library Level 11 959.5703FOR

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Picture captioned: “Food was so scarce during the Occupation that even the grains of rice that had fallen to the floor were carefully scooped up and eaten. Besides rice, tapioca and sweet potatoes were staple diet and, often, the only sources of food.”

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Source B: “Chinese, Malai Farmers put Syonan well on road to self-sufficiency in food.”, Syonan Shimbun, 24 June 1943, page 1, accessible at 

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Source B: “Chinese, Malai Farmers put Syonan well on road to self-sufficiency in food.”, Syonan Shimbun, 24 June 1943, page 1, accessible at 

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Source C: A History of Singapore, edited by Ernest CT Chew and Edwin Lee, Oxford University Press 1991, at page 104, Lee Kong Chian Reference Library Level 11 959.57 HIS – [HIS]

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Source C: A History of Singapore, edited by Ernest CT Chew and Edwin Lee, Oxford University Press 1991, at page 104, Lee Kong Chian Reference Library Level 11 959.57 HIS – [HIS]

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The average family subsisted on a diet of broken rice grains made into a porridge – with sweet potato or tapioca to provide bulk – and a few fragments of salt fish, or ikan bilis (fried whitebait) added for flavour. Cornmeal, ground ragiand sago replaced the almost unattainable wheat flour. Bread was heavy and fibrous, being made of bran and palm-oil residue. Food was always scarce. Everybody planted tapioca, sweet potatoes, maize, papayas, yams, bananas, and vegetables. Men, women and school children went out to clear, dig, and plant on any available vacant land.

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Source D: Wartime Kitchen: Food and Eating in Singapore: 1942-1950, Wong Hong Suen, Editions Didier Millet and National Museum of Singapore, 2009, at page 58, Lee Kong Chian Reference Library Level 11 641.30095957WON

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Source D: Wartime Kitchen: Food and Eating in Singapore: 1942-1950, Wong Hong Suen, Editions Didier Millet and National Museum of Singapore, 2009, at page 58, Lee Kong Chian Reference Library Level 11 641.30095957WON

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‘Dish-ends’ became gourmet food. This was the soup stock made from boiling all the food left over by customers of Chinese restaurants. The restaurants included Nantian Jiu Lou and Dadong Jiulou located in the New World Amusement Park and Upper Pickering Street. Restaurant workers would boil all leftovers in a huge pot and reheat the mixture the next day to be sold as dish-ends. Meat that had been used to brew stock and had lost all its flavour was also gathered for sale. Every day at about 1 or 2 pm, people carrying soup bowls and mugs would start to queue up at the back doors of these restaurants to buy the dish-ends and meat. Dish-ends were treasured as a means of adding flavour to any dish, no matter how spartan.

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Source E:  A Japanese song recommended for sweet potato cultivation, Unknown author, early 1943, The Chosabu reports on Syonan, translated and edited by Gregg Huff and Shinobu Majima, National University of Singapore Press, 2018 at chapter 10, available at Lee Kong Chian Reference Library Level 11 959.5703 WOR – [HIS]

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Source E:  A Japanese song recommended for sweet potato cultivation, Unknown author, early 1943, The Chosabu reports on Syonan, translated and edited by Gregg Huff and Shinobu Majima, National University of Singapore Press, 2018 at chapter 10, available at Lee Kong Chian Reference Library Level 11 959.5703 WOR – [HIS]

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1.     In the South Sea where natural resources abound/ Who would speak of food shortage/ It is our shame, backlash of easy-going life/ Stir yourself, see the situation.

2.     Immediate resolution of the food problem/ No discrimination by class or race/ No distinction of occupation/ Let us plant potatoes now together

3.     Fallow land only 3 meter length/ A Sunday for a month/ Plant runners horizontally / A harvest will be 12 kg

4.     Literally this is food self-sufficiency/ No worry of land and labour/ Grab a hoe and use a lot/ Let us make sweet potatoes

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Source F: Eyewitness Account by Sim Soo Wee recounting her experience as a 7 year old during the Japanese Occupation in Singapore (Primary Source-translated from Chinese to English) – Video played at National Museum’s ‘Surviving Syonan’ Exhibit

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Source F: Eyewitness Account by Sim Soo Wee recounting her experience as a 7 year old during the Japanese Occupation in Singapore (Primary Source-translated from Chinese to English) – Video played at National Museum’s ‘Surviving Syonan’ Exhibit

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“There was a shop that sold rice near where we stayed. The coolies would carry the sacks of rice into the shop. Together with other children, we would wait for the grains to fall through the hole in the sack. All of us would rush to sweep the grains from the ground (with a bucket 畚斗), including the sand and all. We would sort the grains out when we got home. The coolies took pity on us children. They would pick the hole in the sack to make it bigger so that more grains would fall out for us. My aunt was a very noble women. She would give her portion of rice to us children. We would eat first, and she would only eat the (little bit of) food that was left （一点一滴)."

Words in brackets added for complete translation

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Sources A and F are similar in portraying the scarcity of rice and people’s desperation for food. Source A shows a man and child picking up rice grains that had fallen to the floor. The picture caption states that food scarcity during the Japanese Occupation (“JO”) led to people picking up rice grains that had fallen to the floor for consumption. Often the only other sources of food were tapioca and sweet potatoes. This indicates a lack of food for locals as people started scrambling for any food they could find, even if it meant picking up rice grains from the roadside. Similarly, Source F’s eyewitness account noted that children waited for the rice grains to fall out of the sacks that coolies were carrying, before quickly sweeping the grains from the ground with a bucket. This situation corroborates with the scene captured in source A. Thus, both sources are similar in showing the scarcity of rice during the Japanese occupation and people’s response to obtain more food.

Primary sources A and F are reliable. While photographs must be used with caution as they may be staged, source A’s corroboration with source F adds to its reliability. The picture is also consistent with JO in 1942-1945. Source F is also reliable as the eyewitness experienced the hardships first-hand and it can be cross-referenced with the picture in source A.

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Secondary sources C and D also support sources A and F and the proposition that JO threatened food security in Singapore, adding to the credibility of the sources. Source C notes that “the average family subsisted on a diet of broken grains made into a porridge – with sweet potato or tapioca to provide bulk”. This shows the struggles of getting enough food on the table for the average family. Further, Source C corroborates with Source A, that tapioca and sweet potatoes were staple diets. Source D likewise noted the situation of food scarcity during the JO as seen from how people bought left-overs from restaurants and “treasured” them as a means of adding flavour. This is very similar to the situation of insufficient food and desperation seen in sources A and F. Secondary sources C and D are also reliable as they are objectively factual in nature and provide the benefit of hindsight.

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Source B notes that the campaign for increased food production yielded excellent results in the form of abundant supplies of tapioca, sweet potatoes and vegetables in Syonan (Singapore’s Japanese name). This shows how high levels of crop yield contributed to food security in Singapore.

Similarly, source E notes that natural resources are abound in the South Sea and there is no food shortages there. As Singapore is part of the south sea region, it can be inferred that natural resources were sufficient to feed the locals such that there was food self-sufficiency in Singapore.

Thus, sources B and E differ from sources A, F, C and D.

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4.	Reliability issues of sources B and E

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4.	Reliability issues of sources B and E

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However, sources B and E have reliability issues and this can be explained by the difference in context and purpose. Source B was an article published in the Syonan Shimbun newspaper which was a heavily controlled Japanese vehicle for propaganda in Singapore. This explains the overly rosy outlook on food security in 1943 Singapore. It is no surprise that the Japanese will want to portray themselves to readers, mostly locals as the paper was in English and not Japanese, as doing a good job in governing Singapore. Specifically in ensuring that people do not go hungry and that life in Singapore under the Japanese is good.

Similarly, source E is a Japanese song intended to rally people in Singapore to plant sweet potatoes and commend the Japanese in securing food self-sufficiency for the South Sea territories. Given the original Japanese lyrics, a reasonable inference can be made that it was written by the Japanese. This would explain the positive food self-sufficiency picture painted. Further, the song was to be sung by the masses which explains the glorification of the Japanese's good governance. This is not surprising as it is consistent with the acculturation process in 1943 when the Japanese government introduced Japanese songs as a way to encourage locals to accept Japanese rule. It will not be in the interest of the Japanese to criticise their own ability in ensuring food security for Singapore when they are in the process of trying to gain acceptance and receive support from locals.

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Sources A, C, D and F support the view that the JO threatened food security in Singapore from 1942-1945, while sources B and E do not. Given that source B and E’s reliability is questionable due to the motives of the authors, it is concluded that JO did threatened food security in Singapore.