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Based on our individual essays, we can conclude that life changed drastically during the Japanese Occupation because in every aspect of a teenager’s life that we have researched on, it had changed in one way or another.

Before the Japanese Occupation, people earned very meagre wages and had barely enough to survive on. In terms of education, lessons were taught in english as it was the main language, and students had a very good education provided by Sir Stamford Raffles. Clinics were set up and citizens’ lifestyles were quite comfortable. Beauty pageants served as a form of entertainment for locals as well as Australian soldiers, and they were easy to take part in.

During the Japanese Occupation, lessons in school were taught in Japanese, with students being forced to take up Japanese subjects. Thus, their education was very much disrupted due to the occupation. Teenagers were also deprived of food during the war, resulting in a number of young people being malnourished. Despite that, they were still tasked to do strenuous jobs and yet they were not given a place to live. There was no form of entertainment as people were too afraid to get involved with the Japanese. This caused Singaporeans to sleep most of the time, hoping that the Japanese would leave them alone. After the Japanese occupation, people earned more at the black market by pricing things at absurdly expensive prices as compared to that of its actual value.

Hence, out of all this, we are able to see that the life of teenagers had changed a lot during the Japanese Occupation-- mostly for the worse.

Word count: 269

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During Japanese Occupation:

As you can see the people looked really skinny during the Japanese Occupation due to the lack of food. And also, these people are actually slaves. They work really hard and they do chores that are really tough. But they get very little food. And all they can do is to continue what they are told to do without bargaining.

Picture taken from: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/history/events/6afe2b3e-5d38-4454-966d-95b77e47b112

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During Japanese occupation
""We did not have a radio and there was never any entertainment," Madam Wong recalled. Gambling was not allowed.

Congregating together was illegal and this made any form of gathering impossible. People were afraid to even talk to one another.

Madam Wong said that besides doing the necessary things to survive, Singaporeans then did little else but sleep.

"Sometimes we feared even having a light in the house, for fear it might attract a Japanese soldier to enter our home.""

Adapted from:
http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/war/headline/torture2.html#entertainment

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Before Japanese Occupation
"They did their weightlifting demonstrations in the garden, and were given two cheongsams by her father and told to change. It was then that they realised they would be participating in a beauty contest.

...Madam Ho recalls feeling completely out of place when she saw the other dolled-up contestants.

The duo did not even know where to go to change for the competition and ended up hiding in the garden and changing behind a towel.

Despite their harried preparation, Madam Ho says she took her time on stage, walking slowly and posing confidently for the crowd of locals and Australian soldiers - unlike the other women who nervously rushed through."

The Straits Times, Singapore's Golden Girls, published 9th August, 2015

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Before Japanese Occupation:

The School Health Services, established in 1921.

"The School Health Services in Singapore was established in 1921. Also known as the school medical service. The service started off as a part-time assignment with the appointment of two medical officers serving the Straits Settlements.

School medical officers conducted selective checks on students at school. When a child was identified for further treatment, he/she was referred to private doctors.

The first clinic designated for school children was established in 1946 and located at North Canal Road. Several sub-clinics were also formed to cater to the increasing needs of the growing school population in Singapore.

The main health issues of school children reported in 1921 were dental cavities, visual defects, anaemia and malnutrition. Tooth decay was the most common health issue detected, affecting 84 percent of school children. This led to an investment in toothbrushes for students and daily tooth-brushing drills.

While a decrease in dental cavities was reported in the years that followed, many children were still affected due to the lack of dental facilities. In 1947, the school dental service was established to handle the dental health of school children, with the appointment of the first dental officer for schools."

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Sir Stamford Raffles conceptualised the idea of establishing a premier educational institution in Singapore in September 1819. One of the objectives of the institution, as envisaged by Raffles, was to provide the children of the Malay nobility and Chinese entrepreneurs with an education. He had earlier proposed that Sultan Hussein Shah and Temenggong Abdul Rahman send their sons to Calcutta, India, to receive their education, but they were resistant to the idea. An institution in Singapore would, therefore, enable the sons of the Malay nobility to receive the education deemed good by Raffles without requiring them to travel out of Singapore. Raffles had also wanted the institution to provide the Europeans based in Southeast Asia at the time with instruction in the native languages. In addition, Raffles wished for the institution to be a centre for research and scientific enquiry.

Adapted from:  http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/history/events/9dd7ba3e-b0a7-4e15-8e59-2348b0e42db5

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We were also forced to take up Japanese subjects in our school. All subject's in our school was thought in Japanese. It was hard for we students to adapt to these changes as we could not understand Japanese. Some parents resorted to finding a tuition teacher who teaches English or even Mother Tongue to their child to avoid their child from losing out.

Adapted from:
http://wdlhysec2a28.blogspot.sg/2013/02/life-during-japanese-occupation.html

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I was recommended by my teacher to further my studies in an English school but my late mother did not approve of it so I had to work part-time, as a ‘coolie’ to help out a shopkeeper to carry his supplies to his shop. That would be my source of income when I first started  working. When I was eighteen, my friend in a company called Asiatic Petroleum Company or APC, as you know now as Shell, offered me a job as an oil tanker driver. I started with a very minimum wage, barely enough to cover for cost to

buy food and provisions. (written source)

http://www.hsse.nie.edu.sg/staff/blackburn/oralhistoryJapaneseOccupationMalaymale.doc

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People also turned to black market for additional income. Madam Oh was the sold-breadwinner in her family after her father lost his shop. She worked as an assistant nurse in a hospital despite not being trained in nursing. She had plenty of encounters with the Japanese during her days in he hospital. She describes them then as being nice people, which was quite a contrary, to what most historical records wrote. Then she changed her job to become a salesgirl in a Japanese company that deals with imports and distribution. That was when she became involved in the black market. She tampered with the sales record after selling the goods to the Japanese first. She recorded a higher sales figure than the actual case, and then took the goods to the black-market to sell. She could sell the goods at 10 times the original price. During that time she described that almost everyone did black-marketing for livelihood despite the heavy penalties associated with it. (written source)

http://www.hsse.nie.edu.sg/staff/blackburn/OralhistoryJapOccupationChinesefemale.doc