Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
24
Made in Singapore
Tiger Balm
is one of Singapore's most endearing global brands. The herbal oint-
ment, which comes in tiny glass pots covered in colorful postage-stamp paper
scrawled with Chinese characters and a leaping tiger, was actually invented in
Burma in the late 1800s by Aw Chu Kin. In 1920, his two sons, Aw Boon Haw and
Aw Boon Par, moved the business to Singapore, where it has been based since.
Japanese Lieut. G eneral Yamashita,
emerging from battles in M ongolia, saw a
definite adv antage in S ingapore's unpr o-
tected northern flank and stealthily moved
three divisions—almost 20,000 tr oops—
down the Malay Peninsula on bicycles. On
the evening of February 8, 1942, the army
quietly inv aded the island. F or days, the
British tried to hold off their attackers, but
lost gr ound. Within days, the J
THE POSTWAR YEARS
Under British r ule once again, S ingapore
spent the follo wing 10 y ears r evitalizing
itself, while effor ts to become a fully self-
governing nation were tantamount. Living
conditions w ere terrible and food was
scarce, but the B ritish helped with post-
occupation reconstruction to clean up the
port and harbor and r eturn them to civil-
ian contr ol, r estore public utilities, and
overhaul the police force. However, resent-
ment against the B ritish was v ery str ong
for the way they 'd lost the island to the
Japanese in 1941.
apanese
were firmly entrenched.
The occupation brought terrible condi-
tions to multiethnic S ingapore, as the
Japanese r uled harshly and punished any
word of dissent with prison or worse. Mass
executions w ere commonplace, prisoners
of war were tortured and killed, and it was
said that the beaches at Changi ran r ed
with blood. S ome prisoners that sur vived
were sent to Thailand to work on the rail-
way. Conditions were worst for the island's
Chinese, many of whom w ere arr ested
indiscriminately simply because of their
ethnicity, r owed out to sea, and dumped
overboard. Little information fr om the
outside world, sav e Japanese propaganda,
reached S ingapore's citiz ens during this
time. P overty, sickness, and star
2
THE RISE OF LEE KUAN
YEW & SINGAPOREAN
INDEPENDENCE
In 1949, Lee Kuan Yew, a third-generation
Straits Chinese and a law student at Cam-
bridge, formed a discussion gr oup in
London aimed at bringing together
Malayan o verseas students. U pon his
return to S ingapore, his education com-
pleted, Lee made a name for himself as an
effective cour troom lawy er. Ar ound this
time, Chinese in Malaya were forming the
Malaya Communist P arty, inspir ed b y
mainland China 's br eak fr om Western
hegemonic po wers, as a path to ward
national independence. Although Lee
vation
became a daily reality.
Mercifully, the Japanese surrender came
before S ingapore became a battlegr ound
once again. O n September 5, 1945, B rit-
ish warships arrived, and a w eek later, the
Japanese officially surr endered to Lor d
Louis Mountbatten, supreme Allied com-
mander in Southeast Asia.
secretly detested communist politics, he
recognized the str ength of their numbers.
Backed b y local communists, he formed
the People's Action Party (PAP).
By 1957, M alaya had gained indepen-
dence, and Singapore was granted permis-
sion to establish its o
wn fully elected,
