SPECTACLE, SURVEILLANCE & RESISTANCE : THE POLITICS OF SPACE IN SYONAN-TO, 1942-1945

Abstract

The power and space share an interdependent interrelationship. As such, an understanding of power is dependent on a cognizance and sensitivity to the workings of space. Likewise, an understanding of space is dependent on an appreciation of the concept power. In this study, the crucial relationship of power and space is explored in the context of the Japanese Occupation of Singapore between 1942 and 1945. While space as a strategic "power resource" plays a key role in understanding the act of occupation, most of the works on the Japanese Occupation thus far have failed to give questions of power and space due attention. By drawing on key ideas from Foucault and Lefebvre, the spatial strategies of control employed by the Japanese during the Occupation are explored. In particular, this study focuses on the use of spectacle and surveillance to create representations of space which inscribe and legitimate Japanese attempts at hegemonic rule. The fanfare and theatricality of spectacle as a spatial strategy during the Occupation is one of "excess and imbalance", placing emphasis on the need to instill feelings of both triumph and fear. In particular, landscape spectacle through the use of parades and the act of displaying decapitated heads, inscribed onto the landscape certain ideas congruent with the dominant social order. The second strategy of spatial control employed during the Occupation was effected through firstly, the conscription of both the locals and Japanese into the latter's ambit of surveillance and secondly, the institutionalisation of a system of passes which enabled the maintenance of law and order by making transparent every aspect of the everyday lives of the people. While the Japanese may have been more powerful, in effecting control over space in occupied Singapore, this did not mean that the locals were totally passive and powerless. Instead, they had their own strategies for coping with the daily intricacies of the Occupation. Much of the existing research on the local populace during the Occupation has, however, tended to focus on the plight of the people by painting a picture of their utter defencelessness. This thesis intends to focus on covert resistance in the form of avoidance and non-compliance, and overt resistance through the activities of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA). By highlighting the resistance activities of the underside and their spaces of representation, or counterspaces, this thesis intends to fill yet another research lacunae. Methodologically, this is achieved by using archival sources including documentary sources, photographs and maps; and oral history interviews involving a total of thirty-five interviewees. These sources revealed that while the locals feared the Japanese and tried to limit their confrontations with them, they did, however, have ways and means of thwarting Japanese spatial strategies of control. As such, power during the Occupation was never totally in the hands of either the Japanese or the locals. This thesis has shown that in exploring the relationship of power and space it is best to discard preconceived notions that approximate "globalising and totalising" notions of power. Instead, the call is for an approach which highlights the nuances of social relations of power rather than power itself.