Noel Barber's "Sinister Twilight"
Sinister Twilight: The Fall of Singapore
The fall of Singapore in 1942, and what happened before and after it, is a fascinating story. The Japanese invasion of Malaya changed the history of this part of the world; its link to the creation of the Indian National Army meant that it also had a huge impact on the Indian subcontinent.
Noel Barber’s account of the follies that led to the surrender of addresses a slice of this history, focusing on the actions of the civil and military leaders of Singapore in the run up to the surrender.
Mr. Barber re-constructs many aspects of the ineptitude that led to the debacle of 1942: the refusal to fortify the northern shore of Singapore on the grounds that it would affect morale, the bickering among the services and individuals, the petty-mindedness of some of senior officials, the inability of the military leadership to figure out where the Japanese would land, their inability to respond to the landing after it had happened, and so on. Of course this list ignores the mistakes that led to the Japanese reaching Johor.
Unfortunately, this is a work that has one big defect that overshadows the good things about it. I definitely don’t mean to belittle the horrors that the white population of Singapore went through, or the heroism of individuals – both men and women – during the short war and the horrific internment that followed. But I do think this work is too much of an ang moh (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ang_mo; ang moh is not a pejorative term) view of what transpired. The Asians who feature have bit roles – a beautiful wife of a British journalist, a boy in the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) department, and a few others. This is history written as if some people did not matter.
When the Japanese raced down the Malay peninsula and people fled Penang, places on ships were reserved for whites and Asians were held off at bayonet point. This was part of the flow of events that led to the end of empire. Surely this was well known in 1968, when Sinister Twilight was published. You won’t find any mention of that in the book.
One of the hypotheses that is advanced, though not in as many words, is that Percival was a retard and all the blame was his. It goes something like this: his good subordinate Simmons told him there should be fortifications along the Northern shore. Percival rebuffed the idea. Next his superior, Wavell, told him the same thing. Percival still didn’t get it. Churchill told Wavell the same thing. Nothing happened. So: blame it on Percival. Really? Clearly, J.G. Farrell told the story vastly better here in The Singapore Grip. The people running the show – officials, businessmen, and the like – included many retards. It’s not true that Percival was the only one to fault and the others were great specimens of fair play and honour, those two pillars of empire, and smartness.
Since there is a reference to the rape of Hong Kong, one wonders why there isn’t one to the rape of Singapore and the genocide here. Surely even the slightest effort at being more inclusive would have unearthed some details about the Sook Ching operation (https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infoped...)
It seems peculiar that the desertion of Singapore by the head of the Australian armed forces is treated as something that is complex, and that can’t be judged easily. One wonders why that should be the case. Is it because, as Peter Ward Fay wrote in his book The Forgotten Army, some Generals who lost wars on battlefields were good at winning them in bookshops? In any case, Sinister Twilight does justice to the shameful episode, and that redeemed the book for me. Its other strength is that it does take a very human view of the events.
NUS Press has brought out (much later, of course) many books that help understand the WWII era in this region from multiple perspectives, and NI Low’s haunting account, When Singapore was Syonan-To provides the Singapore Chinese view, which matters because the Japanese regime selectively meted out the worst treatment to the Chinese community. Sinister Twilight is a part of the whole, written well and worth reading – but flawed because of its filter.
When Singapore Was Syonan-to
The fall of Singapore in 1942, and what happened before and after it, is a fascinating story. The Japanese invasion of Malaya changed the history of this part of the world; its link to the creation of the Indian National Army meant that it also had a huge impact on the Indian subcontinent.
Noel Barber’s account of the follies that led to the surrender of addresses a slice of this history, focusing on the actions of the civil and military leaders of Singapore in the run up to the surrender.
Mr. Barber re-constructs many aspects of the ineptitude that led to the debacle of 1942: the refusal to fortify the northern shore of Singapore on the grounds that it would affect morale, the bickering among the services and individuals, the petty-mindedness of some of senior officials, the inability of the military leadership to figure out where the Japanese would land, their inability to respond to the landing after it had happened, and so on. Of course this list ignores the mistakes that led to the Japanese reaching Johor.
Unfortunately, this is a work that has one big defect that overshadows the good things about it. I definitely don’t mean to belittle the horrors that the white population of Singapore went through, or the heroism of individuals – both men and women – during the short war and the horrific internment that followed. But I do think this work is too much of an ang moh (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ang_mo; ang moh is not a pejorative term) view of what transpired. The Asians who feature have bit roles – a beautiful wife of a British journalist, a boy in the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) department, and a few others. This is history written as if some people did not matter.
When the Japanese raced down the Malay peninsula and people fled Penang, places on ships were reserved for whites and Asians were held off at bayonet point. This was part of the flow of events that led to the end of empire. Surely this was well known in 1968, when Sinister Twilight was published. You won’t find any mention of that in the book.
One of the hypotheses that is advanced, though not in as many words, is that Percival was a retard and all the blame was his. It goes something like this: his good subordinate Simmons told him there should be fortifications along the Northern shore. Percival rebuffed the idea. Next his superior, Wavell, told him the same thing. Percival still didn’t get it. Churchill told Wavell the same thing. Nothing happened. So: blame it on Percival. Really? Clearly, J.G. Farrell told the story vastly better here in The Singapore Grip. The people running the show – officials, businessmen, and the like – included many retards. It’s not true that Percival was the only one to fault and the others were great specimens of fair play and honour, those two pillars of empire, and smartness.
Since there is a reference to the rape of Hong Kong, one wonders why there isn’t one to the rape of Singapore and the genocide here. Surely even the slightest effort at being more inclusive would have unearthed some details about the Sook Ching operation (https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infoped...)
It seems peculiar that the desertion of Singapore by the head of the Australian armed forces is treated as something that is complex, and that can’t be judged easily. One wonders why that should be the case. Is it because, as Peter Ward Fay wrote in his book The Forgotten Army, some Generals who lost wars on battlefields were good at winning them in bookshops? In any case, Sinister Twilight does justice to the shameful episode, and that redeemed the book for me. Its other strength is that it does take a very human view of the events.
NUS Press has brought out (much later, of course) many books that help understand the WWII era in this region from multiple perspectives, and NI Low’s haunting account, When Singapore was Syonan-To provides the Singapore Chinese view, which matters because the Japanese regime selectively meted out the worst treatment to the Chinese community. Sinister Twilight is a part of the whole, written well and worth reading – but flawed because of its filter.
When Singapore Was Syonan-to
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