The Singapore Syndrome - The ironies of history a consequence of human stupidity

I happened to flip the switch and watch a forum titled 'Japan and Asean Relations' in Channel News Asia with four speakers, two Japanese and two bananas. The Japanese were not hiding anything. Their main agenda were to discredit China, sowed doubts and disinformation about the BRI and the AIIB and to tell Asean countries to militarise and to support Japan's militarisation to be the leader of Asean to confront China. The two bananas wholeheartedly agreed with the Japanese proposition and praised Japan as the most peaceful and trusted nation by the stupid Asean leaders. I make a distinction between leaders, people and bananas.

Japan is the most trusted country according to a survey conducted by one of the bananas among his peers. I must agree with him as the survey would be just another echoing chamber of like minded bananas. But it is not as simple as that. I thought about it and found a common thread among the South East Asian countries that believed in Japan as the most trusted country. All these countries were invaded, plundered and conquered by Japan during the invasion of Asia and SE Asia by the Japanese Imperial Armies. All were part of the Japanese Empire, their treasuries raided, countries looted, their people massacred, women raped, children bayoneted.

This link to love your conquerors is not unique just to Japan or to SE Asia. The Taiwanese also loved the Japanese after being conquered and ruled for more than 50 years, much longer than all the SE Asian countries but did not suffered as much as the SE Asian countries. The point is this, the more vicious and ruthless the invaders, the more loved and trusted they would be by the conquered leaders of the SE Asian countries. The people would be different as they were the ones that bore the brunt of the cruelties and atrocities of the Japanese/invaders, not the elite or leaders.

Take the same line of thinking to Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan. They were victims of the worst destructive forces of the American military might. The Philippines were conquered and ruled by the Americans for several decades, with many massacres. The Vietnamese almost went that way, suffered the most devastating bombings in human history, second to the atomic bombs in Japan.  The fact is that they all loved their conquerors/invaders, the Americans. The Indonesians are also very fond of the Dutch, their colonial masters. No need to say more about the Malaysians and Singaporeans. they often reminisced about the good times under their colonial masters.

There is another common thread here. Besides being loved and trusted by the victims of invasion, the opposite is that countries that did not invade, plunder, loot, rape or massacre people of other countries would be distrusted and even hated by the countries they did not invade or conquer. China is a perfect example of this love hate relationship. China did not invade or conquer any of the SE Asian countries but is hated and distrusted by them.

My conclusion, China would have been loved and trusted by the SE Asian countries if it had invaded them, conquered and ruled them, conducted atrocities against these little weak countries. Maybe China should learn from the Americans and the European powers, and Japan, invade and conquer all these silly countries if it wants to be loved and trusted by them, like Japan and the USA. This is the failure of China for not harbouring the thought of colonising these countries.

This theory is quite similar to the Stockholm Syndrome where the victims fell in love with their captors that held them hostage. Maybe I shall called this the Singapore Syndrome or SE Asia Syndrome. I thought about calling it the Asean Syndrome or the Banana Syndrome. After thinking it over, the Singapore Syndrome is most appropriate as the greatest admirers of Japan, the brutal invaders, are from Singapore.

Come to think of it, the choice of Syonan as the name to remember fondly of the Japanese Invasion was not surprising. If that idea was not stopped, the next thing would be the demolishing of the War Memorial to remember the hundreds of thousands massacred by the Japanese during the Occupation, and probably another shrine to be built in its place to remember the heroic Japanese Imperial Army and the Kempeitai. They loved them and trusted them dearly. You have the most pristine display of the Singapore Syndrome here in this island.