The warrior-philosopher Sun Tzu's maxim that, "if you cannot be strong, and yet cannot be weak, this will result in your defeat" (21) best characterizes Singapore's rise and fall during World War II. Having suffered through protracted periods of colonial imperialism, the island of Singapore off the Malay Peninsula had long served in its precarious capacity as pawn to the empire builders ranging from Czarist Russia to Britain to Japan (Watson 82). In the years leading to the British capitulation of the Singapore Naval Base in 1942, Singapore meant different things to different nations. The stark disparity of objectives among the major Far East Asian players would become apparent during World War II.
The Far East players consisted of Britain, the United States and Japan. To Britain, Singapore was a symbol of its Victorian heyday as the preeminent world super-power of the 19th century. The United States, while a close ally of Britain, had little interest in preserving ancient history, since it was bent on its own course of expansionist policy and global influence. Japan had allied itself with Britain in World War I, but much had changed in the aftermath of a Versailles charged with "Yellow Peril" racist rhetoric (McIntyre 223). Having been left out of the feeding frenzy that ensued upon the vanquished, and despite its Anglo-Japanese Alliance with Britain, Japan embarked on an aggressive plan to gain control of Far East Asia.
Accustomed to wars fought by adversaries on the European continent, and influenced by its insular position geographically, Britain relied mainly on sea and air power. The British Command had little use for the massive ground forces that would play a major part in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. In general, British strategy consisted of: victory with minimal risk and minimal losses; superior naval might; and avoidance of large-scale continental operations (Morton 87-88). Such strategies would b...