The Singapore Story - Chapter 5

 Title: The Singapore Story - Memories of Lee Kuan Yew (Chapter 5)

Author: Lee Kuan Yew

Chapter Review: My Cambridge days

  Lee Kuan Yew was on a ship called The Britannic. He was on his way to the London university. At 3 October 1946, he arrived in London. While attending the university, he decided that he had to look for somewhere to live, and found himself a room at 8 fitzjohn's avenue. The only problem was that Lee Kuan Yew was suffering from culture shock, as the clothes, food, people and many other things were different.

  The price of the apartment for a week was quite costly for someone who had stopped earning. Although that included gas fire and retractable gas ring, it was expensive when Lee Kuan Yew ate at restaurants without coupons. After asking around, Lee Kuan Yew finally knew where to buy meat, and without a refrigerator, how to keep milk cold.

  One day, after his law tutorials at the London university, Lee Kuan Yew approached the lecturer, Glanville L. Williams, who was from Cambridge, how it was there. After knowing more about cambridge, Lee Kuan Yew decided to pay a visit there. After visiting, he was interested in joining cambridge.

  After asking the censor of fitzwilliam, Billy Thatcher, Billy Thatcher took a liking to Lee Kuan Yew and decided to let him join cambridge. After quitting the London university,  he enrolled in cambridge university and was more used to cambridge and could adapt better. He would not have to worry about food and daily neccssities. 

At about June 1947, Kwa Geok Choo finally got the queen's scholarship, but could not find a suitable university to join. After pleading Billy Thatcher, he finally agreed to let Choo join the cambridge university.

Shortly after Choo arrived, she was also in for culture shock. She was not accustomed to food, clothes and many other things. But after a few weeks of hectic adjustments, she finally got a little used to the environment.

  After a few more days, Lee Kuan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo decided to get married quietly and in secret. After they got married, Lee Kuan Yew bought Choo a platinum wedding ring, which she wore on a chain around her neck.

The next few years passed by like the blink of an eye and soon it was graduation. Lee Kuan Yew and his friends (his brother dennis, maurice baker, toh chin chye, choo and many more) all had a party together before going their separate ways.

  Soon, Kwa Geok Choo and Lee Kuan Yew sailed home to Singapore. Choo went to her house in Pasir Panjang and Lee Kuan Yew went back to his home in Oxley road while keeping his marriage a secret.

Questions:

1.     Why did Lee and Kwa get married in secret?

Answer: They did not want Kwa's parents to know that she got married or they would have been upset, and the university and the censor would not have approved if he knew they got married.

Vocabulary List

1. accomodation - a room, group of rooms, or building in which someone may live or stay.

2. Masqueraded - pretending to be someone

3. canvassing - 1. cover with canvas. 2. question (someone) in order to ascertain their opinion.3. propose (an idea or plan) for discussion.

4. shillings - 1. the basic monetary unit in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, equal to 100 cents.

2. a former British coin and monetary unit equal to one twentieth of a pound or twelve pence.

5. forestry - the science or practice of planting, managing, and caring for forests.

2. 
   

The Singapore Story - Chapter 4

Title: The Singapore Story - Memories of Lee Kuan Yew (Chapter 4)

Author: Lee Kuan Yew

Chapter Review: After The Liberation (Pg 84 to Pg 99)

Summary: What happened after the Japanese Occupation

  After the surrender ceremony of the Japanese had come to an end, everyone thought that the good times were about to return, but by early 1946, the people realised that there was no return to the good old times. One reason was because there were british soldiers who filled the newly opened cafes, bars and many other places. Another reason was because ship arrivals were infrequent and goods were scarce not only in Singapore, but also in Britain itself.

  There were also many things that were broken and needed repair, such as the road filled with potholes and old telephones that were beyond repair. Also, there was another problem.

 

  Aside from the about only 10 percent of people that were loyal to the british in Singapore, the remaining 90 percent of people recently arrived in Singapore and would converse in chinese instead of malay or english. Most of their loyalty was to China, not Britain.

  Some of those people would go around blackmailing businessman for their past collaboration with the enemy not dressed as a normal person, but dressed as soldiers. Luckily, after the british offered every so called soldier that if they turned in their weapons, they would get $350. Thankfully, most of them, about 6500 turned in.

  Before that happened, however, the soldiers would always be seen almost everywhere. Shops would be closed down in an act of fear and those people who turned up for work would get beaten up.

  With the japanese aside, many houses were left vacant. Lee Kuan Yew and his family decided to find another place to leave. They rented a house with 5 bedrooms for $80 a month. Lee kuan Yew's father continued to work at the shell depot in Pasir Panjang.

  During this time, Lee Kuan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo had grown closer and Lee Kuan Yew began to like her. At about October - November 1945, he got her a job as a librarian in Raffles Library. After thinking, Lee Kuan Yew decided to not attend Raffles College and instead study law in England. At about March, Lee Kuan Yew was told that he would be accepted to the London Economics College if he could present himself there.

  Therefore, Lee Kuan Yew spoke to the army officer. After hearing about his predicament, the army officer agreed as he was sympathetic. Before Lee Kuan Yew left for England, his mother made sure that he would leave Singapore commited to a chinese girl. After telling his mother about Kwa Geok Choo, Lee Kuan Yew's mother agreed after shrewd judgement.

  Choo had been educated at Methodist Girls' School and was only 19 when she went to Raffles College. Before Lee Kuan Yew left, Choo and him spent a lot of time together. They were young and in love, anxious to record that last moment of their lives.

  When Lee Kuan Yew left Singapore on his 23rd birthday, 16 September 1946, he waved goodbye to all his relatives and his family with a tearful look in his eyes.

The Singapore Story - Chapter 3

Title: The Singapore Story - Memories Of Lee Kuan Yew (Chapter 3)

Author: Lee Kuan Yew

Chapter Review - The Japanese Invaders (Pg 44 to Pg 84)

Summary: How Japanese troops invaded Singapore

  Lee Kuan Yew was asleep in E block of Raffles College when he was woken up to by the sound of exploding bombs. The war with japan had begun. The bombs killed 60 people and wounding 130 others, leading to many casualties.

  After that fatal accident, Lee Kuan Yew volunteered for the Medical Auxiliary services and would cycle from his home to his post to the college which was 3 miles away. The war did not go well. A few days later, the Japanese started to bomb Singapore, day and night on 31 January. The siege of Singapore had just begun.

  In the middle of January, the schools were closed. After the Japanese took over the college on 10 February, the MAS unit had to disband. At 15 February, it turned out that the British had surrendered and the Japanese had swept on towards the town. In turn, some bold people began looting houses, department stores and other places which contained items of value.

  

The japanese caught a few of these looters and beheaded them to strike fear into the people. As a result, many people were fleeing from Singapore and hospitals, public utilities and other services were unmanned and Lee Kuan Yew was shocked at their cowardly behaviour just to save their skins.

  One day, when Lee Kuan Yew went to visit his aunt, he walked past a group of japanese soldiers. After being kicked to the ground, Lee Kuan Yew was told to go back the way he had come. Soon after, he was shocked to find several japanese soldiers come into the house and decided it was a suitable billet for a platoon. The beginning of a nightmare had started.

  Since the occupation started, Lee Kuan Yew's father had no work, he had no college, and his siblings had no school. Deciding to learn chinese, Lee Kuan Yew headed to get Mandarin Made Easy, a thin booklet that taught basic chinese characters and how to read them. After Lee Kuan Yew's father died in Japan, Lee Kuan Yew looked up his grandfather's Japanese friend, Mr Shimoda, and ended up working in his company as a clerk for a year.

  After that, he worked as an editor in the cathay building for 15 months until the end of 1944.

  

  Since the end of 1943, food has been getting scarcer and scarcer. Lee Kuan Yew would eat shoots of sweet potato, tapioca and vegetables that were barely palatable almost everyday.

  Soon, Lee Kuan Yew and his friend, Yong Nyuk Lin, decided to start a business by making gum, which was scarce, but Nyuk Lin had the ingredients that were cheap to make it. The gum turned a decent profit, and the location of making it was in Nyuk Lin's house, where he was helped with his wife her younger sister, Kwa Geok Choo, the girl who beat him in Raffles College.

  The gum making business lasted for six to seven months until late 1944. By that time, war was going badly for the japanese and they were losing to other countries. After that, Lee Kuan Yew's family sold the house they had in Norfolk Road for $60000 in banana notes.

  

  To prevent from starving, Lee Kuan Yew continued to operate on the black market as a broker for everything tradeable. In May, Germany was defeated by Japanese, now, it was only a matter of time before japan would be defeated as the war effort would be turned against them.

  On 15 August, the japanese emperor announced the surrender of japan. Finally, the war was over!

  

  After a few months, the British arrived and finally, the Japanese occupation was over!

  In 1992, the japanese prime minister, morihiro hosokawa, gave an unqualified aoplogy.