Can Forgive But Not Forget...

[Ender]

Oh please... There was so much war fund that got redirected to Japanese biz and enterprises, and they in return conquer the economic market and Japan became the 2nd largest economy until recently overthrown by China. If really so anti-Japanese for their WWII act, they should not use any of the Japanese product and components. Likewise German technology etc, stop buying Toyota and BMW.

 

As per thread title. Forgive, but not forget.

[Pocus]

Different era perhaps?

 

Took my Os during '86 and history was one of the easiest subjects to score bec like mentioned earlier you just have to regurgitate chunks from the textbook.

 

What Byzantine empire, Persian invasions & Mesopotamia civilizations all at the back of our minds then but nothing about WWI, WWII, e.g.

 

haha...so now I know you are at least 8 years my senior....my time in sec 2 was 92. So glad they ditched the older history with more modern history like WWI and WWII, which is more relavant in SG context... Oh, not only Lim Bo Sheng, I remember they also talk about Tan Kah Kee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tan_Kah_Kee

 

Actually, the WWII chapter put more emphasis on the Japanese/Pacific Theather and the invasion of Singapore. Very little was touched on the Nazi and europe theater, not mentioned like only 2 to 3 paragraphs on the holocast nia..

[Antlau]

and that will make the lessons more interesting and easier to remember, rather than just dozed off...i remembered my history lessons, sometimes my teacher would make us be the characters of the topic and told us to do and speak whatever we like but still remain to the context of the lessons, and it just made the lessons so much more easier, rather than the other times which just made up of reading and reading, and then asked us to close the book and answer the teacher's questions...which some of us would try to "bio" the info in the book when the teacher was not looking....hehehe

[Pocus]

and that will make the lessons more interesting and easier to remember, rather than just dozed off...i remembered my history lessons, sometimes my teacher would make us be the characters of the topic and told us to do and speak whatever we like but still remain to the context of the lessons, and it just made the lessons so much more easier, rather than the other times which just made up of reading and reading, and then asked us to close the book and answer the teacher's questions...which some of us would try to "bio" the info in the book when the teacher was not looking....hehehe

 

I remember my History Teacher was very articulated by 80s/90s standard. The history class is very interesting. He would reenact the characters and crack joke to make us remember.

 

I still remember one of his corny joke about the arch-duke that was assasinated onset of WWI. "It's arch-duke ah! not ahcoo(sneezing)!" His action make the whole class LOL.

[Vulcann]

You're right that this forum letter writer is way out of line.

 

He is worried that the teacher's portrayal of WW2 jap soldier will unduly influence his students to view japs negatively?? ... I'd be more concerned that the youth nowadays are hooked onto jap pop culture, and either forget or be totally ignorant about the darker side of jap "culture" during WW2. To all history teachers... I'd say: PLEASE REMIND YOUR STUDENTS MORE OFTEN, LEST THEY FORGET!!

 

Furthermore, I think the teacher featured in the ST article should be admired and praised for making the extra effort to inject some creativity and interesting elements in his teaching. He could've just delivered the syllabus contents in the same old conventional (boring to today's youth!) way, and still take home the same salary. No one can say he didn't do his job. But still he went the extra mile, getting dressed up, creating a script, etc.!

 

一种米养百种人。

 

There are all kinds of people in this world: each and everyone have got their own agenda in their minds.

 

Being in a society means we sometimes have to compromise for the sake of the greater good but having said that, there are some OB markers that can never be crossed like making racist remarks or putting down beliefs of others.

 

This writer in my mind is just making known his or her (not sure about the gender) views known and IMHO just making a mild remark for discussion purposes.

 

Unlike some clowns who had the audacity to deride the religion of others or making seditious remarks about other races. These idiots should be hauled up to face the music or sternly warned to set an example.

 

 

[Vulcann]

haha...so now I know you are at least 8 years my senior....my time in sec 2 was 92. So glad they ditched the older history with more modern history like WWI and WWII, which is more relavant in SG context... Oh, not only Lim Bo Sheng, I remember they also talk about Tan Kah Kee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tan_Kah_Kee

 

Actually, the WWII chapter put more emphasis on the Japanese/Pacific Theather and the invasion of Singapore. Very little was touched on the Nazi and europe theater, not mentioned like only 2 to 3 paragraphs on the holocast nia..

 

Hey bro you say like that make me feel old leh

 

Anyway back then not sure if all schools use same textbooks but syllabus should be the same. So I presume by your time, the syllabus must have been overhauled and irrelevant parts replaced.

 

To be fair, I quite like the history of middle-east/western/chinese histories because they were quite interesting. At least I was aware that at the last stage of imperial China, the dynasties were 宋元明清

 

Having said that, I really want my kids to know about our local history, culture & everything/anything relating to Singapore.

[Neutralsg]

haha...so now I know you are at least 8 years my senior....my time in sec 2 was 92. So glad they ditched the older history with more modern history like WWI and WWII, which is more relavant in SG context... Oh, not only Lim Bo Sheng, I remember they also talk about Tan Kah Kee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tan_Kah_Kee

 

Actually, the WWII chapter put more emphasis on the Japanese/Pacific Theather and the invasion of Singapore. Very little was touched on the Nazi and europe theater, not mentioned like only 2 to 3 paragraphs on the holocast nia..

So, you're saying that you're now 34 while Vulcann is 42?

It's good to know local history and understand the need to be prepared at all times regardless how small our sovereign state is. To err is human and forgive divine. It's often easier said than done. Just look at where our yellow ribbon is heading and it is telling.

Let's just hope that more humans can be more civilised for the sake of peace for everyone. As it is, incidents such at the recent Orchard Tower fight between a fellali driver and some 'street fighters' and between the Sunny and Taxi drivers shows how little humanity we have within today's society. What about leaders who have turned mercenary??? Between the Japs and the victims, have they/we become more civil and morally upright despite being better academically educated than their/our predecessors? You decide.

[Ahtong]

Different era perhaps?

 

Took my Os during '86 and history was one of the easiest subjects to score bec like mentioned earlier you just have to regurgitate chunks from the textbook.

 

What Byzantine empire, Persian invasions & Mesopotamia civilizations all at the back of our minds then but nothing about WWI, WWII, e.g.

 

You are lucky to have learnt world history during your time. Later on, the syllabus got revised to teach only SE Asian history which was ultra boring.

 

Worse still, my history teacher "taught" by making everyone take turns to read paragraphs from the textbook.

[Vulcann]

You are lucky to have learnt world history during your time. Later on, the syllabus got revised to teach only SE Asian history which was ultra boring.

 

Worse still, my history teacher "taught" by making everyone take turns to read paragraphs from the textbook.

 

Actually history as a subject was very interesting & one of my favourite subjects in school. Regardless of what or where it happened, it never failed to fascinate me about people/things of ancient times or even in recent history.

 

How else would a dirty kampong boy knew about Alexander the Great or Shi Huang Di?

 

[LoverofCar]

In Singapore....we always forgive and forget wat......no matter how the MIW screwed us time and time again...the 60% still vote for them de...

Edited March 27, 2012 by LoverofCar

[TVT]

I watch japanese av also cannot forget some actress and scene.

Which AV actress can make you can't forget huh ?

[Ahtong]

Actually history as a subject was very interesting & one of my favourite subjects in school. Regardless of what or where it happened, it never failed to fascinate me about people/things of ancient times or even in recent history.

 

How else would a dirty kampong boy knew about Alexander the Great or Shi Huang Di?

 

 

Read books?

 

History is one of my favourite topics just that the way it was taught in my school was really boring.

[Neutralsg]

Read books?

 

History is one of my favourite topics just that the way it was taught in my school was really boring.

How many will voluntarily read books, more so; books on history?

[Darthrevan]

Liew Kai Khiun is a sympathizer because he is not at the receiving end of a japanese bayonet in ww2

[Relacklabrudder]

u noe y? cos germans sign as surrender while jap sign as cease fire.

 

history is always written by the victor.

 

whne u surrender, u must let the victor paint the history. history we know of WWI, WWII is painted from the US, allies' perspective so the Germans Nazis are the evil ones.

 

tink about it, u tink those babaric US, allies marines din commit atrocities in Germany and Japan?

 

for Jap , they din surrender, so they continue to paint history from their perspective which is the west, allies were restricting the growth and expansion of Japan and they were jealous of Japan' growth and had Japan conquer south east asia, they would have succeed in Far east prosperity paln to bring growth and advancement to south east asia.

Edited March 27, 2012 by Relacklabrudder

[Ahtong]

How many will voluntarily read books, more so; books on history?

 

Maybe environment plays a part. My childhood was quite lonely but luckily my folks bought me an encyclopedia set.

 

One of the first pics I saw inside was a viking longship and I wondered wtf was that.

 

I slowly learned to read the captions followed by entry itself. IIRC, that time I was still <5

 

 

[Ahtong]

Back to topic, when teaching history, we must first know what is the moral to learn from the story.

 

In the case of the Japanese Occupation, I think the lesson is to be self reliant and nasty things happen when you cannot depend yourself.

 

Japanese cruelty (and British humji-ness) add flesh to the story but is not the key issue.

 

So in a way, letter writer is correct in that we should not over demonize the Japs.

 

At a more advanced level, the Malayan Campaign also serves up lessons that can be used in real working life.

 

For example:

 

- Have a clear chain of command

- Have a unified strategy

- The value of training

- When to use bluff and when not too

 

[Neutralsg]

Maybe environment plays a part. My childhood was quite lonely but luckily my folks bought me an encyclopedia set.

 

One of the first pics I saw inside was a viking longship and I wondered wtf was that.

 

I slowly learned to read the captions followed by entry itself. IIRC, that time I was still <5

Lucky you to have such privilege. I had to visit the library and to do so (at the age of 12) I had to; at times walk 10km (although the bus fare then was only 5 cents each way) to enjoy the privilege of borrowing Enid Blyton etc.. for my reading pleasure.

It's part of my life's history and have always cherished the memory of those days.