Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the reimagination of the post-war Japanese people's memories of the occupation of Singapore during the Second World War, analysing both the story and the production process of the Japanese film Under the Stars of Singapore (1967) and the song on which the film is based.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the reimagination of the post-war Japanese memories of the occupation of Singapore during the Second World War through a Japanese pop song film Under the Stars of Singapore, (Shingapōru no yo wa fukete, 1967). The genre of pop song films (kayō eiga), many made in the 1960s, is a kind of media mix that places a traditional Japanese pop song (kayōkyoku) sung by a star singer at the centre of the film. The film's marketing then depends on the song and the star singer's popularity. Due to low budgets, pop song films generally deal with themes of ordinary people's everyday lives. Therefore, these films can represent general values and understandings of the world. The film Under the Stars of Singapore, based on Japanese star singer Hashi Yukio's song released the previous month, follows the main character's (played by Hashi) visit to Singapore to discover a wartime romance between his father and a Chinese Singaporean woman and to discover the truth of his sister's death.

This paper analyses the representation of Japanese and Southeast Asians, particularly focusing on gendered images, and secondarily, indicating that the Japanese people's wartime experience and their networks with local people were mobilised in producing this film and song. Previous studies on Japanese popular culture and 1960s Japanese relations with Southeast Asia have revealed that pop song films portray Japanese society's mentality at that time, that Hashi is positioned in the genealogy of post-war Japan's 'new rhythm', a series of dance tunes coming mainly from Latin America and the Caribbean through America, and that in dealing with Southeast Asia, 1960s Japanese popular media created an image of Japan as Asia's leader. The paper discusses not only how memories of the Second World War influence this film but also how it whitewashes memories of the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia.