Consequences

Although the British had been welcomed back into Singapore, the fact remained that the British had failed to defend Singapore, and in the eyes of many Singaporeans this had cost them their credibility as infallible rulers. The decades after the war saw a political awakening amongst the local populace and the rise of nationalist and anti-colonial sentiments. Hence, the Japanese Occupation caused the path to eventual independence to be greatly accelerated, as public confidence in the ability of their British leaders in protecting them and their ways of life crumbled.

The British defeat by the Japanese (who were Asians) showed that the Europeans were not superior to the Asians. After the war, many Asians did not respect the British as much as they had done before the war.

The sufferings that the people went through during the Japanese occupation also taught the people to see the need to get rid of their foreign masters. In the words of Lee Kuan Yew, who later became the first Prime Minister of Singapore,

"My colleages and I are of that generation of young men who went through the Second World War and the Japanese Occupation and became determined that no one - neither the Japanese nor the British - had the right to push and kick us around. We were determined that we could govern ourselves and bring up our children in a country where we can be a self-respecting people."