So Singapore was important to the Japanese.

First it’s important to understand why the Japanese took it and to understand that we need to understand their reasoning for war. Summed up Japan found itself in an entrenched war in China that turned into a war of attrition. Japan knowing it lacked several key resources were forced to look at other locations for their natural resources. This combined with the fact that the US froze all Japanese assets in the US and encouraged western nations to stop trading with Japan. This was an American response to the Japanese war of aggression.

So what’s so important about Singapore? Well first off it’s the most important British colony in the region. It was important naval wise for the British as it allied them to cover the South China Sea and be able to cover part of the Indian Ocean. Neutralizing this forces the Royal Navy to have to operate from a more southern position such as Australia.

Borneo and the islands of Malaysia were the most important locations to hold. But they’d all be pointless if the Japanese couldn’t protect resources coming from this region. So Singapore was in one of the most perfect spots to be able to protect shipping interest from this southern area up the coast of China.

But Singapore also stood as one of the most important British run areas in the world. Much like how America was involved in Manila in the Philippines, Singapore operated more as a western city than an Asian one, and it held a massive cultural value to the British. It actually held such a value in the western world that when it was captured, Hitler even had mixed opinions on it and refused to congratulate Japan.

So together with being a major British hub, they also protected Japanese shipping in the area. But this was early war and soon Singapore stopped being an important base.

First off the war shifted focus away from this region of the pacific as the most important actions were taking place in the Solomon Islands and eventually the central pacific. As I said, taking Singapore forced the Royal Navy south and the Allies operated far from Singapore. Singapore was important still as it was a key position to block any ships coming from India. But these ships could simply go south and avoid Singapore.

Also, Singapore’s position started to matter less and less as the war went on. First off, the allies soon retook the Philippines and this was in a prime spot to block Japanese shipping. They could just simply wait for ships to leave the region and enter an area where they could be more easily attacked. Also, American submarines were very good and Singapore’s positioning did little to stop them. Half of the Japanese merchant fleet was sunk by submarines and 30% of all Japanese ships were sunk by submarines, so Singapore was not so important as it was thought it would be.

So overall Singapore mattered more in the early war rather than the later war. It’s strategic position to the southern resource area and it’s importance to British naval strategy were key reasons to take it. But eventually the war shifted away from this part of the pacific. And Singapore proved to not be as effective in stopping allied submarines and anti shipping aircraft as once thought. But that being said, if the war dragged on Singapore was likely to become extremely important once again. The allied armies in India were looking to retake it and “right the wrong” and avenge the defeat they suffered years earlier. If this was to happen then the Japanese would have likely fought tooth and nail for the city and another battle of Manila would have likely occurred where the Japanese would loot and destroy the city with the arrival of allied armies. If the Allies did recapture it, they’d also be in a key spot to retake the southern resource area and this would have tremendously hurt Japan, not that they were even feeling the success of capturing these from US and other allied subs.

My chief source was “WW2 at sea” by Craig Symonds.