Perspectives from the Japanese Community From the Lim Shao Bin Collection in the National Library, Singapore

This evocative collection of more than 150 picture postcards offers a fascinating insight into Japanese society in Singapore in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Used as souvenirs and a vehicle for advertisements and personal correspondence, and even propaganda, postcards have taken on many roles throughout Singapore’s history, making them unique and valuable sources of documentation. Based on the Lim Shao Bin Collection of Japanese historical materials at the National Library Singapore, this important study illuminates new historical perspectives on the Japanese community as well as related subjects like tourism, war and empire in pre-World War II Singapore.

Regina Hong graduated with a BA History (magna cum laude) from Yale-NUS College, Singapore in 2017. Her research work has been published in the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and she is currently pursuing her Master of Arts in Digital Humanities at Loyola University Chicago. Ling Xi Min graduated with a BA History (magna cum laude) from Yale-NUS College, Singapore in 2017. He was recipient of the Best History Capstone Prize for his dissertation on Japanese military memoirs. He is currently a student at the Master of Arts Programme in Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. Naoko Shimazu is Professor of Humanities (History), Associate Dean of Faculty at Yale-NUS College, and Professor at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. She specialises in the cultural history of diplomacy, focusing on the Bandung Conference of 1955.