Shōnantō (Central World)

Singapore is a multi-ethnic country, composed principally of people of Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Japanese origin. With a substantial economy in place for decades, especially since full independence from Japan in 1991, it has enjoyed one of the highest economic growth rates in the world, and is on track to be a "developed" nation by the year 2020.

History
The modern history of Singapore started when it was colonized by the British in 1819. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles is known as the historic founder of the settlement, as he started the process of turning it into a major international trading post and major strategic port of the British Empire.

In 1942, Japan invaded Singapore via Malaya. By the end of WW2, Singapore was firmly under Japanese control. Known in Japan as Shōnantō (after the Shōwa Emperor at the time), Singapore became a profitable harbor for international trade.

During Singapore's nearly five decades under Japanese control, laws were put in place to divide and conquer. When the Japanese had landed, the Singaporeans were still firm supporters of the departed British. Most Chinese had also supported China's defense against Japanese aggression. Especially due to their brutal treatment under the Japanese, they did not see the occupation as any sort of "Asian liberation" from Western imperialism. But the Japanese propaganda machine churned out anti-Western rhetoric and tore down and melted the statue of Raffles that had stood in front of Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall. In addition, the Japanese turned their attention to the Chinese - their mortal enemies. Any of those who had shown support or sympathy towards either Britain or China were locked up and sometimes killed. A new language law went into effect, making written Chinese (besides that found within the Japanese language) illegal. Instead, Japanese letters, or "kana", were used - much like they were in Taiwan (though there alongside Chinese). This law was to split up the Chinese community. At the time, Chinese spoke different languages such as Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, and Hakka. These languages are not mutually-intelligible (though Hokkien and Teochew are close relatives). Chinese characters brought these languages together into the realm of mutual-intelligibility, but phonetic writing rendered them alien to each other, which is exactly what the Japanese tried. This was a short-term plan, as eventually, everyone was supposed to learn Japanese and use it as their main language. Over time, Chinese communities drifted apart and then more and more learned Japanese and Malay. The Malay language was left undisturbed (though Japanese was originally supposed to take over as the medium in schools but never did). The Tamil language, like Chinese, was also outlawed, and the Indian community were supposed to learn either Malay or Japanese, too. Of course, English - the former lingua-franca - was also not tolerated. Because of these changes, Malay became the dominant language in Singapore, with many bilingual in Japanese.

Under Japanese rule, Singapore flourished as an economic center, but started to decay culturally. Furthermore, many profits went back to Japan Proper, and very little of it went to the locals. Crime increased and riots broke out every few years.

After Hirohito, the Shōwa Emperor, died in 1989, Japan loosened its iron grip on many of its colonies, and this allowed the Malay and Singaporean independence movements to quickly come to the fore. Successful protesting led to a promise of independence from Japan. Independence was achieved on August 9th, 1993. Ruled as a separate colony from Malaya for such a long time, Singapore saw itself as being able to exist alone. Still, low-level talks with Malaya are ongoing about a possible merge into some sort of union, though one in which each state would enjoy general autonomy. So far, no progress has been made on this front, however.