The eminent historian, Wang Gungwu, noted that in most contemporary Southeast Asian countries, historians are obliged to “contribute to nation-building efforts by writing national history.” Military history and those who write it are no different. The Southeast Asian experience of World War II (WWII) marked by the defeat of Western colonial powers at the hands of Japan “served as both a catalyst and an inspiration to Southeast Asian nationalist movements.” In much of post-war Southeast Asia, the central role played by militaries in the struggle for independence such as the Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI) in Indonesia earned the armed forces a place in the nation-building narrative. In the case of Vietnam, the narrative of armed resistance pre-dates the founding of modern nationstates in Asia. Vietnamese nationalism draws from a common strand of armed resistance from ancient times to the modern era—that dates from its resistance to Chinese domination from the Han Dynasty, French rule from the 19th century and American intervention during the Cold War. Unlike Vietnam, Singapore does not have the luxury of a usable pre-modern, pre-colonial military past. Neither can Singapore invoke the martial spirit of an anti-colonial revolutionary past like Indonesia. In the absence of a war of armed resistance to colonial authority, it is perhaps understandable that in order for Singapore to construct its military history, drawing upon its involvement in British colonial rule is a convenient starting point.