ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book focuses on the cultural politics associated with how memories of the war have been reconstructed through memoryscapes as an active binding force of group identity. The creation of war memoryscapes and associated paraphernalia clearly marks Singapore's turn towards its past as a tool to maintain its nationhood. At each memoryscape, the key war narratives have been 'nationalised' to underscore common bonds, forge ties with territory and, in the words of Lee Boon Yang, then Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts, help visitors 'appreciate and understand the heroism, hardships and sacrifices of those who had to live through this painful period of peope history'. Indeed, in Singapore, the foundations are already present to advance a trajectory and tradition of national and transnational cooperation between the state and other memory entrepreneurs, both within and beyond the country.
