没有任何怨恨的问题，""英国人在政府和社会中的优越地位只是生活中的一个事实

 

在李光耀出生的时候，新加坡也已经成为英国在亚洲军事战略的基石。

英国自1902年以来一直是日本的盟友，甚至在1915年调用日本海军陆战队帮助镇压新加坡的印度军队叛变。 [但到了1921年，海军部对日本日益增长的实力感到焦虑，决心在新加坡建立一个实质性的海军基地，目的是将其变成 "东方的直布罗陀"。

 尽管日本崛起，但在李光耀童年的世界里，大英帝国似乎是不可战胜的，也是永恒的。

他几十年后回忆说：

”没有任何怨恨的问题，""英国人在政府和社会中的优越地位只是生活中的一个事实"。

 

By the time of 李光耀’s birth, Singapore had also become a cornerstone of British military strategy in Asia. Britain had been an ally of Japan since 1902, going so far as to call in Japanese marines to help crush an Indian army mutiny in Singapore in 1915.[18]

But by 1921, the Admiralty had become anxious about Japan’s growing power and resolved to build a substantial naval base in Singapore, with the aim of turning it into ‘the Gibraltar of the East’.[19]

Despite the rise of Japan, the world of 李光耀’s childhood was one in which the British Empire appeared both invincible and eternal. ‘There was no question of any resentment,’ he recalled decades later; ‘the superior status of the British in government and society was simply a fact of life.’[20]