One of the arguments historians make about why their subject matters is that with the passage of time, deeper and more profound causes and consequences of events stand out more clearly, and can be more critically engaged. Imagine standing nose right against a large painting, then step back five steps and look at it again – or so the claim goes. This is not hindsight. It is suggesting that some things just cannot be seen or understood at the time, for many reasons, but over time they emerge. Well, how much time? 80 years? A lifetime. Is that enough? From our vantage point 80 years on, what can we now see was the impact of the Japanese conquest of Singapore in February 1942? Is it still 'the worst disaster'? Or something else? This talk will consider those questions.