Sunday, June 1, 2008

Changi Prison Museum: Lest We Forget



It was a phrase used by the Australian and New Zealand (ANZAC) as a remembrance to the soldiers who were felled during the war, and there were truly many brave fighters who took on the Japanese during World War II.

The British, Australians, New Zealanders, Chinese, Indians, Malays and Eurasians all fought side by side but was no match to the Imperial Japanese troops. Singapore fell on 14 February 1942.

The pain has not totally healed for these defeated soldiers, but many still come to this Museum to seek solace. It was a useless war that brought pain and suffering to all parties involved in this episode of life. Many lives were lost in this prison, and from here, many were sent to meet their deaths while building the Death Railway in Burma.

Though located in Changi - East of Singapore - it is still a museum worth visiting if you want to understand the hardship of what the 1942 populace had gone through during the Japanese Occupation.

My paternal grandad, being educated in English, was executed as he was a civil servant and was deemed to be in collaboration with the British. While my maternal grandad escaped the Japanese tyranny by hiding in a drain and only returning home after three days. He then made peak caps for the Japanese just to get that little bit of food supply to keep the family from starving.

More than 60 years have past and all of my grandparents have passed on, and this little museum holds the history to that era of suffering. Lest We Forget.


Address:
1000, Upper Changi Road North, Singapore 507707

Operating Hours:
9:30am - 5:00pm daily; last admission at 4.30pm

Admission: Free

Website:
http://www.changimuseum.com/Home.aspx

For direction, please visit http://www.changimuseum.com/contact.htm

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