Holidays Part II (Singapore WWII tour)

Life is good. I just spoke to my good Scottish friend Ruth on the phone, which has inspired me to put on my Scottish bagpipe cd and sit and write my blog. Obviously Tris isn't here, or my bagpipe cd would not be on....he's gone on a day trip to the coast. He and Bruce Comrie and another fellow teacher have gone surfing for the day, possibly into tomorrow. The kids are upstairs asleep (after 9 in the morning! We are now in the 'teen stage' of life) and so it's just me, my music, my Epicure chai tea and the computer. Oh, and the cicaks running across the floor.

For my last post, I skipped the first leg of our Bali journey and went straight to my favourite part of the trip, Lombongan Island. Here is a rundown of the first part of our trip, which actually started with me heading to Singapore on my 39th birthday. I went with Judy Comrie and a bunch of grade 12 grads. When we got there we did a WWII tour of Singapore, mostly just highlights but I'd like to go again and do it even more thoroughly next time.

Our first stop was a POW cemetary called Krangi Cemetary. It's where the Japanese gave permission to the POWs to bury their dead. There are also over 24 000 names written there to remember the unfound dead. There were names from Canada, Scotland, South Africa, India (so many names from India...), Australia, Britain and so on. These men and women were Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu and probably some unnamed religions. Being a Canadian, I have grown up so far from the tangible results of war. I have seen a small plot in cemetaries set aside for veterans who have passed away; I attend Rememberance Day services faithfully, cried even (partially because of the bagpipes at these services), yet have no idea what these men and women experienced. Being at Krangi made me appreciate even greater things like freedom of speech, freedom to worship, and the right to vote. There were a few things that really stood out to both Judy and I, and they were that there is an incredible respect in Singapore for the WWII dead. The cemetary is immaculate and very well-tended, even 60 years later. It is obvious that families in years after the war were able to come in and identify their family members. In doing so they were able to leave words to their loved ones on the white identity cross. One in particular caught me and made me cry. It was simple, but the family had written "He died that we might live. My son, my son." That particular lament, out of all the hundreds there, really hit me. One final observation was that most of the men (and a few women) were younger when they died than I am right now. I have outlived most of the lives represented in that cemetary. This kind of reflection always makes me think "what is it that I am doing with my life that will leave my mark on this world?"

Our second stop was to the Changi Chapel, which is a museum dedicated to the memory of the people who survived and those who died in the Changi camp. It wasn't a POW camp; in fact, it was more like a camp that, if there ever was a war here in Indo, my family would be put into. It held men in one area and women and children in another. If you've ever read James Clavell's "King Rat" this is the camp he is writing about (actually, he writes of the POW camp nearby that housed up to 50 000 people, but over time the name Changi has become synonymous to both). If you haven't read it, I recommend it to those who want insight into this kind of forced life. James Clavell was a survivor of this camp. When Singapore surrendered to the Japanese, all ex-pat civilians who remained in Singapore were put into these camps and held there for 3 years, until the end of WWII. The area used was originally built by the British to house 600 prisoners (pre-war prisoners) and ended up housing up to 3000. When boys turned 12 years old they were sent from their mom's prison camp over to the mens' side. I have a feeling most of these boys never saw their moms again.

I was such a geek going through all of these memorials. I had my camera at my side (which I was unable to use in the Changi museum) and my pen and notebook in hand. When I look at my reflections, I think that what most impacted me was the loss of lives and the brutality of the Japanese. Food was beyond scarce and forced labour was the norm. Many of the men in this particular camp were sent to even worse places where they were made to work until they died. There is a movie called Bridge over the River Kwai that is a popular Hollywood version of the building of the Burmese Railway. In the building of this "death railway," if I remember correctly, over 80 000 civilians like those taken from Changi camp died as forced labourers {aside: I've read other books on this event and the Hollywood movie version isn't all that correct...but it's still a good story}. If you are interested in the Southeast Asian side of WWII, these are some good names to Google.

Finally, we ended our tour at the Battle Box, where some of the ally bigwigs conferenced and finally decided to surrender Singapore to Japan. This particular military location was built as a bunker, into a hill. It was all underground and well-hidden. It was pretty awesome to be in "THE" room where it all happened. There were some incredibly life-like wax figures that sat around the conference table, where a re-enactment of the final decision-making occurred. Our small gang of students was quite impressed by the display, as were both Judy and I.

Hindsight is interesting. Imagine if Singapore didn't surrender to the Japanese. Would thousands of lives have been lost? What we learned during the tour is that although Singapore was in difficult times during the Japanese attack (they've always had to import their food and even water supply), they could have held off the Japanese. The Japanese General later admitted that the Japanese invastion of Singapore was a bluff; the number of Japanese soldiers to British was 1:3, and Japanese weaponry was low. If only the allies had called their bluff, who knows what turn the course of history would have taken?

I am going to let you in on a little secret. I know I said Lombongan Island was my favourite part of the trip, but honestly, I so thoroughly enjoyed this day in Singapore that it may tie with Lombongan. I am excited to one day take my family back to Singapore and do the total tourist thing: climb into a bus, camera around my neck, water bottle at my side, and pen and paper in hand, touring all the historical WWII sites within Singapore. I did that partially, but I'm looking forward to doing it all.

Thanks for reading.