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Published: August 16th 2005
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One of the Changi Murals
A very fitting one for the situation? I went to Changi prison museum and chapel today before going to the airport.
The tour that I had was very touching, thought-provoking and of course, saddening.
I'd read a lot of Changi, such as The Diary of A Girl in Changi, and other books from Australian men held there. Awful stories of 10,000 Aussie guys in a prison area built for 1,000.
I'm getting more and more of a rounded view on the war, now having been to Hiroshima twice, Okinawa, the Battle Box and Changi Prison here, Nanjing (Nanking), the Australian War Memorial and other small sites and memorials of significance, where you can learn something of it all. I've been to history class in German High Schools I went to and have spoken to various Japanese and Chinese people about the war while living there.
Still, I know nothing of it. I freely admit that to anyone reading this. I know nothing of the real suffering and the loss. This is just a short account of a tour around the museum and chapel area. The same goes for my earlier entry on the Battle Box.
The chapel was actually taken back to the
Changi Chapel
Reproduction - original now at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra War Memorial in Canberra. The chapel I went to today was a replica - built for visitors to Changi, upset that the Aussies had taken the chapel. There is only a cross, made by a UK man, that is still original. The chaplain at the time of the Japanese surrender said that if the Aussies could take the chapel they had made, then the cross should be in the hands of the UK. And it DID go to England, but was taken back to where they thought it belonged.
Many people turn to religion in time of need, and the chapel was a very central part of the prison complex. The Japan didn't interfere with anything there, so it was not only a place of prayer but also a place of general conversation between POWs as they were not allowed to appear in groups in front of the Japanese.
There is other information on other chapels in the grounds also.
You can see and learn a lot from the journals and the drawings and paintings of the POWs and many hang from the walls.
Journals and such things are available for sale there and they hope
The UK man's cross
Made from some kind of weapon casing he found and snuck back, during clean up detail in town you will purchase something, as the money from the shop goes to keeping the museum open to the public and for improvements.
There is, for example, the book that was written for children in the camp one Christmas, to cheer them up. The Japanese had okayed present making, but a character in the book was named Winston and the Japanese became suspicious. They thought the book may hold some secret messages. They were confiscating it when the POWs managed to bury it. It was dug up later after they had their freedom, and returned to the author. Now, "The Happiness Box" is available to give to OUR children, to cheer them up or teach them about happiness. I read it for the first time a few days ago, and its a great book, with two great stories - in and about it.
The guide gave us great explanations on everything, right down to individual soties, especially of people he had met while as a guide - POWs coming back to visit and pray for those that didn't make it. He told us how they made their shoes - they had to pee on the material to make rubber
Grass
Food. The doctors held there were told to heal the sick, without medicine. They found this grass has a great deal of good stuff in it, and told the others to crush it up and drink it. (Some that were greedy and drank more than their fair share ended up with permanently black teeth.) - and how necessary such things were. POWs were not allowed to have any medicine, so simple cuts on their feet could be their ruin.
We did not see anything of the Changi quilts, which I have been able to see before, luckily. We DID see the replicas of the Changi murals though. The painter of them was recovering in a hospital area of the prison, with a chapel right nearby, where he could hear prayers and hymns. He made a 'pact' with God - let him survive these awful things happening, and he would paint beautiful murals around the hospital/chapel to help spread the word of God. Well, he did get better, and he did build the murals.
The Japanese later took the building as an administration building and knocked down 3/4 of one of the murals and painted over the others. The painter, before he died recently, agreed to come back to Singapore and help with the restoration. It was painful to come back, for many reasons, but including the memories of the operation that saved him -- without anaesthetic! He came back and helped them restore the originals, and locals also then did the replicas that I saw today at the museum. The original, restored paintings can not be seen, as the Singapore servicepeople use that area of the prison at the moment.
The guide gave us a pretty good rundown on what happened:
- when the Japanese began taking small parts of Asia
- when the Japanese came on side in WW1
- how the Japanese took many other areas of Asia
- and how intelligence problems cost Malaya and Singapore their countries
- he went right through the discussions with Thailand, taking Malaysia with ease and how attacking Singapore from the right place ensured Singapore must surrender
- he went through some of what I heard at the Battle Box, of Percival's surrender
- then onto the 3 years of hell
- and then Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the surrender of the Japanese
We saw a lot of awful things. Things like:
Photos of rows of Chinese people being gunned down and then bayonetted to be sure they were dead.
Articles such as the "lap lap" that men wore when their clothes were completely worn out.
Photos of men wasting away.
Photos of men working on the "death railway" Thailand to Burma.
Anecdotes from all sorts of people involved - Australians, English, Chinese, Singaporean, even Japanese about what they had to do, and lots more.
Photos of comfort women, looking very young and scared.
Both photos and anecdotes of the torture at the hands of the Kenpentai!! - people tortured for months, tortured in front of family members, bound to ants nests, decapitated... lots of hideous things. If you were caught listening to the radio for example, they would put a pencil in each of your ears and smash them together.
I'm plenty teary just writing this now, so I'm going to leave it at that.
Wishing for a peaceful future, .....Rachael.
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terri
non-member comment
hi punken
how the hell do u manage to write so much while also DOING the travel ?? .. i bow down to you ... u r amazing .. i cant wait to see u again .. plaudits here .. MUCHO RESPECTO ..