Memorial Day, originally Decoration Day, is a civil holiday originating during and after the War Between the States. Its purpose is to honor those who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. The first known tomb which to have been officially honored was in Virginia where the first Civil War soldier’s grave was decorated. The soldier’s name was John Quincy Marr, who died on June 1, 1861. More soldiers’ graves were decorated a few years later in Jackson, Mississippi, Richmond, Virginia, and other towns until the first formal proclamation in 1868.
Most names are unknown to us today, unless we have family, friends, or loved ones who have died in United States wars over the past one hundred and sixty years or so.
This post remembers a selfless soldier named Euripides Rubio, born on March 1, 1938, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. I am taking the information verbatim from Chapter 17 of the book, Pay to the Order of Puerto Rico, by Alexander Odishelidze and Arthur Laffer.
“Captain Rubio was attached to the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry of the U.S. Army. He had entered service at Fort Buchanan in Puerto Rico. He was serving as his unit’s communications officer when it came under fire from the Viet Cong. Capt. Rubio and his fellow soldiers were badly outnumbered. The communist forces raked the American position with machine gun fire and launched mortar rounds and rifle grenades into the midst of the Americans.
“Had he remained where he was, Capt. Rubio might have been safe. Instead, he left his position and moved to the area where the firing was the most intense, distributing ammunition, tending to the wounded, and helping re-position the Army defenders. By exposing himself this way, he was wounded twice, but he kept on. When one of the battalion’s rifle company commanders was wounded and evacuated, Capt. Rubio quickly took command. Moving among his men to rally their spirits in the face of the devastating Viet Cong fusillade, he was wounded a third time.
“When more men were wounded, Capt. Rubio attended to them. [Then] he noticed something that put the company in danger of drawing friendly fire. A smoke grenade that had been dropped to mark the position of the Viet Cong for U.S. air strikes had fallen dangerously close to the American and Republic of Viet Nam lines. Rubio rushed to grab the smoke grenade and reposition it to safeguard his countrymen and our allies, when enemy fire drove him to his knees. Somehow, undeterred, he scooped up the grenade, ‘ran through the deadly hail of fire to within 20 meters of the enemy position,’ as the citation reads, and hurled the smoking grenade into the midst of the Viet Cong before collapsing for the final time.
“Using the grenade to target their attacks, allied air strikes were directed to destroy the Viet Cong forces and end their assault. As the citation further reads, “Capt. Rubio’s singularly heroic act turned the tide of battle, and his extraordinary leadership and valor were a magnificent inspiration to his men. His remarkable bravery and selfless concern for his men are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on Capt. Rubio and the U.S. Army.’
“Capt. Euripides Rubio died on November 8, 1966. He is one of four Puerto Ricans who have won the Congressional Medal of Honor. All four were killed in action.”
Over the years I’ve posted events or issues of immediate concern regarding Venezuela. My lack of ongoing follow-ups on those is simply due to the nature of this blog, which is not current events or news, but rather more of an interest in lesser known background and historical material.
Nevertheless, every once in a while, it is good to update certain matters raised in past posts.
This post’s title covers the essence: “Venezuelan Navy Captain Dies After Signs of Torture”. His autopsy revealed 38 torture related injuries. To this day, no one has been prosecuted for this atrocity. And that is one reason why such abominations have persisted. The latest that we know of is the case of Rocío San Miguel who in February of this year was arrested in Maiquetía, the international airport which serves Caracas, as she and her daughter were about to board a plane for a short trip to Miami. She has become one of the many “forced disappearances” in that stricken land. Last we know is that she has been charged for terrorism and conspiracy (seems that such charges are favorites of an entrenched ruling class) and is now in the Helicoide, a notorious detention center known for the brutality of its caretakers. In short, the brazen illegal and immoral treatment of the Navy captain has become a portent of worse events thereafter.
As a side note, the Helicoide was almost completed during the presidency of Marcos Pérez Jiménez. However, the army-led coup put off the completion for decades as the structure originally intended as a futuristic shopping mall with drive-in boutiques — with all spaces pre-sold, providing sufficient financing for its construction — became a state-owned torture chamber.
The situation has worsened but at least its reality is better known than the inhumane treatment of citizens who have fallen into the clutches of the Communist dictatorship. It is very unfortunate that many who have crossed the Darien Gap and reached our borders do not mean us well. Unfortunate because many more do mean us well and are simply grateful to have been able to escape Venezuela.
It is difficult for us to appreciate the difficulty — physically and psychologically — of many thousands good folks who escape. Venezuelans are similar to Russians in this regard. They do not see themselves ever leaving their land. The pull is just too strong. They are like Dr. Zhivago: “He’ll never leave, [no matter how disastrously he has been treated].” However, the situation has become so unbearable that many have indeed taken the fateful step to go. I know one head of family who always told me, “I will never leave. No reason to do so.” He is now in another country along with his wife and children. There comes a time when one must take steps previously inconceivable.
Venezuela is headed to presidential elections on July 28 of this year (2024). However, shameless attempts to game the results since the early 21st Century have left the Venezuelan people worse than jaded. They “know” elections mean nothing in their country.
Nevertheless, there is palpable excitement this year and the hope is that the results will be so overwhelming for the opposition that the usual shenanigans won’t succeed. Many, however, are not so sanguine. Since the early 2000s the regime has muscled through ultracrepidarian power plays which have placed the counting of the votes in their own hands. Stalin was known to have said: “I consider it completely unimportant who will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how (cited by his former secretary, Boris Bazhanov).”
I believe Venezuelans will vote this year, even if the opposition candidate lands in the Helicoide. But we will have to wait and see how the vote counting goes.
The war drums on the part of the Venezuela ruling class against the people of Guyana has not receded. However, the silence on this issue on the part of western media is deafening. The issue is alive and threatening, right in our own back yard, while we are invited to “Look! A squirrel!” towards Ukraine and the Middle East.
Throughout history all self-described Socialist regimes have promoted wars, not only against their own peoples but against other countries. Venezuela is no exception.
In addition, as is well-known, in the last two or three years the United States strategic oil reserves have been depleted to an unheard of level. Should there be oil disruptions because of a Venezuela – Guyana conflict coupled with Middle Eastern uncertainty (Saudi Arabia’s king has been hospitalized), we could experience disruptions not seen in many years.
When we pray for our friends in Venezuela, we also pray for ourselves in the United States.
In 2019, economist Steve Hanke published a short video on X (formerly Twitter) that is still relevant today. True, Chile has since again succumbed to the Socialist siren call but not to Venezuela’s degree.
Here is the Hanke video, which is worth another look:
This is the last of three posts on my recollections of visits to Singapore a decade, and more, ago. This last post shares my amateurish attempts to explain the “why” of Singapore. I’ve not given this much thought ever since returning from Asia years ago, but my notes remind me of my puzzlement in seeking to unlock the key(s) to Singapore’s unique success.
The usual platitudes did not do anything for me: tolerance, multiculturalism, strict enforcement of laws, educational excellence, and more. All those characteristics can be found across the world and throughout history; they come and go. And, for all we know, they could also go from Singapore.
What is (or was) the ground from which sprung such invigorating and nourishing fruit?
Attraction
If I had before me the offer of an all-expenses-paid visit to one place in the world, other than the United States and its territories, I’d be hard pressed to choose between England and Spain. As much as I like and am attracted to Singapore, my paternal and maternal roots are in England and Spain and I am ever-drawn to them, despite their decline and forsaking of their own histories.
My attraction to Singapore obviously lies in my childhood where I thrived in the Venezuelan tropical jungles, shorelines, and rivers. Singapore evokes memories that mesmerize me in ways that are difficult to express, let alone explain. And, yet, it is not so much the geography that pulls me to my parental roots; it is the history, the culture, the religion, the home. I am sure the reader understands, whether he grew up in a tropical jungle or in the Alaskan tundra.
So when I was in Singapore, I often thought of Venezuela. Very counterintuitive, I know. About the only thing the two countries have in common is the tropical setting — and not all of Venezuela is tropical!
But I grew up in the tropics and Singapore elicited thoughts of childhood from me.
Culture
Henry Van Til, the early Twentieth Century theologian, famously said, “Culture is religion externalized”. With that frame of reference I sought to better understand as I reflected on my visits to Singapore.
Singapore’s ancient history does not help us much here. Although academics differ and debate the particulars, they generally agree that in the 14th Century Singapore was a trading port known as Temasek and under the influence of Greater India but also China. However, wars and banditry eventually depopulated the island and not much is known about these dark ages.
Sir Stamford Raffles saw the strategic importance of Singapore’s location and secured control thereof in 1819. This portentous event was not applauded by the British at the time as Raffles’s initiative brought England close to war with the Dutch, who claimed the island as within their sphere of influence.
The dispute was resolved and war avoided by the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 wherein England ceded certain areas to the Dutch and vice versa. Singapore became a wealthy free port for trade between Europe and Asia.
A few data about Sir Raffles illustrates the kind of men who walked the earth at that time. He was born on a ship off the coast of Jamaica (the British were everywhere) in 1781. He was a visionary to whom we owe the founding of modern Singapore as a “free port” in 1819. He had great opposition and died in 1826, the day before his 45th birthday. Some say he would have remained unappreciated were it not for his faithful wife who, long after his death, worked hard to make his work known and to correct the slander and calumnies that had been hurled against him. Today Singapore honors him with street names like Raffles Avenue and Raffles Boulevard. There is also a Stamford street somewhere, not to mention the colonial Raffles Hotel.
The 19th Century was England’s world empire era when the sun never set for her. A seldom reported corollary to that era was the Christian missionary activity that followed the empire throughout the earth, including Singapore, which remained an English colony from 1819 to the 1950s.
Raffles established schools and churches in the native languages and opened the doors to missionaries. He abolished forced labor and slavery and although he did not impose English as the native language, over time that did become in effect the prevalent business language of Singapore. Another “English” characteristic is its traffic: to this day cars are driven on the left.
Finally, Raffles respected and provided for religious freedom, which also permitted Christian schools to be founded throughout that part of the world, including Singapore.
By the time of his death, Singapore had flourished greatly on British principles, most significantly, “a specific regulation in the constitution called for the multi-ethnic population to remain as they were; and no crimes were entirely based on racial principles.” A crime was defined as a criminal act, not as something one believed or professed.
So Singapore’s culture, although decidedly multi-ethnic, would not have developed that way without genuine Christian tolerance which has persisted well into the modern era.
Today
Although there are many churches in Singapore as well as other places of worship, most would describe the island as pluralistic and secular. Lee Kuan Yew, was the first and longest serving prime minister of Singapore (1959-1990), then Senior Minister (1990-2004), then Minister Mentor (2004-2011).
After barely surviving the Japanese occupation, Lee was educated in Singapore and in England and gained a reputation as a “left-wing” troublemaker. He distrusted the British because of their failure to defend Singapore against the Japanese conquest. However, in the aftermath of left-wing riots and Communist betrayals, he also turned against the Left for the rest of his life.
I would describe Lee as extremely pragmatic, which led him to avoid throwing out the practical and worthwhile colonial heritage with the colonial bathwater. Under his leadership, Singapore became one of the “Asian Tigers” and still boasts one of the highest per capita incomes in the world.
In a sense, Singapore reflects much of Lee’s cultural and philosophic makeup: pragmatic, practical, and secular. This is true despite a growing but still small Christian community.
Some of its major laws proceed from the Christian heritage. For example, divorce requires grounds — there is no “no fault divorce” in Singapore (although there have been and are efforts to change that). As for care for the elderly, children are required to care for their parents when the need arises. Ironically, based on my limited conversations with Singaporeans, I don’t think they “need” such a law, as the family is very strong. Thus far.
But secularization is also very strong and, in the West, such has always worked to obscure if not erase the Christian heritage. For example, in several photos from the early 20th Century, the caption referred to “Western Women”. They were actually Christian missionaries. Yes, they were “Western”; however, the caption did not accurately portray who they were in reality and the labors they wrought in Singapore. Such dishonesty prevails in much of the West today.
When one visits the Chijmes, one sees a shopping mall; however, it was once a convent which for decades would accept baby girls brought there by Chinese mothers who were being pressured to either abort or abandon them. These mothers knew that the Christian missionaries would care for their infant daughters and give them a chance in life. This history, although very real, is hidden today.
The Fullerton properties belong to a company founded by Ng Teng Fong (1928-2010). A plaque in the Fullerton Building quotes his favorite Bible verse: “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23:6)”. At the time of his death, he was the richest man in Singapore. Yet he was known as a humble man who did much for his town.
“He went on to develop innovative homes, build the first shopping malls in Orchard Road, and pioneer the development of vibrant waterfront retail and commercial centre en Tsim Sha Tsui East, Hong Kong. [His companies] have built more than 1,000 developments in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, and Malaysia, attesting to the entrepreneurial energy and vision of our founder. To God be the Glory.”
“He considered himself to be an ‘ordinary working man’ with a dream to satisfy a desire for homes among Singaporeans.” He was the eldest of 11 children. He and his wife had 8 children, very much “against the grain” in modern Singapore which for a time had a “2 is enough” public campaign.
Conclusion
Much more can be written about Singapore, including stories of incredible courage, heroism, and fidelity during the Japanese occupation. Also, the accomplishments of men such as Sir Thomas Raffles, Lee Kuan Yew, Ng Teng Fong, not to mention heroic nurses and soldiers during the Japanese occupation can keep one engrossed for hours and days.
I wish all the best for that beautiful city and island state. However, if she forgets or neglects or otherwise does not acknowledge the heritage that produced her success, she will see that her success will become as dust and ashes. I do not wish that for her; quite the contrary. So I do hope her sons and daughters are encouraged to learn that heritage and to keep it alive.
Boat Quay, circa 1900
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826). He was not only a great visionary, he also loved the peoples of Southeast Asia
Lee Kwan Yew (1923-2015) — First and also longest serving prime minister of Singapore
The Fullerton Hotel, which used to be the Singapore Post Office.
View of the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. One of countless striking views of modern Singapore
I had originally expected to post twice from notes I took about a decade or so ago during or shortly after my visits to Singapore. However, having found more notes than I recalled having written and seeing that they contain history that is relevant but not well known, I will be posting a few more items on Singapore.
My notes do not pretend to be scholarly from a historical, sociological, or any other “expert” perspective; they were written by a layman who appreciates the subject and believes it to be worth remembering and pondering.
While working in Saudi Arabia, I had the honor and privilege of meeting the Singaporean ambassador stationed there at the time. He and his wife were very gracious to me and were intrigued to hear how all my narratives centered around the historical sites and the stories thereof and some of my encounters there. They appreciated that my interests were similar to theirs.
He said, “It is unusual for visitors to care much about these matters.” To which I replied, “And that is unfortunate, isn’t it.” He agreed.
His grandfather was Scotch and had died in the prison camps. His father survived and so did his house. But the roof had damage from Japanese shelling. As a late adolescent, he asked his father why he had never gotten around to repairing the roof. “Because I don’t want to ever forget what happened,” was the terse reply.
The ambassador told me about the visit by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the Kranji War Memorial and Cemetery in 1985. He was a young member of the diplomatic corps at the time and he formed part of the delegation accompanying Mrs. Thatcher. He told me what impressed him was that most visitors of state just go to the memorial in the center of the place. Mrs. Thatcher did that, of course. But then she began to walk all around the cemetery, pausing long before the many tombstones, many with crosses engraved therein, and reading names and dates of birth and dates of death, and sometimes commenting, “He was only 18,” or “He was 22,” etc.
He asked me if I had also walked around. I told him I had indeed, and that I was deeply moved.
Then he offered to lend me his books. I requested Thompson’s The Battle For Singapore, because I was about to buy that one during my last trip there, but had hesitated and lost the opportunity. He lent it to me [a year later, I bought my own copy after returning to Texas].
The Kranji Memorial (also known as The Singapore Memorial) has over 24,000 names of Allied men and women inscribed on its walls. They memorialize those for whom no remains or graves could be identified, plus those killed in Malaya, where their bodies remained.
British, Australian, Indian, Chinese, Sri Lankan, Netherland, and New Zealand soldiers, marines, airmen, nurses, and more are buried or memorialized here, as are those who were killed in the Singapore Hospital in the early days of the Japanese occupation. Over 400 of these latter are memorialized in a mass grave.
The courage of the men and women during those terrible days is exemplified by the actions of nurses who were evacuated shortly before the British surrender. This is excerpted from The Battle for Singapore.
“One of the surgeons, Colonel Thomas Hamilton, waved goodbye to the remaining nurses who were leaving…that day in HMS Vyner Brooke. None of them had wanted to go. ‘Smiling wistfully, they fluttered tiny handkerchiefs to us from the open doors of the ambulances as orderlies and doctors lined the drive to cheer them on their way,’ he says. …. From the hospital lawn that night he watched the Vyner Brooke, an ugly little coastal freighter, sail out of the harbor against the backdrop of a vivid scarlet sunset.”
[The captain managed to elude the Japanese for a couple days, but on the 14th of February his ship was spotted by 6 Japanese planes. The ship was bombed and machine-gunned despite displaying the red cross of a hospital ship. On one machine-gun run, the nurses ran to the deck and threw themselves over the wounded soldiers who could not move. All survivors had to abandon ship. Vivian Bullwinkle, 26-years old, from South Australia, kept a diary from which Mr. Thompson gleaned some of his descriptions.]
[A great uncle, brother of my grandfather, was a medic whose hospital ship was strafed and sunk, along with hundreds of wounded soldiers and a score of nurses off the Philippines in 1942 — RMB]
[Matron Drummond was another survivor, who had been wounded, but helped ashore. The survivors were joined the next day by 20 British soldiers from another stricken vessel. “Without food, clothing, or medicine, the group elected to surrender….” A naval officer went off in search of a Japanese patrol.]
“On 16 February the naval officer returned with a Japanese patrol…. The Japanese officer ordered those who could walk, including Chief Officer W. S. Sedgeman and Second Engineer J. J. Miller, to march around a small headland, where they were bayoneted. The wounded were then bayoneted on the beach, although one English private crawled unseen into the undergrowth after being stabbed through the chest.
“The 22 nurses, including the wounded Matron Drummond, were ordered to walk into the sea. It was around midday and the water was warm and tranquil, the palm-fringed setting idyllic. Matron Drummond, supported between two nurses, said, ‘Chin up, girls, I’m proud of you and I love you all.’ When the water reached waist height, the Japanese opened fire with a machine gun, raking them back and forth from behind. All of the nurses were killed except Vivian Bullwinkle, who was shot above the left hip. The bullet knocked her over and she floated for some time before raising her head. ‘All my colleagues had been swept away and there were no Japs on the beach,’ she says. After passing out again, she came to on the beach. ‘I was so cold that my only thought was to find some warm spot to die. I dragged myself up to the edge of the jungle and lay in the sun where I must have slept for hours….’
“The following morning Vivian had just enough strength to find fresh water in a spring close to the beach, which kept her alive for the next 48 hours. On the third day, she went down to the lifeboat, looking for food, and heard a voice call out, ‘Where have you been, nurse?’ Private Kinsley, already wounded by shrapnel, had been bayoneted in the chest but the blade had missed his heart. Vivian dressed his wounds and helped him into the jungle.”
[They eventually made it to Muntok (Sumatra, south of Singapore) and, making sure their wounds were covered, they told the Japanese they had been shipwrecked, arousing no suspicions. They were imprisoned and, in hushed tones Vivian told her story to a few other nurses. She knew she would be executed if the Japanese discovered she had survived the massacre. Private Kingsley was placed in a crude hospital but died a few days later.]
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visits Kranji in 1985 (Source: Ministry of Information and the Arts)
Young man dead at 22 in 1943. Memorial at Kranji Cemetery
Kranji Memorial and Cemetery, Source: Wikimedia
Singapore is on the top left; Muntok is not listed but was on Banka, the small island off the coast of Sumatra, to the south of Singapore.
“Disneyland with the death penalty” is how one wag described this beautiful island nation state at the southern tip of the Malay peninsula.
This is the first of two posts sourced from notes I took between 2013 and 2015 when traveling there on business. Similar to my notes on Zagreb, enough time has gone by to allow publication and, again, much has happened in the intervening years to grant a bit of perspective as to how much has changed and how much remains the same, particularly when it comes to human nature.
My knowledge of Singapore was thimble-sized, limited to her fall to the Japanese early in the Second World War (WWII). Sure enough, WWII is “everywhere” and, yet, “nowhere” in Singapore.
Do a Brave or Duck-Duck search for “things to do in Singapore” or “Tripadvisor.com” and you’ll be regaled with botanical gardens, the Singapore Flyer, fine dining, shopping, city tours, boat tours, and walking tours. You’d have to really dig deep to learn where you can go to visit WWII landmarks.
This is understandable as the experience in WWII was supremely harrowing.
I sought opportunities to visit some of these over the years. My recollections follow.
The Old Ford Factory is the “site of the historic surrender of the British to the Japanese on 15 February, 1942, at the end of the Battle of Singapore. It was here that the meeting between Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival and General Tomoyuki Yamashita was held and the surrender document signed. Then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill referred to that event as the ‘worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history.”
The factory did produce cars beginning in 1941. It was Ford’s first motor car plant in SE Asia. As the Japanese made their way down Malaysia, the Brits converted the plant into a fighter plane assembly plant. But these planes were flown out of Singapore once things looked hopeless to them.
It is interesting to note that, unbeknownst to the British, the Japanese were outnumbered by almost 2 to 1. I also saw testimonials of locals back then who felt the Brits stationed there did not take the war seriously until it was too late. In addition, the same Churchill quoted above, also refused to send material help to SE Asia, because such was needed for Europe. Indeed scholarly research does point to the correctness of Percival’s complaint that allied help was being provided to the Communists in the Soviet Union to the neglect of the British here.
During the occupation, Nissan took over the plant and assembled military trucks for the Japanese.
After the war, Ford resumed operations there in 1947 and operated until 1980 when it was shut down and abandoned, only to be re-opened as a historic site in the first decade of this century.
I had to walk through it rather quickly since I had no free time other than lunch or late afternoon. However, even walking rather briskly, if the visitor focuses, he will come away having seen haunting photos, artifacts, and mementos; he will also have learned of heroic men and women, such as Dr. Monteiro, who developed an anti-diphtheria serum which saved many lives.
One is reminded of the depths of depravity man is capable of descending to; but also how, in the midst of death and deprivation, man seeks what’s truly is important: as death comes near and takes many whom we knew and loved, we are reminded to turn to Him Who is from everlasting to everlasting. There were several photos of church services the Japanese, surprisingly, allowed in the Changi prison camp.
The first photo has stayed with me ever since. No commentary needed.
The second photo is a reminder that the movie, The Bridge on The River Kwai, is based on fact. It was known as the death railway. Many whom the Japanese conscripted from Singapore to go build it, never returned.
One British survivor said, “Unlike the well-fed extras in the movie, the POWs were too weak to whistle the Colonel Bogey tune. Nor did they have any semblance of uniform…. We were routinely and barbarically tortured and many, many of us died, most cruelly.”
The third photo reflects in what condition those detained by the Japanese were found. Those who survived, that is.
The spartan nature of the Changi POW landmark is like a kick in the gut as it confronts the visitor with unspeakable suffering and horror. And, conversely, he is also confronted with faith in God even in the darkest moments: building chapels; celebrating services; praying; seeking God; painting beautiful murals which were lost for decades until someone noticed some color behind white paint.
All this, and more, in the midst of starvation, torture, cholera, dysentery, rapine, and death.
A kind lady working at the bookstore, sought my attention and proceeded to tell me the following story:
A few months before, she had seen an old man looking at the books. He turned and asked her for a specific book. She suggested he walk through the exhibits first and then determine what book to buy. He, almost in disgust, said he had no interest in walking through. She asked why. “I was a prisoner,” he said.
She was a little surprised because, although he was old, he didn’t seem that old to have been a civilian or soldier in 1942. She recalled a gentleman who has come by twice already. He is 102 now [2014]; and he had been a prisoner. But this gentleman who now talked to her would have been a child.
And that’s precisely what he was at the time: an 8-year-old boy when he and his family were imprisoned.
Well, eventually, he decided to walk through. While he did so, she looked into a book which contained the names and some of the records of the POW’s and, sure enough, she found not only his name, but the name of his father, mother, sister, and younger brother. All perished.
When he came back out, he was more subdued. She gave him the book as a gift and pointed him to the names.
“Did you like the museum?” she asked.
His reply was a flood of uncontrollable tears.
The lady told me her story in hushed tones. I thanked her and expressed my gratitude for her service in honoring the memories of those now gone. And then I left, deeply moved and lost in thought.
The Changi chapel has a brass cross made in 1942 by a British POW, Staff Sergeant Harry Stogden. He painstakingly crafted it from scraps of brass and a used 4.5 inch howitzer shell. The cross was designed by the Reverend Eric W. B. Cordingley for St. George’s Church, which he had set up in an abandoned mosque in the India Lines section of the camp. Cordingley had taken the cross with him to the Death Railway, and also to Changi, setting up new churches wherever he went. After the war, he took the cross back to the UK.
Meanwhile, Staff Sergeant Stogden has succumbed to the brutal conditions and was buried at sea after the end of the war, having died onboard an American hospital ship. His wife had also died in 1942, leaving their three young children to be reared by relatives.
In 1997, Bernard Stogden, a son, learned of the cross, which by that time Reverend Cordingley’s daughter had returned to Singapore. When the current museum opened in 2001, Bernard was invited to come and place the cross in the chapel where it is today.
Finally, below is the story of Chen Kwan Yu, a civil servant. His story is representative of many.
“The trucks set off in a convoy, heading east. No one spoke … but as the grey concrete guard tower of Changi Jail came into sight, one of the men remarked that it looked as though they were going to prison. The trucks passed the jail, however, turned to the right, and continued on to the sands near Changi Beach.
“The men were told to get down, and were then tied into groups with lengths of thin telephone cable. ‘We were next told to move off towards the beach,’ Cheng says. ‘I saw a pillbox erected on the seawall of a demolished bungalow and in the slit of the pillbox one or more machine guns. When the lot of us were all on the beach, about 400 of us, the machine-gunning started. I was at the end of my group. As my companions were hit, they fell down and pulled down the rest of us. As I fell, I was hit in the face.’
“The machine-gunning stopped, and Japanese soldiers moved amid the carnage, bayoneting anyone who was still alive. Cheng shut his eyes. He had been hit on the nose and his face was covered in blood. He felt a soldier step on his body to bayonet his neighbour who had shown signs of life, but he did not touch Cheng.
“Cheng kept his eyes closed until he heard the trucks drive off. It was already night and in the moonlight he saw a lump of coral a few inches away and wriggled towards it, pulling against the bodies to which he was tied. He rubbed his wire bonds against the coral until they snapped, then sawed through the rope and freed his hands. He crawled out of the sea and staggered onto the beach.
“For two days, Cheng hid in the undergrowth, bathed the wound on his nose and drank from storm-water drains. He finally encountered a group of British soldiers sitting under a tree near Changi Jail. The soldiers gave him a biscuit and examined his wound. An officer scribbled a note on a piece of paper and told him to give it to the first ambulance that came along the main road. The officer gave Cheng a raincoat to sit on while he was waiting. The ambulance took Cheng to an Indian Army field hospital. ‘There my wound was dressed,’ he says, ‘and I went home.'”
There were many such stories of courage, faith, and amazing bravado. If you ever visit Singapore and have a choice between the nightlife and these landmarks, choose the latter.
One of several haunting photos in the Old Ford Factory Museum. This one has stayed with me for life.
The Bridge on The River Kwai was based on this, The Death Railway, built by thousands of English, Australian and other Allied POWs. Many who were sent, never returned.
Australian POWs after their release from Changi POW camp in Singapore.
A prisoner, Stanley Warren, a British bombardier, drew these magnificent images of the life of Christ. They were an inspiration and beacon of hope to many prisoners. These were eventually painted over and forgotten. Then, years later, someone noticed colors beneath the paint and discovered the treasures. Warren was eventually found and, after much persuading, returned to Singapore to renew the originals. His advanced age did not permit him to finish, but others were commissioned to do so.
The cross designed by Reverend Cordingley and crafted by Staff Sergeant Stogden.
