211. CHANGI CHAPEL & MUSEUM

 

After a 3 year makeover, the former Changi Prison has been transformed into a Museum paying tribute to its former occupants

The foyer is cosy and welcoming with a small gift shop...

The beginnings of today's Changi Airport. The Japanese had started work using POW labour of course, to clear and level the ground for an aerodrome for their aircraft. After the war, the Royal Air Force returned to develop that into a full military airbase. After their withdrawal from the Far East, Singapore's Armed Forces took over. It made sense to develop this further into Changi International Airport. More importantly, aircrafts land and take off over water bypassing flying over urban areas, reducing noise...

Quite a large cell for one but I'm sure they placed more than one in there...at end of the war, 2,800 were released from Changi...

Manual labour. From the quotes left behind by the POWs I gathered they were treated well quite unlike those sent to build the Burmese Thai railway where many succumbed.

There was a Double Tenth Incident in Changi in 1943, in which civilian prisoners were brutally treated to make them talk about some raid and sinking of 7 Japanese ships which was carried out by Anglo Australian commandos. Another incident was the discovery of small radios smuggled into the cells in which the POWs got their news about the War but the Japanese military police treated that as spying, so there was more brutality...

Although sporadic, their letters reached those at home and they received replies. They had materials to write books, paint and carve items - the Museum included an art gallery displaying their work...

This quilt is a reproduction, the original is with the Red Cross, London. Women internees stitched pieces of fabric with embroidery telling little stories...

This little chapel has long been associated with Changi Prison and they've reproduced it in the compound...

In 1945 the Occupation ended after 4 years and of course fingers were pointed, the small fry in the Japanese Military Police were brought to trial, the powerful had earlier made a hasty retreat...

Take the surrender of Singapore to the British - the small fry fought the war between the Japanese and the British and other assorted nationals brought in to augment the foot soldiers - when the surrender formally took place in today's City Hall, who showed up to take center stage - Lord Mountbatten!

I'm just glad our war museums here in Changi and the other at the Ford Motor Company (Post 209) were financed and set up by our own National Heritage Board. The one in Thailand commemorating the Thai Burmese Railway was set up, financed and conceptualised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission...they've always preferred calling it the Death Railway...

Homeward bound - feted as heroes, rightly so. All the foot soldiers recruited from the 'colonies' were buried in unmarked graves, names unknown, those who survived were unsung heroes, they were repatriated but were they decorated or taken care of ? Your guess is as good as mine...war is dirty, created by Government Warlords - the alpha males - and it's about control, power, greed, pride, ambition...

Thank goodness that phase of the evolution of the homo sapiens is over. It will be short sporadic outbursts from now on in little corners of the world...

This quiet part of Changi Road is a Prisons and Rehabilitation Hub. Nestled between the various prison buildings are residential houses and condominiums and a ubiquitous neighbourhood church...

Both these buildings are in a style that I like - art deco...which goes to show how old they are...

Chatted with this inmate outside the gates of this halfway house which is his home for the last 3 months of his sentence for drug use. Residents may smoke at the gates, they are free to walk around the compound unrestrained, nobody runs away for as he himself said, there's no place to hide. This area is a quiet residential area with light traffic. He was chatty and friendly and made light of his sentence. 

The time in the halfway house is to prepare inmates for life outside prison walls and perhaps for a job for those who are going into the workforce after their release. For those who have been inside for a long stretch, it might come as a shock to adjust to the outside world, a workplace, colleagues who might be hostile and family whom they can be estranged from. They have formed bonds in prison, a certain brotherhood, and they may miss that. For some, they may even re-offend just so they can go back in as they find the outside world too hard for them...

This Government thinks and takes care of everything, everybody. They rehabilitate them, giving them opportunities to create a meaningful life so they will have pride in their achievements and not return to crime. Some do of course for various reasons...

I wished him well, he was a pretty decent chap...

NEWSFLASH!

Straits Times

They are given a leg-up to help them take control of their lives. Employers have come on board to hire them, often in industries which suffer labour woes...

We had the bus to ourselves, the park benches as well, 2 to a table and coming together for this pic and to drink and chat. So long as it's not a large group we were left to our own devices...

Like a cancerous tumour...or elephantiasis...for the homo sapiens is the Tree of Life and we are all connected to Mother Nature's Kingdoms...