I visited Changi museum on this day. It being in an “ulu” area, I had
naturally never been there before nor heard of it.
The main focus of the visit was the Japanese occupation and the life of the
prisoners of war during that period.
Therefore, many of the exhibits were on the prisoners of war and what they
did to keep themselves occupied and their minds of their suffering.
Outstanding among these things is definitely the construction of a chapel
and other religious objects such as a golden cross and painting of murals.
We also had a short tour of the place and got to understand some of the poor
living conditions during that time such as up to 5 or 6 men squeezed into a
cell meant for one man only.
My Thoughts and feelings:
I have learnt that these prisoners of war put a lot of faith in god as they
needed hope in order to survive their ordeals. They were also highly
resourceful and innovative as they made maximum use of what they could get.
A couple of very good examples are, one of the prisoners of war found a bomb
shell and cut into half and carved out a golden cross for the chapel. The
other example is when the painter of the murals, Stanley warren, had neither
brushes nor paint but his friends in the prison helped him get chalk, and
paints meant for other purposes for colours and cut their hair to make
brushes. This shows how resourceful people can get when they need something
they do not have.
I understand the sacrifices our forefathers made and the pain they went
through a bit better. Although I will never fully understand how it felt to
be a prisoner of war during the Japanese occupation, I can at least
sympathize with them.
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