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Feb 15th 1942 : Remembering the Fall of Singapore (5)
March 16, 2005
History, it makes us who we are today, without history, it means living without a memory.
February 15th 1942, it was a Sunday when Singapore fell to the invading Japanese forces. It was also the first day of the Lunar New Year.
The Japanese occupation of Singapore lasted 3 years and 8 months.
Military historians, survivors of the Japanese occupation who pass on their oral history to their children and grand children, and authors of well researched books – they all help us remember.
But with each passing year, even the survivors of the Japanese occupation are dying off. And it is only a matter of time before no one will be left to tell the story and remember the atrocities of war.
Yet, despite getting on in years, many former Far East prisoners of war or FEPOWS from around the world continue to make pilgrimages to famous battle sites and war memorials to pay tribute to their fallen comrades. I met one such group from Britain when they visited Singapore in March 2005 – which puts most of them in their eighties. Two men – Kenneth Holland and Eric Adie – who never knew each other while they served in the British army – were among a group of former POWs who visited Singapore and subsequently Thailand. They shared with me in this programme, their honest feelings and hopes.
EA: “My name is Eric Adie, I now am 84. And I was in the Royal Norfolk regiment at that time and I was a Second Lieutenant”.
Apart from spending time in Singapore as a Prisoner of War (PoW), you were also seconded to work on the railway in Thailand, tell us about that.
EA: “Yes we went up there, there was a party of 300 of us, young officers to go up to Thailand to complete the railway. The railway was nearly completed then but the Japs of course wanted urgently to complete it so that they could get their trains through. And so I worked in two camps up there. The first one was to supply the timber for the Tamils actually to make a viaduct. And then after that was complete, we went up further to a cutting so that the trains could get through. That was a particularly bad time up there because terrible really because Cholera struck the Tamil camp. And the bottom of the pit for me was when we had to go into the Tamil camp where there were some dead, some living. We actually had to drag them out so that they could be cremated. We were just sprayed over by the Jap soldiers with some sort disinfectant. But we had to go in there, look in the tent - those who were dead dragged out by the ankle and burnt. Terrible thing, the Tamils really were terribly affected by all that. And so at the end of that, in fact I went down ill with Malaria, jungle ulcers and beriberi. And I was shipped down river in a barge to what we call Kamburi camp – Kanchanaburi it is now”.
How did you feel in the end when finally liberation day came?
EA: “Well it was a wonderful relief. I was skin and bones of course but I had survived. I survived because I was a young man. I was only 21 when I was captured you know and only 24 when I was released. But well there I say it. The thing is with a thing like that you must not give up. You must think don’t let the so n’ so beat me. I’m going to survive this. I’m going to get through it. And that’s I think that’s how you do it”.
AA: "And you went back to England and had your family."
EA: “That’s right. I went back to England and within a month I met a young lady who funnily enough had been working for my father. And of course she’d heard about me. And I met this young lady and after a little while we got married and there you are, two children and wonderful. I’ve got five grandchildren and I’m a very lucky man”.
His sharing echoed what has been said so often - time heals everything, but there are things that we cannot forget and which must not be forgotten.
KH: “My name is Kenneth Holland, known as Ken Holland. I was here in 1942. I was a Sergeant in the 148th field regiment Royal Artillery and taken prisoner on the 15th of February when I was just over 22years of age”.
AA: "Do you think it’s important to tell the stories or do you think the younger generation even back in Britain have a different attitude towards all of this?"
KH: “I don’t think the younger generation know really what happened. And I think we’re too concerned with teaching ancient history in the schools rather than comparatively recent history but that’s my opinion. But I try to tell people what really happened but not sure the younger generation are really interested. I think they’re really interested in getting on with life. I’m really thinking of back home in England of course”.
AA: "But nevertheless you have some very interesting stories to tell. The very fact that you’re here in Singapore, what brought you back to Singapore on this trip?"
KH: “I came back 25 years ago because I spent so many adverse years here – the place does fascinate me. For instance during the fighting here, when we were being shelled heavily, our gun positions were just off Race Course road. And I sheltered together with several other fellows in a Buddhist temple there. And it was called ‘Temple of a thousand lights’ but I understand its not called that now. But with the help of a local taxi driver, we found the same Buddhist temple and we went back and had a look at it. And it’s very moving. At the time we were young men and possibly offended the Buddhist community by going in there but we didn’t think about that at the time but I was ever grateful to them”.
Ken also recalls his time as a PoW.
KH: “I was of course one of those put into Selarang square to make us sign a form promising not to escape. The Japanese oddly thought that I say this wryly really, thought that the Englishman’s bond was the word. And if we signed a form saying we wouldn’t escape, that would be a good thing. But we refused to sign it at the time until as I say they put thousands of us on the square at Selarang and eventually we did sign”.
One of the things I discovered as I did this series is that here in Singapore, the Fall of Singapore on the 15th of February 1942, its been actually hailed as a watershed event in this history of Singapore. But compared to 15th August 1945 when Liberation day came about – how do you feel comparing the two events?
KH: “Well of course the 15th of February ’42 shattered the illusion of the superiority of the British forces in this part of the world. And I don’t think it ever recovered even till today. But of course we were fighting against an underrated foe. We were given to understand that the Japanese were inferior in many ways. But of course in the event they proved to be superior. And of course one of the problems here was that we had, after the Prince of Wales and the Repulse were sunk, we had no navy. I was only here a month before capitulation but I didn’t see one British aircraft in the sky, so we had no air cover. And of course we had no tanks. And the Japanese had a sur fleet of all these items. This partly led I think to the capitulation. And of course at the time running short of water and food and I understand when we were up at the ‘Battle Box’ (Fort Canning, Singapore) listening to the (archive), I understand that the ammunition for my own unit – 25 pounders was just finished anyway. But at the same time it (fall of Singapore) came as a very great surprise.
KH: "But when 1945 came along, we were at Kranji and we were young men. And the first thing several of us did was we came down into the city and went into the Great World Cabaret where there were these lines of ‘taxi girls’ dancing girls and we were each given a whole roll of tickets. We had no money of course - and spent the night dancing with these girls which I remember to this day. And we hadn’t even spoken to a girl for four years, so we were ready to go. (laughs)
What parting message would you like to leave our listeners?
KH: (pauses..reflects) "Oddly though it seems to say this, I think I came out of the camps, the Japanese prison camps, a better and more tolerant man than when I went in. I think it had that effect on me and I hope I’m a better man for it”.
This has been Assignment dedicated to the 15th February 1942 – Remembering the Fall of Singapore. Thanks for staying with me on the series, I’m Augustine Anthuvan for RSI.
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