Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Singapore History 101 - Part 8

This is the final installment of our history lessons. Hope you have enjoyed them!


The East:

The first two pictures were taken at the Johore Battery. The British built this gun site in 1939. There are three monster guns capable of firing 15-inch rounds. To store ammunition and get gunners to their posts, they dug a maze of tunnels. This site was completely secret and left undiscovered until 1991 when the Singapore Prisons Department found the guns.


Here we learned that the Johore Battery is the only site of its kind left in Singapore.



Below is the Changi Chapel and Museum. It is a memorial to the 50,000 civilians and soldiers who were detained during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore during WWII. There is a replica of one of the many chapels that POW's built at the various camps.

There are also replicas of murals painted by Stanley Warren, a British POW, in St. Luke's Chapel. He painted five scenes from the New Testament to thank God for keeping him alive during the occupation. No paint supplies were available, so Mr. Warren used whatever he could, including human hair for brushes and pool chalk for blue colors. The first painting he did was of the ascension of Christ. He chose this scene because he was so ill with dysentery that he was afraid he might die before completing his work. He felt that this was the most important event in Christian history and wanted to be sure it was done.

We were not allowed to take photographs inside the building, so you can see us standing right outside the exit.


No comments: