Those personal accounts were indeed very touching and powerful and conveyed a deep sense of sorrow and horror felt amongst the prisoners of wars as they suffered great cruelties in the Japanese' s hands.
However, what surprised me the most was that there wasn't too much of pessimism, and that even though they were all living through hell, they were still able to find the strength to live on, help and care for the others. There were few things that stood out and left me with a strong impression. I thought the way they conducted secret communication was pretty interesting. They tore a post card in half, and wrote on the inside and then gluing them back together so that it would remain secret. The poem called A Comrade and His Pal was very special and poignant, as the soldier witnessed and mourned for the death of his friends, despite how much he pleaded to the Japanese to not harm his friends. Some pictures of the extremely thin prisoners also struck me. One girl was forced to eat a dead rat because she was starved so badly. All these just showed their incredible strength as they were constantly being pushed to their limits, both physically and psychologically,
The Chapel also had a significance in their history as it provided a sense of unity and belonging for the horribly treated prisoners. It was wonderful to see the paper cranes, symbolising world peace, hanging in the chapel. One of them was presented to them from a Japanese school, hoping for forgiveness of the past and asking for peace between the two nations. the reconciliation and the desire for peace was indeed vert heart-warming.
Afterward, we toured around the Changi village and experienced how the people lived. we went to the local markets and saw some pretty bizarre things like a fish's head, century eggs and giant bananas
Overall, this was an amazing experience allowing us to experience both the past and the present of the Singaporeans' lives
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| Appreciation notes in the chapel |
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| The chapel |
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