A day in Changi village

04.02.2015

The village close to the airport is originally where the local people went when the British took over. It's also the place the Japanese killed a lot of people and kept a lot of prisoners when they took over. So, I went to see it.

The beach is alright, but I didn't go swimming, it was quite weedy. I walked along the beach for a while and found the place where many Chinese people were massacred. It's only marked with a simple black monument, right beside a giant sign for some other inconsequential thing I can't remember.

It started to rain so I headed over to Changi museum, where hundreds of prisoners' stories are told in over 20 display cases. There's also a quilt that some women made and gave to the men's side of the prison, to let them know who was still alive. They embroidered their names on the quilt as a sign that they were alright.

Another display is a replica of some Christian murals that were painted by one of the prisoners. Faith was all they had left at that point. When the Japanese came to take over Malaysia, life was terrible, there was no food, inflation was out of control and it seemed that violence was a daily occurrence.

Outside the museum is a small chapel that was built inside the prison. That's the only thing I was allowed to take pictures of.

I got lost trying to find some other World War II bunker in the midst of the army barracks. I've already seen a bunch of them, so I just gave up and went home.

Changi beach