History ACE project

Today, Darrel, Zhu Cheng and I went to Changi Museum and Changi Beach to do our ACE project. The exhibits in the musuem were not too intriguing to me as I was taught quite a lot about the Japanese Occupation in my primary school SS syllabus, hence the things on display only refreshed my memory and gave me nothing really new. However, one thing I found interesting was the Changi Chapel. Changi Chapel was just outside of Changi Museum and it could be seen at the entrance of the museum. According to the brochure, it was actually a recreation of small chapels and simple churches during the Japanese Occupation, which were built by POWs at that time. Families of ex-POWs come to Changi Chapel in remembrance of the deceased. The chapel had a wooden board on the walls, where relatives of Austrailian ex-POWs could pin up notes of the words they wish to pass on the dead or the living. Beside the board was a display of paper cranes and the explanation of the meaning behind folding paper cranes. In the centre of the chapel was a cross, donated by a general of a regiment. Then, beside it, there was a poem dedicated to the people who died during the war, and a box of sand with a few lit candles in it, to remember the victims of Sook Ching who were executed at Changi Beach.

After we were done touring the museum and the chapel, we started filming ourselves. Since the museum did not allow for photography and video recording, we decided to do an audio tour of the museum and film the chapel instead. I started by introducing the chapel, and Darrel went on to describe the objects on display in it. It went quite smoothly, except that before we began there was a small dispute over how the recording should be done.

We had lunch and moved on to Changi Beach. Changi Beach was a well-known spot used by the Japanese to execute anti-Japanese suspects. There was memorial near the seashore, which explained the events that took place at the beach. Zhu Cheng took over as the guide and after we were done recording the place, we went home.