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1. Location of Changi Prison; 2.
British prisoners-of-war in Changi Jail, at the time of their
release September 1945
3. Exterior look of Changi prison; 4. The Roman Catholic Chapel,
Selarang - now called Changi Chapel
A Day of Life in Changi Prison
(Source: Syonan-My story)
Changi Prison is a jail with tall double walls. In the front
is a clock tower. As we entered I saw that it was exactly
11am. Soon after the Japanese invasion of Singapore, British
civilian prisoners and British troops were imprisoned there.
After the Japanese surrender, Japanese war criminals occupied the
cells. More than 130 Japanese were hanged after climbing the
thirteen fateful steps to the gallows at the east corner of Changi
Prison.
After the clerk had read out the prison regulations I was taken to
the E block. That was the block for European prisoners.
They gave me a piece of bread. Then I was led to a dark and
tiny cell, about three metres by two metres. In the middle
was a concrete bed. In the corner were two buckets of water.
One was to drink from; the other was for toilet purposes.
This was a cell without electric light. At night, when there
was a moon, moonbeams would float through a small window.
We were given a toothbrush every third month, half a cake of soap
every fortnight, and a change of clothes twice a week. After
the daily morning inspection we were allowed to walk in the prison
yard for half an hour.
Early on my first morning in Changi, as I looked up at the crimson
sky, way out in the South China Sea, I thought home...
Breakfast was at 7am - a cup of very weak tea, three small pieces
of bread and a little jam. Immediately after breakfast we
went to the workshop where we worked until noon.
Life in Changi Prison was monotonously simple. Every day was
like the other. There were no celebration. The food
was the same every morning, saltless rice gruel. When
salt-fish was served I would try to keep the head to suck the
following morning. Midday meals and evening meals were
usually the same: ikan bilis, or bean sprouts. I believe the
prison authorities were allowed eight cents per prisoner for food
at that time. We were always hungry. When hunger woke
us up at night we filled our empty stomachs with water.
In prison, I learnt a great deal about human relations.
Nobody puts on airs or graces in prison. Everyone is forced
to behave naturally. In Changi there were many races with
many different customs and religions, but there were no social
distinctions, no classes. We were all prisoners serving in
the same conditions. For example, we showed together every
day; 400 of us gathered under a long water-pipe punched full of
holes. We would march there from work. Sitting or
standing beneath the pipe with a piece of soap in our hands, we
waited for the water to be turned on. The water flowed for a
short while, about five or six minutes, then it would be turned
off. Once it started, everyone would be madly busy,
scrubbing their emaciated bodies with pieces of rags cut from
gunny sacks.
There were many other prison experiences which taught me much
about human relationship. They all stood me in good stead
when I were released.
A bloody but noble death
(Source: Syonan-My story)
For the trails of those Japanese responsible for the massacre of
Chinese civilians, Changi Gaol was used to detent the accused.
These trials, involving a large number of Japanese officers, began
on 10 March 1947. In particular, there was a General Officer
Commanding the Imperial Guards Division, called Sugita who shed
his blood terribly before the trial. Sugita was to give
evidence against his Lieutenant-General Nishimura. One
morning his bed was found empty. There was a note on the
table. At the back of the cell, one can hear a groan.
There he was, sitting on the ground with his face towards the
north-east. His neck was smothered in blood. He
stretched back, still trying to cut the carotid (two arteries)
with a blunt stainless steel table knife. His hand was
trembling violently. The guards sprang on him and wrenched
the knife away. The held a blood-soaked towel to his neck.
He was unconscious and his feeble breath whistled through his
throat like a high-pitched note from a flute. His note had
read, 'I cannot bear to give evidence against my senior officer.
I prefer to kill myself than be a witness for the prosecution.
Best regards to our British friends.'
1. The secret radio was
first operated from a water-storage tank in the roof of this
bomb-damaged house
2. This is the AWA Radiola set actually in the water tank.
You can see the time switch on the left,
which was used to turn the set on automatically for the evening
BBC Delhi News.
Ghost voice in Changi Gaol
A group of Australian POWs were sent from Selarang barracks to
Bukit Timah area for building a Shinto shrine for the Japanese
dead. The Japanese front-line soldiers who were supposed to be
guarding the POWs at that stage weren't really interested in their
job. Some POWs used to roam around a bit at night to see what
they could fine in some of the houses in the Mt Pleasant - Thomson
Road area. One particular house intrigued the POWs because there
was a lot of Japanese going into it quite often during the day.
It appeared to be some kind of a house for storing radios!
Apparently they had gone around Singapore and confiscated all the
radios they could find. They stole many of them. One was an AWA
three band set, about twenty inches wide, fifteen inches high, and
about eight inches deep. It was known as a table model in those
days. It appeared to be particularly brand new. Up to this
point, the POWs had not heard any outside news, or any authentic
news at all. They had heard the Japanese propaganda telling
people that they had taken over country after country after
country. It was risky to be caught with a radio, but it was
essential to find out what was going on in the world.
The secret radio was operated from a water-storage tank in the
roof of this house.
This is the AWA Radiola set actually in the water tank. You can
see the time switch on the left, which was used to turn the set on
automatically for the evening BBC Delhi News.
The POWs were very keen to hear the BBC Delhi News which came on
from 10-10:45pm. Some POW had electrical knowledge, and he
scrounged around and found a time switch. He installed this so it
switched on the set automatically at 10pm and off at 11pm. When
they were put in a bomb-damaged house in Mt Pleasant, they had the
radio hid in a water tank in the roof. A pair of fine wires led
down from the radio to a balcony downstairs, and was connected to
an earpiece from a telephone. So every night at 10, one of their
Intelligence sergeants would come over and listen to the news
through the earphone, and jot down the highlights. Then the news
would be carefully circulated verbally.
In fact that particular radio was later smuggled into Changi Gaol.
It was actually bricked up in a wall cavity in one of the cells.
The walls between the cells were about eighteen inches wide, so
they knocked a hole in the brickwork and put the set inside, and
connected to the power supply diverted from the cell lighting. A
time switch was installed so that the set only switched on at the
times of day when BBC news broadcasts took place. Then the whole
thing was cemented in and made to look as though nothing was
there. A four-inch nail was driven through the wall and its tip
just touched the diaphragm of a headphone within the wall cavity.
The POWs listened to it with a kind of stethoscope. All you had
to do was put the end of a bit of rubber tubing over the head of
this nail, and hold it tight with your finger.. and you could hear
the transmission. That set did develop a few problems towards the
end. The valves had got overheated, but anyway it was not
possible to get in and make repairs, so it eventually gave up the
ghost.
Talking of ghosts, a newspaper some years ago reported that gaol
warders would not go near a certain cell in Changi because they
reckoned there were ghosts in it! Changi Gaol is still used as a
prison, and the set is probably in the wall, though.
This newspaper report may or may not be true but certainly their
radio could still be walled in.
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