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The ward looks quite clean
even as today. You can roughly imagine how the sick beds
were placed in the ward.
The SAF ward in OCH
(Source: Ah Toh, Thursday, October 03, 2002 11:31 PM)
I was admitted into OCH, SAF ward, during August '95 for 2 weeks.
The SAF ward of OCH was located at 7th level. At that time, the
whole 7th level was sort of a 'special' level, with wards not
meant for ordinary civilian use. There's a ward for inmates from
nearby Changi Prison, occupying one big end of the floor, where
its doors were closed at all time, but through the door windows
you could see a of couple wardens/police officers stationed inside
when there's inmates admitted, if not, it's empty; then there's
the SAF ward, took up the floor in the middle, which I'm the only
occupant at that time; and finally, the SAF Psycho-medicine
Branch/Ward, occupied the other end, for the mentally unsound SAF
personnels.
So how was OCH ward like in those days? White walls, pink doors,
clean, peaceful & serene, except for every Tuesdays, when it was
sort of parents-visiting days at the psycho-medicine branch. Same
ambience and atmosphere during the nights too. Another hospital
which, in my opinion, shared the same 'feelings' with OCH is
Alexandra hospital.
During my 2 weeks stay, I saw occasional shadows moving about on
the ceilings of the corridor when it's empty, and heard some
coughing near me, even though I'm the only patient in the ward,
during days and nights. Beside these trivial stuff (I've seen
worse at Slim Barrack), there was once I woke up to a strong
flower perfume (never smelled a frangipani before) in a
particularly cold night. Tried everything - increase the speed of
ceiling fan, rub tiger balm near the nose (was that desperate to
get rid of overly sweet smell). The perfume disappeared when a
nurse came in during a routine check.
Kind of sad to read that what was once an ideal hospital (to me)
is now one of the most haunted sites in Singapore.
Just want to share with others that even haunted sites can have
peaceful/positive moments/sides too.
The OCH I was admitted was at Changi, on top of a small knoll,
near Changi chalets.
As for the shadows, I did walk out to the corridor and take a
peek. The light on the ceiling were from the ward, yellowish in
colour, as for the lighting at compound/ground floor, they were of
white and not too bright, the ward's light were much stronger.
Initially, I thought the shadows were made by the ceiling fans, as
the movement were about same speed, until I realised that the
shadows appeared inconsistently and sometimes against the movement
of the fans.
The flower smell incident happened only once, at night. I can only
describe it as overpowering sweet, but distinctly floral, perfume.
As mentioned, I was awaken by the perfume, no visual, white lady,
whatever. At the same time, I feel very cold, but I did not sneeze
or have running nose (i have mild sinus). Seemed like all the
hairs standing on their ends, had goosebumps.
A little more info about OCH - across ground floor main lift
lobby, you will find a hall, that's was the canteen. At the
canteen you will find a room with large shutter gate - that's the
only stall of the canteen. A bit large for a stall. You will
notice a metal hatch door, padlocked. A cupboard was used to be on
top of the area, but did not cover all of it. I've seen your
article on OCH - entrance to 'secret' bunker? ;) Forget about it -
it will be a haven for germs.
OCH torture chamber - the
four walls are made of thick concrete, totally concealed.. You can
see the horrible blood stains on the floor.
It used to have the 'danger' plastic cordon tape sealing of the
chamber.
The Kempeitai exercised complete powers of arrest and
interrogation. Torture often came before investigation.
Common modes used where the infamous "water" and "fire"
treatments. Whipping was another common torture too.
Offenders were left suspended upside down to be whipped.
Sometimes, to induce a confession, suspects' nails were clamped.
Traces of such torture remain forever.
The twisted index finger in the photograph shows that deformities
from such torture are permanent
OCH Torture Chamber
(Source: The Price of Peace, True Accounts of the Japanese
Occupation)
Water torture
"They forced water down my throat until my belly bloated.
They then tied me to the ladder, and let go. Two persons
carried me and threw me into the airwell. With their foot on
my chest, they trampled hard on it. Water just gushed out.
After I regained consciousness, I was sent back to my cell.
On the following day, the same whole process of torture was
repeated.
"I lost a lot weight due to the psychological effects. Very
serious. It was not good to have water forced down, your
health would be affected. "During the period when I was
terribly tortured, I dreamt someone who told me this: 'You must
admit, or else they [the Japanese] would beat you to death.'
I replied: 'I did nothing wrong.' The answer came back as:
'Even if you have not, you must still admit you are wrong.'
"The next day when I was taken out to be tortured again, I
admitted and for that day, I did not receive the water treatment."
- Lim Seng, civilian POW
Electric Shock torture
I was put into a cell only 10 by 12 feet big. There were
more than 20 people crammed inside. Packed like sardines, we
knelt from morning till night. The heat was unbearable.
I was the only female among them. Inside the cell was a tap
and underneath it, a hole meant for toilet purposes. There
was no privacy to speak of - our daily business was conducted
there in full view of everyone. The stench coming from our
perspiration, human waste and stagnant water fouled up the small
cell and was suffocating. We had to crawl out through a
small trap door at the side for interrogation. Our captors
beat us up, subjected us to electric shocks and pumped us up with
water as part of the interrogation routine. The feeling of
having one's belly pumped full of water and then seeing the water
gushing out of the body was hardly bearable.
When my interrogators could not get any information out of me,
they dragged my husband from another prison, tied him up and made
him kneel beside me. Then, in his full view, they stripped
me to the waist and applied electric currents to me. The
electric shocks sent my whole body into spasms; my tears and mucus
flowed uncontrollably. The pain was indescribable, but it
must have been thousands of times worse for my husband who had to
see me being tortured.
The first and second photos
were taken by using a special lens.
Notice that in the second photo a mysterious green light patch was
flashing across the compound
OCH Investigation by CafeFusion
(Source: Cafefusion pte ltd)
At around 7pm, together with two other friends, we stepped into
the 'Old' Changi General Hospital compound. We walked up the hill,
tall wild grasses almost covering the path. Up the hill, a fallen
tree blocked the entrance to the building, therefore we climbed
over the railing, made a detour and finally we were standing on
the ground of this deserted, historical building. The compound was
so silent that it seemed like we were in a ghost town.
Our heart thumped hard as we moved around the compound. When we
entered the building, we were invited by a strong smell of
medicine which almost filled the entire area even though it had
been left "untouched" for three years. Ashes scattered all over
the cold and dirty floor. Thinking that they were the remains of
joss papers immediately sent shivers down our spine. After a much
thorough investigation, we concluded that they were the ashes of
burning newspapers instead.
Eerie details aside. Now the main objective of our possibly
unwelcome visit is to find out something that has made everyone in
doubt. Is this hospital really HAUNTED? Haunted or not, we don't
know yet. But as we were approaching level 2 of the building, a
loud "bang" came from inside the empty building, like the slamming
of the door. What could it possibly be??? Could it be the wind???
Or maybe, could it be the .....
1. SPI and OCH night guard;
2 & 3. SPI and Newman reporter team; 4. Guard's sleeping place
Interview with an OCH security
guard
(Source: SPI Ghoulish Trail Department)
The interview was short and informal. However it gave us
answers on the current status of OCH and what had been happening.
The time was December 14, 2002, Saturday evening. SPI and
staff crew from Newman Magazine were visiting Old Changi Hospital,
total of more than 14 of us. We wanted to see how did the
infamous OCH that used to be a night-adventurers paradise become
as of today. The night guard called Mr Tan, who was on duty
on that night, friendlily greeted us. We spent about forty
minutes together. Mr Tan patiently answered our questions,
and escorted us to tour around the place.
SPI: To start with a very obvious question, why OCH is now
barred from the public?
Mr Tan: Of course, the government lost its patience. You
know how much damages were on our heritage building? Just
take a look around, the windows were shuttered, walls were painted
graffiti and everywhere was vandalized! I can tell you,
those people who intruded in here were more than looking for
thrill and fun. They came here to take drugs. They
came here to wreck things for fun. Some even held evil cult
on the filth floor (his finger was pointing to the highest level
of the main building).
SPI: (Grieve, and surely we share the same sentiments) This is
bad. How long you have been here? How do you guard
such a big place on your own?
Mr Tan: I took over this night guard job not long ago. But
for a long time, this hospital has been guarded. Only
recently we increased the security, like, setting up metal fence,
placing barricades on all entries and keeping dogs (we counted
1,2,3.. 5 of them, looking very fierce. But they turned to
be very tame under Mr Tan). My dogs are all trained.
From very far, if anybody walked near even just at the skirt of
this premise, my dogs can smell them and bark. Usually those
who trespass here are teenagers. Professional thieves will
go rob everywhere - no money here to steal anyway. They are
usually the youths who come chalets here nearby. At night
when they have nothing to do, they would come here for some
excitement. And usually when they hear my dog barking, they
will run away. But sometimes my dog barking may persist a
bit long, then I will have to carry a torch to confront them.
Warn them verbally to leave immediately, otherwise I will call
police. Police cars patrol here very frequently anyway.
SPI: Well, looks like you have got your dogs as good helpers
that makes your job much easier. And what do you here
besides preventing intruders coming in?
Mr Tan: (Speaking proudly) I do a lot of work here! In day
time, I cleaned every floor of the building. You know how
many graffiti are they? Literately over one hundred. I
cleaned them off one by one using alcohol and a hand towel.
The biggest and the worst "graphitized" area is the fifth floor.
The occult drew a big hexagon using red paint that cover almost
the whole floor. It took me several mornings to wipe it off.
I picked up the rubbish too. You can't imagine how much
litters people brought in to this place; cigarette packets,
bottles, plastic bags, food residues, Styrofoam boxes, even used
syringes!
SPI: (We really admired his professionalism and his energy).
So the situation is now being controlled? But one thing we
don't understand, since this building is abandoned why then
efforts were put into maintaining it clean? Do you know of
any future plan by the government for this place?
Mr Tan: Yes, the trespassing and vandalizing problems are
certainly under control under my management. What the
government wants to do with this building I don't know. They
may convert it to a resort some years later, which again, I don't
know when. I only know it is my job to keep this place
secure and clean.
SPI: Sorry if this sounds weird, do you know of any spooky
instance here, like .. ghost? We heard that as a rumor a
young Malay guy came in here with his friends at night and went
missing a long time ago. After that it alarmed the
government and thereafter barred this place from trespassing.
Is this true?
Mr Tan: (He looked a bit annoyed) No lah. Where got
ghost? I even slept here, never see any ghost before.
I also never heard of anybody went missing here or anybody jumped
down from the building as what the rumors wrongly said. This
is a government property, a state land, so of course it got to be
barred from trespassing even from the first day that this hospital
closed down.
Mr Tan has given us very valuable information about this hospital.
He then turned around and led us to see his dwelling in the
building... We thank him for his courteousness and for his
time spent with us.
Pictorial Tour |
