Ghosts of Alexandra Hospital Massacre


Aerial view of Alexandra Hospital

A Strange Photo Taken by Instinct

On Saturday, August 1, 2009, an informant, David kindly emailed SPI about a paranormal case. David told us this:

Who are they? Are they the former tenants of Alexandra Hospital? Are they the residual memories imprinted in the building, left over from the military hospital? Have such residual memories, somehow, been picked up by the psychic power of David? Or some ghosts from the other world are trying to build a connection with David? Whatever they are, they indeed look freaky. In contrast of the psychological explanation, it seems too far of just a 'coincidence' having a series of faces in a panel of window as mere reflections

Again, is this a case of paranormal or Pareidolia? Upon further talking with David, we found that this photo doesn't come by chance. David is a person but ordinary. Here are the details told by David:

To be honest, my six-sense is very strong.  Even before the lamp post blinking, I've already sensed someone was watching me at that particular window that urged me to take the shot.  I've practiced " mao shan shu " since young and my son have a gifted power, " third-eyed ". That was about 25 years ago, I joined a Taoist Mao Shan sect on a very coincidence and destiny occasion. My master was very reluctantly initially but gave in at last as he couldn't go against the heaven's will. He passed away peacefully exactly 108 days after accepting me as his last disciple as predicted by himself. From then on, I carried on by self practising and actively engage in temple activities with my special power. Exorcism and spiritual healing are what I offered as charity to the needy ones.

From a paranormal perspective, the lamp post blinking may be just a sign, and David's strong sixth sense picked up the 'signals'. Even though the faces appear over random pixels; the randomness that happen to arrange in such a way that some clear faces can be seen, is more than just a matter of pure chance, argued by believers. 


Alexandra Hospital Massacre

     
Alexandra hospital

Also, Alexandra hospital has a gruesome history of massacre which many were killed by the Japanese army during WW2. A short history is written by courtesy of John Kwok, SPI Department of History Research here:

---
This is a narrative of the Alexandra Hospital Massacre compiled from various eye witness accounts and sources:

On the morning of 14 February, the hospital grounds came under Japanese artillery and dive-bombing attacks.  This was despite the hospital buildings was clearly marked by red crosses indicating that it was a medical facility and not a military target.

The Japanese claimed that they were fired upon by the Indians from the hospital. They also claimed that there were British mortar teams deployed on the hospital grounds.  As a result the hospital was a valid military target. 

There were two Allied units deployed very near the hospital; the 44th Indian Brigade was holding a defensive line just north of the hospital and British light artillery positions, mostly mortars, east of Alexandra Road.  None were inside the hospital compound.     

A Japanese advance party entered the hospital grounds from the west.  A British lieutenant wearing a Red Cross armband and carrying a white flag went out to meet the Japanese to convey the message that the hospital would surrender.  He was bayoneted to death. 

What followed were a series of killings;

The Japanese then entered the hospital and began firing their weapons.  They also tossed grenades into rooms.  They went from ward to ward on the ground floor and ordered patients who could walk to assemble outside the hospital.  Those who were too sick or wounded to walk were bayoneted where they lay.  

One group entered the operating theatre where a surgeon from the British Army and four medical personnel had been working.  They surrendered and pointed to their Red Cross armbands.  The Japanese bayoneted them and their patient, a British soldier, to death.  Miraculously, the British surgeon survived.

After clearing the ground floor, the Japanese proceeded upstairs.  However, this time there was no more killing.  Instead the Japanese raided the hospital stores for food. They also stole from the patients their private possessions like watches and fountain pens.  All the medical staff were separated from the patients and locked up in a room on the ground floor. 

About 200 patients, those who could walk, had been assembled outside the hospital.  They remained there under guard and exposed to the hot tropical heat until the evening when some Japanese guards came to tie their hands behind their backs and rope them in groups of four and five.  They were then marched into the old servants' quarters on the hospital grounds.  Up to 70 patients were forced into the small rooms, the largest was no bigger then 12' x 10'.  The windows were all nailed shut and doors sealed.  The patients were literally jammed in and it was impossible to sit.  If anyone needed to relief themselves, they had to urinate where they stood.  Water was promised but none arrived.  The patients had to endure the hot and thirsty conditions.  Many died as a result.   

Throughout the night, Japanese soldiers would take some patients away.  They were never heard of again.  Yells and screams were heard a distance away after the Japanese had left with some of the patients. 

Eight patients tried to escape; five were shot dead by machine gun fire.  When the rooms were opened the next morning, all the patients were found dead. 

Later that day the British surrendered.

The following day on 16 February, a Japanese general visited the hospital.  The medical staff had been released and despite the terrible ordeal they lived through, they quickly resumed their duties.  The Japanese general made a speech apologising to the staff and surviving patients for the atrocity.  Water trucks arrived and fresh water was quickly made available.  Stores of tinned food were also given the to hospital staff. 

The identity of the Japanese general was uncertain.  When interrogated by British war crimes investigators after the war, Lieutenant-General Yamashita, commander of the Japanese 25th Southern Army invasion force of Malaya and Singapore, said, "I never heard of this [massacre] until today."  He pointed out that the hospital was directly on the line of advance of the Japanese 55th Regiment, 18th Japanese Infantry Division commanded by Lieutenant-General Mutaguchi and that he should be interrogated instead.  Lieutenant-General Yamashita suggested that the officer in question who visited the hospital after the massacre was either Lieutenant-General Mutaguchi himself or a member of his staff. 

The number of people who were massacred at the Alexandra Hospital during the war has never been officially established.  According to a British war crimes investigator after the war, as many as 100 medical staff and 100 wounded patients were killed outside the hospital.  No estimate could be given for medical staff and patients killed inside the hospital.

John Kwok, a historian from an Australian university