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Kranji
War Cemetery is 22 kilometres north of the city of Singapore,
on the north side of Singapore Island overlooking the Straits
of Johore. It is just off the Singapore-Johore road (Woodlands
Road) at the milestone 13½, and there is a short approach
road from the main road. The Cemetery is known locally as
Kranji Memorial and one must be sure of the address before
boarding a taxi as most taxi drivers do not know the Cemetery.
There are also bus stops on the main road facing the Cemetery.
An MRT terminal will be found a short distance from the Cemetery
known as 'Woodlands'. The Memorial stands in Kranji War Cemetery.
Before 1939 the Kranji area was a military
camp and at the time of the Japanese invasion of Malaya, it
was the site of a large ammunition magazine. On 8 February
1942, the Japanese crossed the Johore Straits in strength,
landing at the mouth of the Kranji River within two miles
of the place where the war cemetery now stands. On the evening
of 9 February, they launched an attack between the river and
the causeway. During the next few days fierce fighting ensued,
in many cases hand to hand, until their greatly superior numbers
and air strength necessitated a withdrawal. After the fall
of the island, the Japanese established a prisoner of war
camp at Kranji and eventually a hospital was organised nearby
at Woodlands. After the reoccupation of Singapore, the small
cemetery started by the prisoners at Kranji was developed
into a permanent war cemetery by the Army Graves Service when
it became evident that a larger cemetery at Changi could not
remain undisturbed. Changi had been the site of the main prisoner
of war camp in Singapore and a large hospital had been set
up there by the Australian Infantry Force. In 1946, the graves
were moved from Changi to Kranji, as were those from the Buona
Vista prisoner of war camp. Many other graves from all parts
of the island were transferred to Kranji together with all
Second World War graves from Saigon Military Cemetery in French
Indo-China (now Vietnam), another site where permanent maintenance
could not be assured. The Commission later brought in graves
of both World Wars from Bidadari Christian Cemetery, Singapore,
where again permanent maintenance was not possible. There
are now 4,458 Commonwealth casualties of the Second World
War buried or commemorated at Kranji War Cemetery. More than
850 of the burials are unidentified. The Chinese Memorial
in Plot 44 marks a collective grave for 69 Chinese servicemen,
all members of the Commonwealth forces, who were killed by
the Japanese during the occupation in February 1942. First
World War burials and commemorations number 64, including
special memorials to three casualties known to have been buried
in civil cemeteries in Saigon and Singapore, but whose graves
could not be located. Within Kranji War Cemetery stands the
Singapore Memorial, bearing the names of over 24,000 casualties
of the Commonwealth land and air forces who have no known
grave. The land forces commemorated by the memorial died during
the campaigns in Malaya and Indonesia or in subsequent captivity,
many of them during the construction of the Burma-Thailand
railway, or at sea while being transported into imprisonment
elsewhere. The memorial also commemorates airmen who died
during operations over the whole of southern and eastern Asia
and the surrounding seas and oceans. The Singapore (Unmaintainable
Graves) Memorial, which stands at the western end of the Singapore
Memorial, commemorates more than 250 casualties who died in
campaigns in Singapore and Malaya, whose known graves in civil
cemeteries could not be assured maintenance and on religious
grounds could not be moved to a war cemetery. The Singapore
Cremation Memorial, which stands immediately behind the Singapore
Memorial, commemorates almost 800 casualties, mostly of the
Indian forces, whose remains were cremated in accordance with
their religious beliefs. The Singapore Civil Hospital Grave
Memorial stands at the eastern end of the Singapore Memorial.
During the last hours of the Battle of Singapore, wounded
civilians and servicemen taken prisoner by the Japanese were
brought to the hospital in their hundreds. The number of fatalities
was such that burial in the normal manner was impossible.
Before the war, an emergency water tank had been dug in the
grounds of the hospital and this was used as a grave for more
than 400 civilians and Commonwealth servicemen. After the
war, it was decided that as individual identification of the
dead would be impossible, the grave should be left undisturbed.
The grave was suitably enclosed, consecrated by the Bishop
of Singapore, and a cross in memory of all of those buried
there was erected over it by the military authorities. The
107 Commonwealth casualties buried in the grave are commemorated
on the Singapore Civil Hospital Grave Memorial. Kranji War
Cemetery and the Singapore Memorial were designed by Colin
St Clair Oakes. Adjoining Kranji War Cemetery is Kranji Military
Cemetery, a substantial non-world war site of 1,378 burials,
created in 1975 when it was found necessary to remove the
graves of servicemen and their families from Pasir Panjang
and Ulu Pandan cemeteries. |