Content #070
Kranji War Memorial. Kranji, Singapore 2019
‘The Kranji War Memorial (Chinese: 克兰芝阵亡战士公坟; Malay: Tanah Perkuburan Perang Kranji; Tamil: கிராஞ்சி போர் நினைவு) is located at 9 Woodlands Road, in Kranji in northern Singapore. Dedicated to the men and women from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Sri Lanka, India, Malaya, the Netherlands and New Zealand who died defending Singapore and Malaya against the invading Japanese forces during World War II, it comprises the War Graves, the Memorial Walls, the State Cemetery, and the Military Graves. The grounds of the memorial is set on a hilly terrain. The grounds are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and accessible only from Woodlands Road, the same road that the Imperial Guards Division of the Japanese 25th Army had marched down on 9 February 1942. The War Cemetery is the final resting place for 4,458 Allied servicemen in marked graves laid out in rows on maintained and manicured lawns. Over 850 of these graves are unidentified. Towards the north end of the cemetery grounds is the State Cemetery, where Yusof bin Ishak and Benjamin Henry Sheares, the first and second Presidents of Singapore, are buried. To the west are the Military Graves for Commonwealth soldiers who died during the Konfrontasi and Malayan Emergency. 69 Chinese servicemen who served as members of the Commonwealth forces and who were killed by the Japanese in February 1942 were buried at the Chinese Memorial. There are also 64 burials for World War I, including special memorials for three men who were buried in civil cemeteries in Singapore and Saigon, and whose graves were impossible to locate till this day. Previously a hospital burial ground during the Japanese occupation of Singapore, it became a military cemetery at the end of the war. Military servicemen buried elsewhere in Singapore were exhumed and reburied at the memorial. The names of Indian servicemen were inscribed on the memorial walls as they had already been cremated, as is customary in Hinduism.’ Bron: Wikipedia.