Reflections at Bukit Chandu

Posted by noelbynature under Heritage Sites and Trails
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The Japanese soldiers scattered when they were fired on, and many died. Then Adnan said to me, ‘Tuan Abbas, if I should die today, I am quite willing as long as someone can look after my family.’ – Datuk Abbas Manan, on Lieutenant Adnan Saidi

More than anything, Reflections at Bukit Chandu is a physical experience. I stepped out of Pasir Panjang Road - bustling with huge container trucks plying their route from the port to warehouse - and walked into Pepys Road feeling the immediate contrast. A ten-minute uphill walk brings you out of the modern city and into nature, where the air is laden with memories, tragedy and hope.

Reflections at Bukit Chandu situates itself on the events of the last stand of the Malay Regiments on 13 and 14 February 1942. As you walk through the exhibits and learn about how the Japanese advanced onto Singapore, you come to feel a stark vulnerability when the narrative takes you to the point where the last line of defence is the 1st and 2nd battalions of the Malay Regiment. You realise that the last line and the very ground you stand on are indeed one and the same.

The 7-min video presentation on the first floor was particularly enjoyable. The video is projected on a glass panel in front of you, while in the background, a map of Singapore lights up to correspond with the Japanese movements into Singapore.

While the first-floor galleries talk about the war, the second floor gives a human face to the events. You read the story of Lieutenant Adnan Saidi who died in that area. You hear oral accounts of life in the war, as a POW, a wife and a child. As you look out the window to see the port, you can’t help to feel the contrast between the colonial house you are standing in and the modern Singapore outside the hill.