What do quilts have to do with Changi Prison? As I found out, many of the prisoners interned at Changi during World War II weren’t soldiers – they were hapless civilians caught in the crossfire. During the war, some of the imprisoned women kept themselves occipued by producing a total of four quilts to get messages out to their loved ones. SingingQuilter, who indeed has an interest in singing and quilting, has a special connection with these quilts, and so while on transit in Singapore decided to make a trip to the Changi Chapel Museum to reconnect with the site where these quilts were made.
CC image by superliciousness
I have seen all three of these quilts: two are in Canberra, Australia (one at the War Memorial, one at the Treloar Centre), and one is at the Red Cross Headquarters in London, England. I have met Sheila (Allen) Bruhn, who wrote a book about her experiences called “Diary of a Girl in Changi” which I read as part of my research, at the Australian Quilt Study Group meeting several years ago in Canberra. I have also met the daughter of Freddie Bloom, an American journalist whose perspective I used when I wrote the song. She published a book after the war based on her Changi journals, in the form of letters to her new husband, called “Dear Philip”. Freddie died a few months before I wrote my song.
Read her moving reconnection with the POWs of Changi Prison in her blog.
Tags: Changi Chapel Museum, Quilts
2 Responses
Thanks for reprinting my comments from my visit to the Changi Museum in 2008! I’m glad you enjoyed my blog.
Posted on January 6th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
I have seen movies about what happened in Changi during the war and it was heart renching. One can only imagine what it was like to live during those times.
Posted on November 24th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
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