I had been planning a history field trip on WWII, so I needed to recce some places. The first place was Labrador Park. Labrador Park was one of the places where the British had built underground tunnels and put cannons to fight against the Japanese. We went there during the Chinese New Year holiday.
Unfortunately, the Japanese came from the north, so the artillery were not fully utilised. Contrary to popular belief, the cannons were not facing the wrong direction. Their purpose was to protect against seaward invasion, but they could be turned too.
The tunnels are currently sealed, and not opened to the public. One of the tunnels lead to Sentosa, under the sea.
Another location was Bukit Chandu, which was just in the vicinity. Fierce fighting had taken place here, and the bungalow where we visited was used by the Malay Regiment in their last days of fighting.
He had refused to let me take photos initially, until we reached Reflections at Bukit Chandu.
The Malay Regiment had fought bravely, in the last fights against the Japanese, but they were outnumbered. They had managed to spot the Japanese who had dressed up as Punjabi soldiers marching in the wrong formation. They had marched in fours instead of threes. The malay soldiers won the first battle, but the Japanese came back for revenge, and had nearly decimated the entire troops. A few days later, Singapore surrendered to the Japanese.
I had brought El along on both occasions, and he had learnt a little about history. He asked for books on WWII and had a lot of questions. I borrowed a book from the library about WWII, but the focus was on the European front. Another book was about the internment of the Japanese in USA after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It was an interesting read, based on real life events.
After going to these two places, we decided to go to Labrador Park sand playground, and he had a lot of fun playing on sand. We had brought along sandcastle building equipment, but without water, the sand could not be hardened to build sand castles.
