For the last little while an older programme, Tenko, has been running on UKTV Drama. It first caught my eye when I was flipping through the channels and came upon what looked like British, Australian and Dutch women in some sort of prison. Then I realised that it was a prison camp. I kept watching, certain from the women’s nationalities that the setting would involve Singapore. Lo and behold, it was a whole series about expat women taken prisoner when Japan occupied Singapore in 1942.
Recently I was discussing the series with an older woman who visited Singapore many times both before and after it’s independence. Though she wasn’t there during WWII, she was there many times immediately following the war during the Malayan Emergency. In the general course of our conversations we rarely talk about Singapore, not the least because our memories of it are entirely different, but when the series started we discussed certain things in depth. What we thought of the series versus the film Paradise Road. What we remember about visiting Changi Chapel. What it must have been like to fight at Bukit Chandu. How anyone could possibly have worked in the Battle Box at Fort Canning. At the end of our conversation she cryptically told me she might have something I’d like, and promised to get back to me.
Today I received an email from a woman I’ve never met. A friend of my friend, she had an aunt who was evacuated before the fall of Singapore but returned after the war to live until well after Singapore’s independence in 1965. It seems she has inherited a number of personal items including diaries, letters, programmes, ticket stubs and more. Now she wants to know if I will help her organise her aunt’s things.
Like she even had to ask!
What an awesome project! Keep us updated