Changi: A Penal Genealogy across the Pacific War

Abstract

Anglophone scholarship on the Pacific War in Singapore is largely focused on records and memoirs of captive allied forces, extending imperial histories of that period. The punitive environments that incarcerated soldiers and civilians are examined through that lens. This essay approaches the Pacific War as an interregnum in a longer penal genealogy and a historical border to political decolonisation. It reviews this literature as significant for understanding the evolution of the colonial prison and its wartime transformation into a Prisoner of War (POW) camp environment posing questions about incarceration, citizenship and penal labour. It asks how residential carceral facilities such as the prison, the POW camp and the home are adapted and transformed. The main foci of this paper and its genealogy are the Changi Prison and the Changi POW Camp.

Notes

1. R.P.W. Havers, Reassessing the Japanese Prisoner of War Experience: The Changi POW Camp, Singapore, 1942–1945 (London: Routledge Curzon, 2003); Christina Twomey, Australia’s Forgotten Prisoners: Civilians Interned by the Japanese in World War Two (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007); Karl Hack and Kevin Blackburn eds. Forgotten Captives in Japanese-Occupied Asia (London: Routledge 2008). See also, Malcolm Murfett, John Miksic, Brian Farrell, and Ming Shu Chiang, Between Two Oceans: A Military History of Singapore from First Settlement to Final British Withdrawal (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).

2. Yoji Akashi and Mako Yoshimura eds. New Perspectives on the Japanese Occupation in Malaya and Singapore, 1941–1945 (Singapore: NUS Press, 2008). See also Geok Boi Lee, The Syonan Years: Singapore under Japanese Rule, 1942–1945 (Singapore: National Archives of Singapore, 2005).

3. Russell Braddon, The Naked Island (London: Werner Lauries, 1952); Thomas Kitching, Life and Death in Changi: The War and Internment Diary of Tom Kitching (Singapore: Landmark Books, 2002); Keith Wilson, You’ll Never Get Off the Island: Prisoner of War, Changi, Singapore, February 1942–August 1945 (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1989); Sally Moore McQuaid ed. Singapore Diary: The Hidden Journal of R.M. Horner (Gloucestershire: Spellmount, 2006); and Sheila Allan, Diary of a Girl in Changi: 1941–1945 (East Roseville: Kangaroo Press, 1999).

4. The television mini-series Changi was created by John Doyle and produced by Bill Hughes and Tim Pye for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2001.

5. Singapore-Redevelopment of Changi Prison, FA34 (6 March 2004), media release of statement by Alexander Downer, “Minister for Foreign Affairs, Australia.” Accessed July 28, 2004, http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/releases/2004/fa034_04.html.

6. The British colonial period in Singapore dates from 1819 to 1965.

7. Henry Probert, The History of Changi (Singapore: Changi Prison Press, 1965; reprinted Singapore: Changi University Press, 2006); and David Nelson, The Story of Changi Singapore, 3rd edition (Singapore: Changi Museum, 2012).

8. C.J.W.L. Wee, “Contending with Primordialism: The ‘Modern’ Construction of Postcolonial Singapore,” Positions 1, no. 3 (1993), 715–44, 736–7.

9. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage Books, 1979).

10. Herbert Spencer, “Prison-Ethics,” The British Quarterly Review (July 1860), in Herbert Spencer, Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative, Vol. 3 (London: Williams and Norgate, 1891); and F.J. Mouat, “On Prison Ethics and Prison Labour,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 54, no. 2 (June 1891).

11. Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977, trans. Colin Gordon (Brighton: Harvester Press, 1980), 81–3.

12. The subaltern studies approach involves “deconstructing” colonial and nationalist historiography to include the histories of nonelites and minorities. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing Historiography,” in Selected Subaltern Studies, eds. Ranajit Guha and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 3–32.

13. Kevin Blackburn and Karl Hack, War Memory and the Making of Modern Malaysia and Singapore (Singapore: NUS Press, 2012); and P. Lim Pui Huen and Diana Wong, War and Memory in Malaysia and Singapore (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Press, 2000).

14. Transportation commenced to Penang in 1790, to Singapore in 1825 and Melaka in 1805. See Anoma Pieris, Hidden Hands and Divided Landscapes: A Penal History of Singapore’s Plural Society (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2009) for a detailed study of this system.

15. J.F.A. McNair, Prisoners Their Own Warders (London: Archibald Constable, 1899).

16. Pieris, Hidden Hands, 66, 98–101.

17. Butterworth Rules of 1845–1846, British Library, India Office Records, IOR F/4/2520, 144695, India Judicial: Col. W. Butterworth, Governor PWI, Singapore and Melaka to J.P. Grant, Secretary to the Govt. of India, Fort William, 23 August 1851.

18. Pieris, Hidden Hands, 70–3, 93.

19. Pieris, Hidden Hands, 104–16.

20. Pieris, Hidden Hands, 199–207; and Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Brooke, and Roland Braddell eds. One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vols. 1 & 2 (reprint, Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991; orig. pub., London: John Murray, 1921), 289.

21. David Arnold, “India: The Contested Prison,” in Cultures of Confinement: A History of the Prison in Africa, Asia and Latin America, eds. Frank Dikotter and Ian Brown (London: Hurst, 2007), 147–84, 166.

22. Ho Pei Ying, “The Outram Prison: A Colonial Invasion through Sanitation and Health, 1882–1936”, Independent Study Module (ISM): HY4660 (History), National University of Singapore, 2013, unpublished paper. Thanks to Jiat-Hwee Chang for introducing me to this material.

23. Criminal Prison, Singapore 1881, CO 700/SS, National Archives, Kew, UK.

24. Singapore Prison Service, accessed January 29, 2015, http://www.sps.gov.sg/about-us/prison-story.

25. Nakahara Michiko, “The Civilian Women’s Internment Camp in Singapore: The World of POWWOW”, in New Perspectives on the Japanese Occupation in Malaya 186–216, eds. Akashi and Yoshimura, 196.

26. H.E. McKenzie, “A Japanese Internment Hell in Singapore: Changi Criminal Jail,” The Illustrated London News (27 October 1945), 450.

27. Dimensions of jail cell recreated at Changi Museum.

28. David Nelson, The Story of Changi Singapore (Singapore: Changi Publication, 1974; reprint Changi Museum, 2001), 18.

29. See, Anoma Pieris and Andrew Saniga, “Temporal Occupations: The Material Traces of Internment,” in Fabulation: Myth, Nature, Heritage-Proceedings of 29th Annual Conference, SAHANZ, eds. S. King, A. Chatterjee, and S. Loo (2012), 862–74.

30. Michelle McDonald ed. Changi (Sydney: Edmund & Alexander, 1992) [Official war artist Murray Griffin’s illustrated personal account of his time in Changi]; Tim Bowden, Changi Photographer: George Aspinall’s Record of Captivity (Sydney: ABC Enterprises and W. Collins for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1984); Artwork from the AWM image archive, ART26749 Allister and ART28907 Cochran; and Changi Cartoonist, George Sprod, Bamboo Round My Shoulder: Changi the Lighter Side (Kenthurst: Kangaroo Press, 1981).

31. Ronald Searle, To the Kwai and Back: War Drawings 1939–1945 (London: Collins in association with the Imperial War Museum, 1986); and Peter W. Stubbs, The Changi Murals: The Story of Stanley Warren’s War (Singapore: Landmark Books 2014).

32. Report of the Gillman Commission in Construction and defence of Singapore naval base, 1927, CO273/538 PRO, The National Archives, Kew; and L.N. Malan, “Singapore: The Founding of the New Defences,” Royal Engineers Journal, 52 (1938): 213–35.

33. Probert, The History of Changi, 18, 23; and J.F.F., “Changi Cantonment 1933–1937”, Royal Engineers Journal, 51 (1937): 355–62, 357–62.

34. Julian Davidson and Luca Invernizzi, Black and White: The Singapore House, 1898–1941 (Singapore: Talisman, 2006), 109–31.

35. Justin Corfield and Robin Corfield, The Fall of Singapore: 90 Days: November 1941–February 1942 (Melbourne: Hardie Grant, 2012).

36. Nelson, The Story of Changi, vi.

37. Nelson, The Story of Changi, 6.

38. Probert, The History of Changi, 28.

39. Havers, Reassessing the Japanese Prisoner of War Experience, 65–80. Following the execution of four men who attempted to escape in August 1942, around 15,000 men were confined in the barracks square until they signed the declaration.

40. Kevin Blackburn, The Sportsmen of Changi (Sydney: New South Books, University of New South Wales, 2012). The POW Artwork of Des Bettany, a British POW, is particularly illustrative of the range of activities. See “The Changi POW Artwork of Des Bettany,” accessed May 17, 2015, http://changipowart.com/; and Havers, Reassessing the Japanese Prisoner of War Experience, 60–1.

41. The memoirs of Brigadier H.B. Taylor (22nd Infantry Brigade, 8th Division) outline the creation and running of Changi University, AWM archive, PR 85/42 Papers of Brigadier H.B. Taylor, 22nd Bde AIF, AWM 419/49/34.

42. Michiko, “The Civilian Women’s Internment Camp,” 187.

43. Wilson, You’ll Never Get off the Island, 18.

44. Wilson, You’ll Never Get off the Island, 18–19.

45. Wilson, You’ll Never Get off the Island. The eight chapters of his book are named after these different locations.

46. Jon Cooper, “Tigers in the Park, POWs by the Pool, WWII History is Uncovered at Adam Park,” Passage (March/April 2011), 6. Accessed January 23, 2015, http://www.fom.sg/Passage/2011/03tigers.pdf.

47. Havers, Reassessing the Japanese Prisoner of War Experience, 61–2, 82–8.

48. Nelson, The Story of Changi, 18, 182.

49. The Thai-Burma Railway and Hell-fire Pass, Department of Veteran’s Affairs, accessed January 29, 2015, http://hellfire-pass.commemoration.gov.au/; and Paul H. Kratoska ed. Asian Labor in the Wartime Japanese Empire: Unknown Histories (New York, East Gate, 2005).

50. War Office records, WO 357/5, 1946–1948, The National Archives, UK.

51. Nelson, The Story of Changi, 139.

52. Based on drawing by Harold MacKenzie, Changi Museum collection.

53. Havers, Reassessing the Japanese Prisoner of War Experience, 137–65.

54. AWM, image archive, Changi, AWM 043131 and 116463.

55. Wilson, You’ll Never Get off the Island, 93.

56. Probert, The History of Changi, 45.

57. Braddon, The Naked Island, 233.

58. See, National Heritage Board, Singapore, The Japanese Occupation 1942–1945: A Pictorial Record of Singapore During the War (Singapore: Times Editions), 99, 171.

59. Blackburn and Hack, War Memory, 139.

60. Vernon Cornelius-Takahama, Pearls Hill Prison, Singapore Infopedia, Singapore Government, accessed January 22, 2015, http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_129_2005-01-25.html.

61. Probert, The History of Changi, 49.

62. The National Archives, Kew, UK, WO 357/5 (1946–1948).

63. Faizah bte Zakaria, Outram Prison, accessed January 22, 2015, http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1742_2010-12-17.html.

64. Blackburn and Hack, War Memory, 64–70.

65. Blackburn and Hack, War Memory, 135–73.

66. See Pieris and Saniga, “Temporal Occupations.”

67. Probert, The History of Changi, 97–8.

68. Loh Kah Seng, “The British Military Withdrawal from Singapore and the Anatomy of a Catalyst”, in Singapore in Global History, eds. Derek Heng and S.M.K. Aljunied (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2011), 195–213, 197.

69. Approximately, 50 camps and bases are maintained throughout the island (25 have been closed down to date). See “Camps and Bases of the Singapore Armed Forces,” accessed May 17, 2015, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camps_and_bases_of_the_Singapore_Armed_Forces. I have been unable to verify these figures.

70. The Trust was established in 1927 by the Singapore Improvement Ordinance originally under deputy chairman Captain Edwin Percy Richards, who conducted an ordnance survey of the island and proposed housing provision. But the Trust’s efforts at implementing Richard’s recommendations were inadequately supported by the pre-war colonial government. The Tiong Bahru Estate established in the 1930s was one of few examples built before the war. Obituary, Captain Edwin Percy Richards, 1873–1961, Institution of Civil Engineers, UK. (ICE) Proceedings 23, no. 3 (1 November 1962), 540–1. Accessed May 6, 2015, http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/article/10.1680/iicep.1962.10888.

71. Calvin Low, 10-Stories: Queenstown through the Years (Singapore: Education and Outreach Division, National Heritage Board in collaboration with Central Singapore Community Development Council and Queenstown Citizens’ Consultative Committee, 2007), 41, in reference to Housing and Development Board Annual Report (Singapore, 1960).

72. Calvin Low, 10-Stories, 9–23.

73. “New Homes for Hundreds,” The Straits Times, May 27, 1953, 5, Micrifilm Reel No. NL3304, National Library Board Libraries, Singapore; see also Proposed Development at Alexandra Rd – Buller Camp – Princess Margaret Estate, 1952, Singapore Improvement Trust, HDB 1080, National Archives of Singapore.

74. Roger Smith, “Dawson Road, Then and Now, Singapore Sojourn,” (1 June 2010). Accessed May 6, 2015, http://singaporesojourn.blogspot.com.au/2010/06/dawson-road-now-and-then.html. Smith describes a description by an Indian POW, John Baptist Crasta, who was evacuated on 12 February ahead of the Japanese advance and returned on 12 June under the Japanese.

75. Low, 10-Stories, 99–105.

76. Aline K. Wong and Stephen H.K. Yeh, eds. Housing a Nation: 25 Years of Public Housing in Singapore (Singapore: Maruzen Asia for Housing & Development Board, 1985).

77. First Decade in Public Housing 1960–1969 (Singapore: Singapore Housing Development Board, 1970).

78. Low, 10-Stories, 99. The prison was demolished in 2010.

79. Loh Kah Seng, “The British Military Withdrawal from Singapore,” 212.

80. Chua Beng Huat, Communitarian Ideology and Democracy in Singapore (London: Routledge, 1995), 109.

81. Chua Beng Huat, Political Legitimacy and Housing: Stakeholding in Singapore (London: Routledge, 1997).

82. Blackburn and Hack, War Memory, 89–95; and The Changi Museum Website. Accessed March 2, 2012, http://www.changimuseum.com/exhibition/chapel.htm.

83. CPG Consultants, “Redevelopment of Changi Prison Complex.” Accessed January 23, 2015, http://www.cpgcorp.com.sg/CPGC/Project/Project_Details?ProjectID=1265.

84. Andy Goh Koo Joon, “Super-Utilitarian High-Rise Prison Living Singapore Prison Service, Changi Prison Complex, Cluster B,” Singapore Architect, 184 (2010): 84–9.

85. Linda Low, “The Political Economy of Migrant Worker Policy in Singapore,” Asia Pacific Business Review 8, Vol. 4 (2002), 95–118, 95. This is the terminology used by the government to describe elite expatriate workers in Singapore.

86. “Singapore and US: Security Partners, Not Allies,” The International Relations and Security Network, ETH Zurich (27 August 2013). Accessed May 17, 2015, http://www.isn.ethz.ch/Digital-Library/Articles/Detail/?id=168339; and “Singapore Changi Naval Base,” Global Security.org., military. Accessed May 17, 2015, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/singapore.htm.

87. “Changi Naval Base, Changi East, Singapore,” Naval-technology.com. Accessed May 17, 2015, http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/changi-naval-base/; and “NDR 2013: Leonard Lim, Paya Lebar Airbase to be Moved to Changi, Area Freed Up for Homes and Industry,” The Straits Times, August 18, 2013. Accessed May 17, 2015, http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/ndr-2013-paya-lebar-airbase-be-moved-changi-area-freed-homes-and-indus.