Singapore marks 60th anniversary of Japan's WWII surrender

SINGAPORE (AP) - Britain's armed forces minister joined hundreds of World War II veterans, some in wheelchairs and leaning on canes, who commemorated fallen comrades at dawn Monday on the 60th anniversary of the surrender of Singapore by Japanese forces. 

At a war cemetery lined with thousands of white tombstones, veterans from Britain, the United States, Australia and New Zealand stood in silence as a Singapore Police Force officer played a mournful tune on bagpipes. 

Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister, and other officials laid wreaths at a memorial plinth, a marble slab with an engraved that said: "They died for all free men.'' 

Ex-seaman and war veteran from New Zealand, John Brock, stands following a commemoration ceremony Monday at the Kranji War Memorial in Singapore. APpic

"Today's ceremony deals with very sad memories, but it's a fitting tribute to those who had made sacrifices as well as those who survived,'' Ingram said. 

"For some of the veterans who are getting older, they may never get to commemorate this day again.'' 

Tokyo's surrender ended World War II on Aug. 15, 1945. 

British Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram, right, speaks to Singaporean war veterans Elizabeth Choy, left, and James Supramaniam, second from left, following a commemoration ceremony Monday, at the Kranji War Memorial in Singapore. - APpic

Though fighting had ended, Japanese forces in Singapore officially surrendered on Sept. 12, with Gen. Seishiro Itagaki signing a document at city hall in the presence of Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten, supreme Allied commander in Southeast Asia. 

The British gave self-government to Singapore in 1959, and it later was incorporated into newly independent Malaysia. Singapore became a nation in its own right in 1965. 

Kranji state cemetery holds the graves of nearly 5,000 Allied soldiers, many of whom perished in harsh conditions as prisoners of war. 

At least 800 have not been identified.Lee Boon Yang, Singapore's minister of information, communication and the arts, said the memorial was a reminder that a strong defence force was vital to national survival. 

"History reminds us that even vast empires which survive for hundreds of years cannot presume to be able to last forever,'' he said.  

"Much less small city-states which face a precarious existence.'' 

After the service, people chatted over a "gunfire breakfast'' of hot coffee and rum, a British military tradition. Veterans swapped stories and compared medals. 

"It was good to remember those who gave up their lives for freedom,'' said 95-year-old Elizabeth Choy, a Singaporean who helped smuggle money, food, medicine and radio parts into a prison that held 75,000 Allied prisoners of war and civilians. 

A national hero, she features in school textbooks for her 200-day ordeal of imprisonment and torture by the Japanese secret police. 

Singapore was touted as an impregnable fortress before it fell swiftly to Japanese forces on Feb. 15, 1942.  

Once the lynchpin of the British defense of Malaya, which later became independent Malaysia, it was one in a succession of territories that fell as the Japanese swept across Southeast Asia. 

About 80,000 Indian, Australian and British troops were captured in Singapore. Winston Churchill, Britain's wartime prime minister, described the fall as "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history.'' - AP

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