Kairospix Photoblog
Life – Peace Took Flight Over The Water
Posted by kairospix (Singapore, Singapore) on 10 September 2007 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.
This week I’m going to start on a series of shots from Punggol Beach in Singapore.
Punggol Beach is a World War II historical site. It was here that hundreds of Chinese in Singapore were gathered by the Japanese soldiers and shot simply because they were suspected of being either a supporter or a spy for China. The bloody crackdown was called “Sook Ching” massacre. You can read more about it here and here.
When the British soldiers surrendered to the Japanese army, Singapore became a “colony” of Japan for about 3½ years and was named as “Syonan-to” which means “Light of the South”. You can read more about the Battle of Singapore here and the subsequent Japanese Occupation of Singapore here.
Somehow this shot captures for me the idea that as the Japanese sun rose over Singapore during those war years, peace (symbolized by the bird) took flight over the waters and left. Those 3½ years were dark years…
Last week one of my Japanese students whom I taught some years ago in Japan came to Singapore for a visit. She wanted to see a memorial for those who died during the war years and because of an error in a Japanese travel guide book we ended up visiting Fort Siloso at Sentosa Island. It turned out to be most educational for her because there were exhibits about the Japanese Occupation. She shared that she was glad to see the exhibits because in Japan the Japanese Ministry of Education censors the information quite heavily in Japanese history books and she also talked about how Hideki Tojo although a class A war criminal has been buried at the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, a war memorial for the Japanese war dead. I’m glad to know her father has been an avid war history buff and has read much about the truth of the war atrocities. It must have rubbed on to her. I’m glad to know too that there are many Japanese teachers who have voiced their protest over the heavy censorship of their history textbooks. Thank goodness for teachers who seek to teach their students the truth!
Eventually she got to see the memorial she came across in the travel guide book when I took her back to the civic district area on the mainland as I had suspected that it might have been this particular memorial she had in mind. I think she was happy to have been able to visit it as well as the nearby War memorial. Several times during her trip here in Singapore, she joked that I could be a tour guide and that she was surprised I knew so much…hmm…I think I have Singapore’s education system to thank for that! :)
May peace and truth not take flight but always reign.
Camera - Canon Powershot G6
Lens - Canon 7.2 - 28.8mm (approx. 35 - 140mm)
Capture date - 18 Aug 2007
Aperture - f 8.0
Shutter speed - 1/60 sec
Shooting mode - aperture priority
Exposure bias - 0EV
Metering mode - Pattern
ISO - 50
Focal length - 28.8mm (approx. 140mm)
Stabilization - Hand-held
Lighting? - Outdoor Natural Light
Flash - Not fired
Post-processing? - PS LRoom processed
Cropped? - No
