War stories

Reflections on the commemorative exhibition “Dislocations: Memory and Meaning of the Fall of Singapore, 1942” at the National Museum of Singapore

A decommissioned AMX-13 SM1 tank on display on the front lawn of the National Museum of Singapore. All photographs in this story were personally taken by the writer.

In 1942, a day after the British surrendered Singapore to the Japanese, a procession of Japanese Army tanks paraded past City Hall. This parade marked several years of suffering and pain under…