Saturdays: WWII Japanese Surrender 75th Anniversary

So often we associate these words with the ignominious surrender to the Japanese on 15 February 1942, but the surrender by the Japanese on 12 September 1945 is an equally important date in the story of WWII in Singapore. We will briefly explore the old 1930s Army buildings at Beach Road and cross to Raffles Hotel. It was often used by the Japanese during the Occupation—when it was known as Syonan Ryokan, incorporating ‘syonan’ (“Light of the South”), the Japanese name for occupied Singapore, and ‘ryokan,’ the name for a traditional Japanese inn and was the site of an infamous incident in August 1945. We will then walk to the far side of the Padang to see various war related memorials and look back to the old City Hall, now part of the National Gallery, where the actual surrender by the Japanese Lord Mountbatten and the other Allies took place on 12 September 1945. We will visit to actual “surrender room,” ie the City Chamber and the steps on which Mountbatten made his speech.