Singapore: Diplomats from India, Japan and eight other countries laid wreaths at the Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore, marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in which 67,000 Indian soldiers were killed.
Japanese Ambassador Haruhisa Takeuchi led the wreath laying ceremony and was joined by Indian High Commissioner Vijay Thakur Singh as well as ambassadors and diplomats from eight other nations at the war cemetery here last evening.
The somber ceremony remembered the brave soldiers of the then British Armed forces of 130,000, including 67,000 Indian soldiers, who died fighting the Japanese military in South East Asia in a seven-year war. Members of the Japanese community here placed strings of 1,500 colourful tsurus, paper cranes, symbolising peace.
The Indian community joined the multi-religious prayers held for the brave soldiers while the Sikh community here presented a plaque to the Changi Museum, which has one of the largest collections of insignias, plaques and pictures of the war, some showing jailed soldiers and civilians in the then Japanese occupied Singapore.
The pictures includes execution of the Indian soldiers along with others from the allied military personnel who perished in Malaya and Singapore in WWII. "To ignore the grim lessons of history is to dishonor the memory of the thousands of men and women who lie here around us," said Singapore Law Professor Walter Woon at the cemetery where thousands of names of soldiers are listed on the walls and others lie in 4,500 graves for having lost their lives fighting for freedom.
Jeya Ayadurai, the director of The Changi Museum, said, "It takes courage to go to war. Likewise, it takes courage to make peace." "70 years on, while we remember the loss and sacrifice made by that brave generation of the war, it is also time to ensure that the peace of future generations are not endangered by painful memories of the Pacific War," said Ayadurai.
Soldiers, including retired armed forces veterans and some of whom who had witnessed the WWII, from Singapore, the UK, the US, France, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia, saluted as "The Last Post" was sounded by two buglers at the ceremony "Lest We Forget".
The Japanese forces in Singapore surrendered on September 12, 1945. This was the last major surrender in the entire war. It ended not only Japan's military occupation of South East Asia, but also the Pacific war. Singapore fell to the Japanese on February 15, 1942, and remained occupied for three years and seven months.
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