Old Ford Motor Factory

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Coordinates: 1°21′10″N103°46′07.5″E / 1.35278°N 103.768750°E / 1.35278; 103.768750

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Old Ford Motor Factory
Singapore location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location of Old Ford Motor Factory in Singapore
Location 315 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Built 1941
Governing body National Heritage Board
Designated 15 February 2006
The Old Ford Motor Factory has been gazetted as a National Monument, and converted into an exhibition gallery and archive named Memories at Old Ford Factory. In the foreground is a calligraphic sculpture titled He Ping (He Ping ), Chinese for "peace", by Singaporean artist Chua Boon Kee. Peace by Chua Boon Kee, Old Ford Motor Factory, Singapore - 20070316.jpg
The Old Ford Motor Factory has been gazetted as a National Monument, and converted into an exhibition gallery and archive named Memories at Old Ford Factory. In the foreground is a calligraphic sculpture titled He Ping (和平), Chinese for "peace", by Singaporean artist Chua Boon Kee.
Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Sugita Ichiji, marches under a flag of truce on the driveway towards the Ford Motor Factory to negotiate the capitulation of British forces in Singapore on 15 February 1942. Singaporesurrender.jpg
Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Sugita Ichiji, marches under a flag of truce on the driveway towards the Ford Motor Factory to negotiate the capitulation of British forces in Singapore on 15 February 1942.

The Old Ford Motor Factory, opened in October 1941 in Bukit Timah is located along Upper Bukit Timah Road. It is the place where British forces under Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival surrendered to Japanese forces under Lieutenant-General Yamashita Tomoyuki on 15 February 1942 after the Battle of Singapore.

Bukit Timah Planning Area and HDB Estate in Central Region -----, Singapore

Bukit Timah, often abbreviated as Bt Timah, is a planning area and residential estate located in the westernmost part of the Central Region of Singapore. Bukit Timah lies roughly 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the Central Business District, bordering the Central Water Catchment to the north, Bukit Panjang to the northwest, Queenstown to the south, Tanglin to the southeast, Clementi to the southwest, Novena to the east and Bukit Batok to the west.

Arthur Percival British army officer in the First and Second World Wars

Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival, was a senior British Army officer. He saw service in the First World War and built a successful military career during the interwar period but is most noted for his defeat in the Second World War, when he commanded British Commonwealth forces during the Japanese Malayan Campaign and the subsequent Battle of Singapore.

Tomoyuki Yamashita general in the Imperial Japanese Army

Tomoyuki Yamashita was a Japanese general of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Yamashita led Japanese forces during the invasion of Malaya and Battle of Singapore, with his accomplishment of conquering Malaya and Singapore in 70 days earning him the sobriquet The Tiger of Malaya and led to the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, calling the ignominious fall of Singapore to Japan the "worst disaster" and "largest capitulation" in British military history. Yamashita was assigned to defend the Philippines from the advancing Allied forces later in the war, and while unable to stop the Allied advance, he was able to hold on to part of Luzon until after the formal Surrender of Japan in August 1945.

History

The factory was established and built by Ford Motor Works in October of 1941 and possessed an Art Deco-style façade, which was typical of most buildings and structures, both public and private, of that era, and became Ford's first motor-car and vehicle assembly and construction plant in the region of Southeast Asia. [1] However, Japanese military forces invaded Singapore shortly thereafter. During the Malayan Campaign starting from December of 1941, the factory's modern and state-of-the-art assembly equipment was taken over and used by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) to assemble fighter aircraft for defending Allied air forces in the region, aside from the RAF. The fighter planes, most of which were of American origin (such as the Brewster Buffalo), came in individual break-down parts that were shipped to Singapore in large wooden crates. However, most of the aircraft constructed at the factory never fulfilled their intended purpose of defending British Malaya as well as their main stronghold of Singapore. They were all gradually flown out of Singapore towards the end of January of 1942 when the prospects for Singapore's defence against the Japanese military's conquest looked bleak and grim. Many battles and skirmishes were fought between British forces and Japanese troops around the areas of the Ford Motor Factory in Bukit Panjang, Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Batok and Bukit Timah. The factory was subsequently captured and taken over by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and used as its military headquarters for commanding of all of its forces in both the recently-captured Malaya as well as Singapore. Following the British military surrender of Singapore on 15 February in that same year, IJA forces relocated its headquarters from the motor plant to Raffles College along Bukit Timah Road.

Art Deco Influential visual arts design style which first appeared in France during the 1920s

Art Deco, sometimes referred to as Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture and design that first appeared in France just before World War I. Art Deco influenced the design of buildings, furniture, jewelry, fashion, cars, movie theatres, trains, ocean liners, and everyday objects such as radios and vacuum cleaners. It took its name, short for Arts Décoratifs, from the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes held in Paris in 1925. It combined modern styles with fine craftsmanship and rich materials. During its heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress.

Malayan Campaign military campaign

The Malayan Campaign was a military campaign fought by Allied and Axis forces in Malaya, from 8 December 1941 – 31 January 1942 during the Second World War. It was dominated by land battles between British Commonwealth army units, and the Imperial Japanese Army with minor skirmishes at the beginning of the campaign between British Commonwealth and Royal Thai Armed Forces. The Japanese had air and naval supremacy from the opening days of the campaign. For the British, Indian, Australian and Malayan forces defending the colony, the campaign was a total disaster.

Royal Air Force Aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces

The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world. Following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. Since its formation, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history. In particular, it played a large part in the Second World War where it fought its most famous campaign, the Battle of Britain.

During the Japanese occupation of Singapore from 1942 to 1945, the factory was designated as a butai, or a Japanese-run facility. Nissan, which was then (and still is) a prominent zaibatsu , or a Japanese multi-national company, took over the entire plant to assemble trucks and other motor vehicles for the Japanese military based in Malaya and Singapore as well as abroad elsewhere, such as in its various occupied territories in the Asia-Pacific region.

Japanese occupation of Singapore Japanese military rule over Singapore, including massacres of Chinese Singaporeans

The Japanese occupation of Singapore or Syonan-to in World War II took place from 1942 to 1945, following the fall of the British colony on 15 February 1942. Military forces of the Empire of Japan occupied it after defeating the combined British, Indian, Australian, and Malayan garrison in the Battle of Singapore. The occupation was to become a major turning point in the histories of several nations, including those of Japan, Britain, and the then-colonial state of Singapore. Singapore was renamed Syonan-to, meaning "Light of the South Island" and was also included as part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Nissan automotive brand manufacturer

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., usually shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama. The company sells its cars under the Nissan, Infiniti, and Datsun brands with in-house performance tuning products labelled Nismo. The company traces its name to the Nissan zaibatsu, now called Nissan Group.

<i>Zaibatsu</i> industrial and financial business conglomerate in the Empire of Japan

Zaibatsu is a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period until the end of World War II. They were succeeded by the Keiretsu in the second half of the 20th century.

The Ford Motor Factory returned back to the Ford corporation following the Japanese surrender in August of 1945. Normal business operations under Ford was restarted in 1947. Between 1947 to 1980, the plant continued to produce cars and vehicles, including parts and equipment (such as tyres and engine components) for the local as well as regional markets. Ford Motor Factory finally closed its doors permanently and shut down in June of 1980 and was left abandoned for some time since then.

During the time of the factory's abandonment, several horror stories regarding the old factory began circulating amongst the local population, mostly centred on the periods of the end of British colonial rule over the island in February of 1942 and the subsequent Japanese occupation of Singapore and its final end in 1945. Such paranormal tales of the former motor plant include the presence of ghosts of former Japanese personnel and troops once stationed at the motor plant, some of whom also committed suicide at the factory following their country's surrender at the end of WWII, and the sightings and sounds of supernatural activities at the locked-up premises, such as the supposed hearing of old Japanese music and songs dating back to the decades of the 1930s and the 1940s and alleged sightings of restless (perhaps sometimes even hostile and malevolent) spirits roaming around the old factory's buildings.

On 7 February in 2006, the Preservation of Monuments Board announced that it would gazette the historic factory for preservation as a National Monument on the 64th anniversary of the British surrender of Singapore and its subsequent fall to Imperial Japan on 15 February of 1942. [2] [3] [4]

A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper.

The National Archives of Singapore, the new custodian of the historical site, has converted the building to house an exhibition gallery and repository called Memories at Old Ford Factory. The preserved Old Ford Motor Factory underwent a two-year, S$10.3 million facelift and is now the National Archives's second repository for its growing archives of various media. The permanent exhibition gallery showcases life in Singapore under Japanese rule, and the exhibition is a continuation from the one on the last battles fought at Pasir Panjang.

National Archives of Singapore The national archives of Singapore

The National Archives of Singapore (NAS) is the national archives of Singapore. It was formed in August 1993 with the merging of the National Archives and the Oral History Department. The NAS is responsible for the collection and management of records relating to the nation's political, social and economic history. NAS also identifies and collects records of historical significance from local and overseas private sources. In 1993, both NAS and the National Museum of Singapore were brought under the administration of the National Heritage Board.

Archive institution responsible for storing, preserving, describing, and providing access to historical records

An archive is an accumulation of historical records or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of that person or organization. Professional archivists and historians generally understand archives to be records that have been naturally and necessarily generated as a product of regular legal, commercial, administrative, or social activities. They have been metaphorically defined as "the secretions of an organism", and are distinguished from documents that have been consciously written or created to communicate a particular message to posterity.

Battle of Pasir Panjang

The Battle of Pasir Panjang, which took place between 12 and 15 February 1942, was part of the final stage of the Empire of Japan's invasion of Singapore during World War II. The battle was initiated upon the advancement of elite Imperial Japanese Army forces towards Pasir Panjang Ridge on 13 February.

The original factory building was very deep but much of it has been removed leaving the front facade and a building of moderate depth. Careful restoration work had been undertaken for the building to ensure that its façade was restored as close as possible to the building's original facade when it was first completed in 1941. The boardroom where the surrender took place remains intact and is preserved. It contains a replica of the original table (the original now with the Australian War Memorial), a clock set at the exact time of the surrender, and a map of Malaya. There is now a large modern structure at the street level south of the factory building where visitors can enter and have a walk either up the hill or through this building to the factory.

The journey through the exhibition begins at a reconstructed tunnel, which documents the events leading to the fall of Singapore. Newspaper clips, maps and historical artefacts line the walls, ceiling and floor of the tunnel. At the same time, new facilities such as an audio-visual theatre, with a seating capacity for 76 people, are also integrated into the refurbishment. The theatre screens specially commissioned documentaries, highlighting different aspects of life in Syonan-to – the name given to Singapore during the Japanese occupation. The garden plot behind the gallery features wartime crops like tapioca, sugar cane and bananas with a wooden walkway similar to that found during the period as well as explanations of the plants.

Behind the museum are tall condominium buildings and a transmission tower. The front of the museum features a Chinese calligraphic sculpture called He Ping (和平, "peace" in Chinese), storyboards recounting the battles fought during the Malayan Campaign and the history of Bukit Timah, as well as a granite rock carved with a statement from a decree by Tang dynasty Emperor Taizong urging visitors to "take history as a lesson".

Memories at Old Ford Factory

Memories at Old Ford Factory (Chinese: 昭南福特车厂纪念馆; Malay: Kenangan di Kilang Ford Lama) was officially opened by Singapore's Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean on 16 February 2006. The museum had free admission during its first year of opening. The museum had 57,800 visitors in 2010 alone, [5] but it was closed for renovations in 2016. [6]

Surviving the Japanese Occupation: War and its Legacies (formally Syonan Gallery)

The World War II permanent exhibition was reopened under the name Surviving the Japanese Occupation: War and Its Legacies on 15 February 2017, by Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Tyers, Ray. Singapore: Then and Now. Singapore: Landmark Books, 1993. 525.
  2. ↑ "Site of British surrender in WW2 to be preserved as national monument". Channel NewsAsia. 7 February 2006.
  3. ↑ Today, Relive WWII horrors at new monument, 16 February 2006
  4. ↑ Press Release by Preservation of Monuments Board on "Gazetting of Old Ford Motor Factory as a National Monument Archived 25 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine ."
  5. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
  6. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 19 May 2016. Retrieved 29 May 2016.

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