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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ001114A
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00:01 Fort Canning Hill is located right in the very heart of downtown
00:05 Singapore. And you travel back in time as you walk through the 00:09 Fort gates and along the adjoining wall in Visually Port 00:13 all part of the fortress that occupied this hill. This iconic 00:18 hilltop landmark has witnessed many of Singapore's historical 00:22 historical milestones. It was from here that Malay royalty 00:26 ruled in medieval times. Nearby was the Forbidden Spring where 00:32 the women of the ruler's household used to bathe. 00:34 On its slopes is 00:36 a sacred place where the kings of ancient Singapore were laid 00:39 to rest. Here you can trace the rise and fall of great empires. 00:46 You can hear stories of rulers and governors that commanded 00:49 from this hill and the empire builders who are buried here. 00:53 The British built a colonial fort here and then in World War 00:57 II hidden away underneath this hill they built their secret 01:02 underground command center. And it was here deep underground in 01:10 The Battlebox that the momentous decision was made to 01:14 surrender Singapore to the Japanese, the decision that 01:18 marked the beginning of the end of the mighty British Empire. 01:22 The battle for Singapore provides insight into the 01:26 universal battle, the great controversy that involves all 01:31 of us. Yes, even you and me. So stay tuned to hear all about 01:36 it in our new program The Battle Box. 01:39 ♪ ♪ 02:09 Singapore is a modern day wonder It's a wealthy city-state in 02:14 southeast Asia sometimes referred to as the Lion's city. 02:18 Once it was just a simple British colonial trading post, 02:23 but today it's morphed into a thriving global finance, 02:27 commerce and transport hub. It's described as one of Asia's 02:33 economic tigers. In just over 50 years since gaining independence 02:38 from Britain in 1963, Singapore has become one of the most 02:43 prosperous countries in the world. No wonder it's all action 02:48 here and such a bustling metropolis. But amongst all the 02:55 hustle and bustle this green oasis Fort Canning Hill is found 03:00 right in the very heart of Singapore. This green park area 03:05 offers residents and visitors a moment of calm as well as the 03:10 insight into Singapore's rich past. Here it's possible to 03:15 escape much of the busy city and journey back 700 years into the 03:21 past to the era of the five kings and the golden age of 14th 03:25 century Singapore. Here you can replace the sounds of the city 03:30 with the sounds of nature. In ancient times Fort Canning 03:36 Hill was 03:38 known as Bukit Larangan or the Forbidden Hill. This is where 03:41 the Malay kings built their palaces and only the royal 03:45 family and their attendants were allowed in this area. 03:48 For everyone else, this was a forbidden hill. Archeologists 03:54 have excavated here and found Japanese artifacts dating from 03:59 the 14th century when Singapore was part of the Malay empire. 04:04 Farther along the pathway this small bridge used to overlook a 04:11 fresh water stream. The stream has now completely disappeared. 04:14 According to ancient Malayan/ Chinese sources Singapore had a 04:19 mote and a wall. It ran along this stream that was probably 04:23 the parat Singapore or the Mote of Singapore. The British 04:29 arrived in Singapore in 1819. At the time they were extending 04:36 their dominion in India and expanding their trade with China 04:40 and they needed a port of call in this region to refit, 04:45 revitalize and protect their merchant ships that were sailing 04:48 the India/China sea route. They also wanted to forestall any 04:54 advance and competition by the Dutch in this region. So they 04:58 sent for Stamford Raffles to establish a British presence 05:00 here. When he 05:04 arrived to develop colonial Singapore as a trading post of 05:07 the East India Company he quickly recognized the strategic 05:11 significance of the Forbidden Hill and took advantage of its 05:15 resources and location. And it was here on this hilltop that 05:21 Raffles built his first government mansion. Subsequent 05:26 governors enlarged the house and it became known as Government 05:30 House while the hill was known as Government Hill. But 05:33 Government House was demolished in 1859 and the hill was 05:37 converted into a fort and renamed Fort Canning. The fort 05:43 protected Singapore from attack by sea and gave the European 05:47 population a refuge in the event of local disturbances. There was 05:54 even a Sally Port, a secret small door leading in and out of 06:00 the fort. Originally there were three of these doors that 06:05 allowed people to slip unnoticed in and out of the fort. Around 06:09 the 1920s and 30s the hill was transformed into an auxiliary 06:14 fort overlooking the town and harbor that would have been 06:18 bustling with horses and carriages, carts, and trishaws 06:22 and people plying their wares along the shoreline. Now it was such 06:29 a long and fascinating history reaching back more than 700 06:34 years. It shouldn't come as a surprise to find that Fort 06:38 Canning Hill, The Forbidden Hill has its share of hidden secrets. 06:41 And one of the biggest is right here. Hidden away behind this 06:48 door is a secret underground command center called The 06:53 Battlebox. As World War II became more of a reality the 06:57 British decided to construct this bomb proof shelter nine 07:01 meters below Fort Canning Hill. It was started in 1936 and was 07:06 the largest military operations complex in Singapore. It was 07:11 used by the British military as a nerve center for their 07:15 operations in southeast Asia and was the combined operations 07:19 headquarters during the Malayan campaign and the battle for 07:24 Singapore. It's got one meter thick reinforced concrete walls 07:28 that were constructed to withstand direct hits from bombs 07:31 and shells. The Battlebox is made up of 29 rooms. There's a 07:38 telephone exchange that connected all military and most 07:41 civilian switchboards in Malaya and Singapore. Then farther 07:47 along is a signal room and a signal control room where 07:51 messages were picked up or sent off. It was linked to bases in 07:55 Malaya, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia and Laos. The cipher 08:02 room was where all these messages were decoded and 08:06 encoded using the various military code books and 08:10 enciphering equipment. Then in the gun operations room is where 08:15 air attacks and details were plotted from data provided by 08:19 signals and by telephone links. Here commanders bunkered The 08:25 Battlebox found out what was happening on the battlefield and 08:29 passed out orders to units in the field. And the most 08:37 important room of all, the conference room or commander 08:41 anti-aircraft defense room. This is where the leading military 08:46 personnel met to make the most important decisions and it was 08:50 here deep underground in The Battlebox that a momentous 08:55 decision was made in World War II that marked the beginning of 08:59 the end of the mighty British empire. Here's what happened. 09:06 In the years leading up to the Second World War Singapore was 09:11 considered an impregnable island fortress. It was a strategic 09:16 stronghold in the eastern part of the mighty British empire. In 09:21 fact, Winston Churchill, Britain's wartime prime minister 09:25 called Singapore the Gibraltar of the east. Singapore was 09:30 considered well protected and safe. It had an impressive naval 09:35 defense system consisting of huge guns facing south out to 09:40 sea and in the north lay hundreds of kilometers of dense 09:44 jungle that the British considered impenetrable. 09:48 Also stationed on the island were almost 100,000 British, 09:53 Canadian, Australian and Indian troops and the situation seemed 09:58 even more secure with two British war ships the HMS Prince 10:03 of Wales and Repulse along with four destroyers birthed in 10:07 Singapore's harbor. But in reality Singapore was far from 10:13 secure. On the 8th of December 1941 just hours before the 10:18 Japanese air force attacked the American fleet in Pearl Harbor, 10:21 the Japanese invaded the Malay peninsula. They moved troops 10:25 south through Thailand, then known as Siam as well as 10:30 making landings 10:37 under cover of darkness Japanese troops crossed the Straits 10:41 of Jahal and invaded Singapore. They were supported by 10:46 intense ground and 10:47 air bombardment. By morning thousands more troops had landed 10:52 The well trained and battle hardened Japanese forces moved 10:56 swiftly across the island. Soon Singapore was under constant 11:01 aerial bomb attacks resulting in shocking civilian casualties. 11:06 Allied troops were retreating and the lack of food, water, 11:10 petrol, ammunition, and other essential supplies was causing 11:15 insurmountable problems. On the 15th of February 1942, 11:22 Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, commander of the 11:25 British Commonwealth forces in Malaya called a meeting of 11:30 senior officers here in the commander anti-aircraft 11:33 defense room in The Battlebox. They met here to decide the fate 11:36 of Singapore and of 100,000 British and Commonwealth troops 11:40 stationed here. Percival advised the officers that there were no 11:45 viable options for launching a counter attack. They had limited 11:50 ammunition, little fuel and the Japanese now controlled the 11:54 city's water supply. A counter attack just wasn't possible. 12:00 So that left only two options: fight to the death or surrender. 12:07 It took just 15 minutes for the British officers to make the 12:13 momentous decision to surrender Singapore to the Japanese. Here 12:18 in this room the pain of defeat became reality. Percival and his 12:24 team of military officers hunkered around the table as 12:28 they planned their next grim move. Later that day a four 12:34 man delegation left The Battlebox at 4:10 at Fort 12:37 Canning Hill to meet the Japanese at 12:43 the Ford factory in Bukit Timah The delegation was led by 12:45 Percival and he was accompanied by Captain Ciril Wilde carrying 12:48 the huge white surrender flag and Brigadier Nubriging carrying 12:52 the Union Jack and Brigadier Torrence. The Ford factory was 13:01 built-in 1941 and became Ford's first motor car assembly plant 13:07 in southeast Asia. However at the start of the war the factory 13:11 modern assembly equipment was used by the Royal Air Force to 13:15 assemble fighter planes. But after the Japanese crossed the 13:19 straits and entered Singapore, Lieutenant General Yamashita and 13:24 his staff officers established their military headquarters 13:27 right here at the Ford Motor Factory. When Lieutenant-General 13:33 Percival and the British delegation arrived here, they 13:36 were met by Japanese propaganda units who filmed and 13:39 photographed them. Captain Wilde was still carrying the large 13:44 white flag and Brigadier Nubriging had the Union Jack. 13:48 Captain Wilde 13:49 was so incensed by the Japanese filming their 13:54 humiliation that he threw down the white flag. The delegation 13:58 was met on the driveway by Colonel Sugita and ushered 14:02 toward the Ford factory. The surrender party was led to the 14:09 factory's conference room. Here Lieutenant General Arthur 14:13 Percival, commander of the British forces, met with 14:16 Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita, commander of the 14:21 Japanese forces. They sat here to negotiate the surrender terms 14:25 The board room remains intact and is preserved to provide an 14:31 insight into how the meeting unfolded. It contains the four 14:37 original chairs and a replica of the original table. The original 14:41 is now in the Australian War Memorial. The clock, set at the 14:45 exact time of the surrender and a map of Malaya. Copies of the 14:52 surrender documents are also on display. Percival tried to stall 14:57 for time. But Yamashita demanded an immediate, unconditional 15:03 surrender and pressed insistently for a cease fire. 15:06 Percival wanted to wait until the next morning before giving 15:11 an answer but Yamashita threatened to launch a massive 15:14 attack on the city that very night. This would have been 15:17 disastrous for Singapore and the civilian population. Faced 15:23 with no alternative Percival signed the unconditional 15:27 surrender terms at 6:20 p.m. on the 15th of February 1942. The 15:35 battle for Singapore was over. It had lasted just seven days. 15:39 It was Britain's greatest military defeat and the largest 15:43 surrender of troops in British history. One hundred and forty 15:48 thousand troops and civilians in Singapore were captured, wounded 15:52 or killed. Around 80,000 British Indian and Australian troops 15:58 based in Singapore became prisoners of war. The surrender 16:03 of Singapore marked the beginning of the end of the 16:07 mighty British empire. Britain lost its foothold in the east 16:10 and the idea of the invincible European soldier was gone 16:18 forever. After the surrender, the Japanese wanted the Union 16:25 Jack as a war trophy but Wilde wouldn't give them that 16:27 satisfaction. At the risk of his life he hid the flag and took 16:32 it with him when he was imprisoned in the notorious 16:36 Chaney prisoner of war camp. Wilde and other prisoners 16:39 courageously managed to conceal the flag from the guards 16:42 throughout the period of captivity. They only brought it 16:47 out of hiding during the funerals of British and empire 16:49 soldiers who died as a result of Japanese brutality. Only a 16:56 handful of men knew the flag's history. The British surrender 17:01 to Japan marked the start of one of the darkest chapters in 17:06 Singapore's history. The island endured three and a half years 17:09 of brutal Japanese occupation which included a massacre of the 17:13 Chinese population, a massacre that was to claim up to 70,000 17:19 lives. Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival was briefly held 17:24 prisoner here in Chaney Prison along with 55,000 Allied 17:28 prisoners and civilians. Then along with other senior British 17:33 captives he was removed from Singapore in August 1942. First 17:38 he was imprisoned in Formosa, now known as Taiwan, then sent 17:44 to Manchuria where he was held in a high security prisoner of 17:47 war camp for VIP captives including the American General 17:51 Johnathan Wainwright. After the fall of Singapore the Japanese 18:00 advance continued on through the Pacific to the Philippines and 18:03 was only finally halted when all four of its aircraft carriers 18:07 were destroyed by the U.S. in the battle of Midway. Japan 18:12 eventually agreed to surrender after the Americans dropped 18:17 atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The signing of the 18:21 Japanese surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in 18:26 Tokyo Bay on the 2nd of September 1945. Before 18:30 confirming the terms of the Japanese surrender General 18:35 Douglas MacArthur requested that two men be present, the two 18:40 freed prisoners from Manchuria, Percival and Wainwright. And 18:45 Lieutenant-General Percival and General Wainwright stood 18:49 immediately behind General MacArthur for the signing of the 18:54 Japanese surrender. Afterward MacArthur gave Percival a pen he 18:57 had used to sign the treaty. Percival and Wainwright then 19:02 returned together to the Philippines to witness the full 19:05 surrender of the Japanese army there. At the surrender ceremony 19:11 in the Philippines when the Japanese commander arrived to 19:14 sign the surrender treaty, in a strange twist of fate and to 19:19 General Percival's utter amazement he was none other than 19:25 General Yamashita, the very same man who accepted the British 19:29 surrender at the Ford factory in Singapore. Now the tables had 19:34 turned. The roles were reversed. The victor had become the 19:40 vanquished and the vanquished the victor. Now Lieutenant 19:44 General Percival accepted the surrender documents from General 19:49 Yamashita. And even more astonishing, when Lord 19:53 Mountbatten accepted the formal Japanese surrender in 19:58 Singapore, the flag, the Union Jack carried by Percival's 20:01 delegation to the surrender meeting at the Ford Motor 20:05 factory also witnessed a reversal of fortunes. This same 20:10 flag hidden by Colonel Wilde at Chaney Prison was now hoisted 20:15 by Colonel Wilde over the surrender of the Japanese in 20:18 Singapore. The surrender of Singapore in 1942 was the 20:24 British Army's greatest defeat. But three and a half years later 20:28 it was the turn of the Japanese to surrender the city. Yes, the 20:34 war had come full circle. And that reminds me of another war 20:41 the universal war, the war behind all wars. It's a cosmic 20:47 conflict between right and wrong between light and darkness, 20:52 between God and a rebel angel Lucifer. Surprisingly this war 20:58 war started in heaven of all places. You can read about it in 21:02 the Bible book of Revelation: 21:34 So Lucifer who became Satan though pride and jealousy wanted 21:39 to take the place of God. He wanted to take over. So he 21:44 started a rebellion, a war in heaven, the universal war, but 21:49 Satan lost the battle against God and he and his army of rebel 21:54 angels were cast to this world and so planet Earth became the 22:00 arena of the universal war, the war between good and evil, God 22:05 and Satan. Now God had created a perfect world for our first 22:10 parents, Adam and Eve. But Satan deceived them into joining 22:15 his rebellion against God. Sin entered the world and it seemed 22:20 that Satan had won the battle for planet Earth in the great 22:23 universal war. In this universal war, the war between good and 22:28 evil, between God and Satan, the entire human race has sinned and 22:35 rebelled against God. Sin, rebellion separates us from God 22:40 and life: 22:51 Men and women were made for fellowship with God, to be in 22:55 harmony with their Maker. When humans sinned, they turned away 23:00 from God. They rejected God. They rebelled against God and 23:05 there are consequences associated with rebelling 23:09 against God. Listen to what the Bible says in Romans 6:23: 23:19 So because we've all sinned and rebelled against God we're 23:24 doomed. But there's good news. In this universal battle between 23:30 God and Satan God has a solution God sent his Son Jesus to pay 23:37 the penalty for our sins, to die in our place. He's our 23:43 substitute. Yes, he died in our place. On a hill called Golgotha 23:51 the critical battle in the great universal war took place and 23:55 when Jesus died on the cross it appeared that Satan had defeated 24:00 God and won the war. All the forces of the evil one watched 24:05 with glee as Jesus breathed his last. But then as the light 24:10 broke on the resurrection morning Jesus overcame death and 24:15 emerged victorious from the grave. He's our Savior and if we 24:19 accept him and believe in him, our sins are forgiven and we 24:24 have eternal life: 24:37 The same Jesus who died on the cross is soon to return as King 24:43 of kings and Lord of lords. The great controversy between good 24:47 and evil will be over forever. Sin and evil will be destroyed 24:53 and this earth will be restored to its original perfect 24:58 condition: 25:18 That's the kind of world I'm looking forward to. How about 25:23 you? Does the idea of living in perfect peace and harmony appeal 25:27 to you? If it does, why not decide right now as we pray to 25:33 be ready to meet Jesus when he comes? 25:36 Dear Heavenly Father, we're all soldiers in the battle of life. 25:43 We're living behind enemy lines. Please give us strength to 25:48 endure the struggles and challenges of the universal war. 25:54 Lord we know the outcome of this great controversy and we want to 25:57 be on the winning side. We know that Jesus will be victorious 26:01 and that he is coming to make all things new. May we be ready 26:06 meet Jesus when he comes. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. 26:12 If you're battling with the trials and temptations of life 26:18 and are looking for support in your journey through life and 26:22 would like God to guide you, then I'd like to recommend a 26:26 free gift we have for all our viewers today. It's the 26:30 inspiring book The Great Hope. this book is our gift to you and 26:36 is absolutely free. There are no costs or obligations whatsoever. 26:41 Thousands have been blessed and inspired by this book, The Great 26:46 Hope. So please don't miss this wonderful opportunity to receive 26:51 the gift we have for you today. Here's the information you need: 26:56 Phone us now on 0481315101 or text us on 0491222999 or visit 27:10 our website theincrediblejourney.tv 27:14 to request today's free offer. So don't delay. Contact us right 27:20 now. If you've enjoyed today's journey to Singapore and our 27:28 reflections on the universal war be sure to join us again next 27:34 week when we will share another of life's journeys together and 27:37 experience another new and thought provoking perspective 27:41 of the peace, insight, understanding and hope that only 27:45 the Bible can give us. The Journey truly is 27:51 television that changes lives. Until next week remember the 27:55 ultimate destination of life's journey. Now I saw a new heaven 27:59 and a new earth. And God will wipe away every tear from their 28:03 eyes and there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying. 28:07 There shall be no more pain for the former things have 28:12 passed away. 28:13 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2021-07-07