I continued with the tour of the Singapore History. This flag is very familar, it is the Japanese flag.
The Japanese occupied Singapore between 1942 and 1945, after having defeated the combined Australian, British, Indian and Malayan garrison in the Battle of Singapore. You can read more about the war from
source.
The Japanese tricked the British military in Singapore, into thinking that they would attacked Singapore from the Sea but the Japanese soldiers cycled into Singapore from Malaysia i.e. North of Singapore.
Life during World War 2 is very difficult and the darkest period of Singapore History.
The Japanese issued ration cards(above photo) to control supplies of rice and other essential items. You have to visit the museum to see more exhibits associated with the war.
This is a replica of a coffin in a carriage used during the passing off a wealthy man. During those days, to be able to have such a grand funeral send off, it is very rare. Most are very poor during those times.
The museum guide was asking us to guess what this bucket is? Some guessed it is a bucket to feed animals.
Of couse, siblings and myself knew what this is....lol. It is a night soil bucket. Faeces is excreted into the bucket. It is one of the means of waste disposal, especially as much of the infrastructure was damaged and took a long time to rebuild following the Battle of Singapore and subsequent Japanese Occupation of Singapore. (Source:
wikipedia ).
The collection method is generally very manual and heavily relies on close human contact with the waste. The collector would hang full honey buckets onto each end of a pole he carried on his shoulder and then proceeded to carry it through the streets until he reached the collection point. This was an unpleasant occupation and was predominately done by manual laborers.
I was lucky I was born after the war and I get to use the toilet with flushing system...Phew!
Can you see the museum guide in the dark? Noticed the cabinet in the background. It had wire mesh as doors and a hook on top, it is used to keep food to keep away flies and bugs. During those times, people could not afford fridge to keep their food. So this act like a fridge. I remember during my childhood, we had a cabinet that looked like the one in the photo but it is taller and it had wire mess door and we keep food and our bowls and plates inside the cabinets cause my parents were too poor to buy a fridge.
Appliances used during the 50s and 60s. They looked very retro and they are making a comeback.
I have done posting photos of Singapore history in the new building. Tomorrow I will post exhibits in the old musuem.
Hope you all enjoyed them. Please return tomorrow for more photos.