What is a National Monument? Who gazettes them? How many national monuments are there in Singapore? To date, the Preservation of Sites and Monuments, a division of National Heritage Board, has identified and gazetted 75 buildings, structures and sites of national significance as an integral part of Singapore's built heritage.
And we're here to tell you all about them - one National Monument at a time!
You've probably passed by or stepped into more than a few of them without realising they were National Monuments: Al-Abrar Mosque, Central Fire Station, Sri Mariamman Temple, National Gallery, Saint Andrew's Cathedral, Fort Siloso on Sentosa - no need to plan an itinerary for friends visiting from overseas; just show them this article!
Fun fact: The Padang (the site of Singapore's first National Day Parade on Aug 9, 1966, and the venue for NDP 2023) is the 75th and most recent National Monument, and was gazetted as one on National Day in 2022.
But let's turn our attention instead to one of Singapore's most important monuments: The Civilian War Memorial.
The towering structure can be found within the War Memorial Park, right opposite Raffles City.
Date built: 1963-1967
Date unveiled: Feb 15, 1967. Every year on Feb 15 (which commemorates the Fall of Singapore to the Japanese on Feb 15, 1942), an inter-religious memorial service is held at the Civilian War Memorial. Also known as Total Defence Day, it is an occasion that serves as a reminder that we must take ownership for the protection of Singapore.
Date gazetted as National Monument: Aug 15, 2023
A sombre reminder of a dark chapter in Singapore's history, the Civilian War Memorial was built to remember the civilian victims of the Japanese Occupation (1942-1945).
During excavation works carried out around Singapore during the 1950s and 1960s to lay the foundation for residential and industrial projects, multiple mass graves were found. In one year alone (1962), the bodily remains of thousands of civilian victims were unearthed in several places.
The massacres were a result of Operation Sook Ching (肃清), a brutal undertaking by the Japanese in an effort to quash anti-Japanese elements during the warring period. Thousands of innocent civilians were randomly arrested at screening centres, transported to various locations around Singapore, murdered and hurriedly buried in those mass graves.
What is known today as the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) was then called the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce (SCCC). The organisation took the responsibility of restoring dignity to the victims' remains by excavating and resettling them.
On March 19, 1963, the SCCC started a Memorial Building Fund Committee to collect funds for a proposed structure, after the Government had put aside a plot of land on Beach Road for a memorial park. In addition, the SCCC matched public contributions dollar-for-dollar.
Design firms submitted blueprints as part of an architectural competition for the new memorial. The competition called for the winning design to express the feelings of "solemnity, tranquillity, courage and sorrow". Swan & Maclaren, the same firm that designed the Cenotaph, won the competition with their proposal of 12 parallel sets of sweeping interconnected fins forming a grand archway.
The initial winning design was later revised to become the monument we see today. Construction began in 1963, and was completed in January 1967, and costing approximately $450,000. It was unveiled by the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on Feb 15 the same year, which marked the 25th anniversary of the Fall of Singapore in 1942.
The 61m-tall structure comprises four columns, each representing one of the four ethnic groups in Singapore (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Eurasians), a reminder that regardless of race, it is imperative that we stand strong together as one Singapore in order to guard against threats to our safety and sovereignty.
Always open.
Free.
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This article was first published on Wonderwall.sg.