Now I'm listening to...

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Many thoughts...

Today is Sunday, and tomorrow is the fourth week already...
And.........




I still haven't do any work!!!!!!!!!!!=S

(What else?)

I think i have been spending too much time bloggging and reading blogs already. Spent about an average of 4-5 hours per day. *Gasp*

Must cut, must cut...

So i guess i won't be blogging too regularly after today. Unless... there's some i-will-die-if-i-don't-get-it-out-of-my-chest stories that happen to me.. Hope it won't happen too often! haha...

So anyway, today i was awaken by my parents again.. My parents are always very enthusiastic about going for jogs on Sunday mornings. But enthusiasm is one thing....the actual action is another.

Usually my dad is the first to wake up, then followed by my mom. My mom will then wake her two lazy-boney (is there such a phrase?) kids. So there's 2 kinds of situations that usually happen after this:

1) We woke up and we all go the near by stadium to jog. Or rather, we attempt to. (because we usually end up walking a few rounds before proceeding to have our heavy breakfast. =X)

2) She failed.
And we all go back to sleep. wahahaha...

Today, my mom got lucky so we did 1) in the morning. :) But when we reached there, there was a sign pasted on the entrance.


"CLOSED FROM SEPT 1-3"

Haha.. can go eat breakfast liao, i thought. But fat hope, my dad seemed keen in going to a Place To Exercise. =( Recalling that one of his friends told him that Kent Ridge Park is very beautiful with nice scenaries, we all ended up there instead.

Frankly i don't think there's any nice scenaries at Kent Ridge Park, I think the scenary below
my house looks nicer. =X Just joking. Perhaps i am simply not artistically inclined lar. Ok, there are many trees over at KR Park that's like a miniature forest. But what's special is that there is this long suspending bridge from the park that leads to this little museum, called the Reflections of Bukit Chandu.


Pictures courtesy of www.pbase.com/cajuca/places & rmbr.nus.edu.sg/fos75/


Many trees along this canopy walk



The long suspending bridge, measured 280 metres long


Reflections of Bukit Chandu


The front of the museum at night


My dad is someone who has always been fascinated with history and is obsessed with our Singapore history as well. And.... that's how the whole family ended up taking a social studies lesson in the museum. =S

The last (and probably one of my first) time we went to visit the museum was about 2-3 years ago. At that time, they were having this event (which i can't rem what..) that allows all visitors to enter ANY museum FREE!!!

Needless to say, we went to visit all the museums on that one day.. =D

Back to today's visit, it is a relatively smaller museum as compared to the others that i have visited. It mainly shows exhibits from the Japanese Occupation in Singapore back in 1940s. While the facts are still fresh in my memory, here's a little short and sweet history lesson for you guys... ^_^


Year 1942

7th Feb -- The Japanese had a nice strategy. They first attacked Pulau Ubin. Then all our ancestors went to stand by in the East

8th Feb -- But the Japs attacked from the North-West instead, and we were caught totally unaware.

9-12th Feb -- The Western, Northern and Eastern parts of Singapore are taken by the Japanese Imperial Troops.

13th Feb -- The only area left is the Pasir Panjang area (where the Kent Ridge Park & this museum is currently at), where it's the last defence as well as the last hope for Singapore then.

The Japanese disguised themselves, and attacked quietly. But Lt. Adnan Saidi saw through their disguise and commanded to open fire. Killed 20+ Japanese soldiers. This angered them, and both sides put on a fierce battle.

14th Feb -- Lt. Adnan Saidi was captured and died horribly under the hands of the Japanese. The Japs then proceeded to invade the Alexandra Hospital (then known as the British Military Hospital) and brutally massacred about 150 patients, doctors and nurses. (Some were defenselessly lying on the operating table when the soldiers charged in and killed them!! *Angered!!*)

15th Feb -- The start of the Japanese Occupation campaign, as well as the first day of the Chinese lunar new year. To many war survivors who lost their loved ones on that fateful day, the Chinese Lunar New Year no longer brings to them festival mood. They simply have too much painful memories to grieve on this day....

Within a short period of 8 days, Singapore the "impregnable fortress" fell easily into the clutches of the Japs. The British and Australians did not really put much resistance against the Japanese back then. Lesson learnt: Never be too dependent on outsiders for your own defence.

Oops... Sorry, I've gotten a little too emotional here. But i always do whenever i read about the Singapore history from my Social Studies textbook. It's hard not to be when history textbooks, teachers and museums are always there to remind me of how Singaporeans were once brutally treated by the Japanese. Oh ya, and my luo suo grandma too. She is like one of the survivors of the war too.. Haha... She often told me of the things they did to escape from the soldiers. Like applying charcoal on their faces to avoid being captured and tortured (you shd noe wad kinda torture i'm toking about here=( ), holding their breaths when the Japanese planes flew by, bribing the Japs with gold jewelleries and so on... She also witnessed one of her neighbours being captured, brutally raped and killed (even after she had applied charcoal and worn large clothes), while my grandma and her sisters were hiding behind some sacks and barrels. My grandma had to watch the whole episode without making a single sound, and when the poor girl died, she's only in her 20s............

So if you ask me if i am anti-japanese, i would say not really. Because after all, the younger generations have nothing to do with what happened back then. And i do not really hate them actually. But, i can't say i like them either... Thus, this will probably be a clearer explanation to some of you why I'm not really enthusiastic about Japanese dramas, movies, culture and language... So.....










Stop pestering me to watch Japanese dramas or learn Jap lang again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hahahaha.........

Ok, something nice for those of you who bothered to read till here....

Oh err.. only for those who likes English songs... hehe...

Here's the site where i often got to know of the American hits chart. It's pretty useful to me cos i don't listen to radio, yet i'm still in tune to the latest and most popular hits. haha!

To WS: Actually I really hated Promiscuous when i first downloaded that song one, and i thought what bad taste WS has!! Until... lately i've started to tap to its rhythm....

Shux!

hahaha... okok, thx anw!!! =X

4 comments:

averii said...

What bad taste?!

I have great taste okie!!!

Another, another song by nelly furtado, it's called "Man-Eater"...

I like it...

By the way, where did u download those songs?? Now that my com got sound liao, I want music!!!

averii said...

I like history too...

But I believe that History is meant to record and present to the whole world FACTS... All of the facts...

Not just one-sided facts...

Don't you realised that many history textbooks written are pretty much dependent on the one with more power??

In WW2, the Japan lose, and was deemed as the "Bad Guys" in history...
But no one seemed to care why they did it and for what reasons...
(i.e: Western countries and their thirst for power in Asia back than...)

Go read up, and soon you will realised there are no "good guys" in War...

War is cruel...
Winners in War are even more so, no matter which nationality they are from...

Summergal said...

Really... Nice ar? ok, i'll try to go dl...
Lol... It's for me to know and for you to find out.. =X
Ok lar, u tell me wad songs u wan, I try to find n send u..

But i tink lately only a few eng songs can be downloaded only, due to many restrictions...=(

Haha.. Hey, that sounds like a nice debate..

Yeah, that's true.. Some history textbooks may not be accurate.. Can see that in Japanese textbooks. For many years, they have excluded issues like Nanjing Massacre, the military comfort women and the way they treat their colonial countries.. In fact all these info are being censored in the country. So before the Internet era, many ppl of the younger generation don't even know that such incidents exist.

Yeah true again, no one cares for their reasons cos it's not a very strong one to justify their actions to begin with. They claimed to 'liberate' Asian countries from the Western powers, but after they conquered these countries, did they treat their fellow Asian colonies well?? Their brutal treatments are well-known facts and ironically, we weren't that ill-treated before we were 'liberated'.

I think the real reason for their invasion is because Japan have seen how successful Hitler is with his totalitarianism ideology. The then dictator wanted to be the Asian Hitler.

I don't say other nationalities are not cruel during war.. But i feel Japan is especially so, cos they did it to things that were so close to me.. My country, as well as my grandparents...

So needless to say, I'm biased lar.... lol....

averii said...

Ya, you are biased...

My great-grandpa died during war too...

Anyway, I'm not just talking about "liberating" Asian countries from the Westerners...
That's an excuse I say...

But who are we to judge whether their reasons are justify-able??
At different era and at different cultures, any insignificant reasons they give may not be good enough for us, but it may be a matter of national honour to them!!!

Nationalism, Japan sured valued theirs greatly...
And the constant struggle for natural resources...
As we know, Japan truely lacks in it, so for the survival of their country, Japan needs to find ways to gain those resources or faced the consequences...
They may take the "wrong" approach through war, but in their eyes, it is sacrificed for their country...

Japan are very cruel to us during war, BUT Not especially so...
That was in 1940s leh, you think what??
Modern society with UN around??

Sure, we weren't ill-treated before war, but we were surpressed...
And need I remind you, that it is WAR??
Tell me, how many conquerers do not torture or kill many civilians during wartime??

Thus I say this again...
Japan may be at fault during world war two, but it is ridiculous to
blamed everything on them (and on the other "bad guys")...

Blah blah blah I think I may be inspired enough to write a blog about it lor...
Hohoho...

Oh shit, I'm supposed to be doing my Lab Report!!!
$@^$&@$&%*&@!%