After the Japanese ignored an ultimatum the Allies dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6th and 9th August 1945. Four days after the dropping of the second bomb the Japanese Emperor Hirohito issued a recorded statement at noon on 14th August 1945 that hostilities had ended and the war was over. This news spread steadily around the globe and came as something of a shock to elements of the Japanese military. Leading allied officers in the prisoners of war camps were advised of the surrender statement and the Japanese camp guards withdrew to their barracks. The huge gates of Changi Goal Prisoner of War Camp in Singapore were nervously opened by the relieved but cautious prisoners and they took their first steps outside as free men once more…..sadly one in four of the prisoners did not survive their wartime captivity under Japanese control.
Freedom – Allied POW’s celebrate outside the gates of Changi Gaol POW Camp in Singapore
It is shocking to learn that, as the tide of war turned against them, the Japanese military issued orders that in the event of allied invasion all prisoners of war were to be eliminated and no traces left. It was only the surrender of the Japanese that saved the 100,000 surviving allied prisoners from certain death.
Special steaming of FEPOW memorial locomotive SINGAPORE to mark the Anniversary of the Fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942 when the locomotive, in company with 80,000 allied servicemen, became POW’s of the Japanese
If you would like to help us return SINGAPORE to running order in memory of the sacrifices made by so many during the Second World War – please follow the link for details of our FEPOW Memorial Locomotive Appeal