135 concrete steps in Bukit Batok are another grim reminder of the Japanese occupation of Singapore

Five hundred Australian prisoners of war from the Royal Australian Artillery and Anti-Tank Units marched daily from Sime Road and Adam Park to Bukit Batok to build the memorial to the Japanese soldiers who died in the Malayan Campaign.

Lieutenant-General Yamashita mooted the idea of a memorial and the site at Bukit Timah was chosen because the fiercest battle in Singapore was fought there. The Australian suggestion of a memorial to British soldiers who died during the Battle for Singapore was accepted by Yamashita. A wooden cross 10 feet high was erected by the Japanese Engineering Company near the Japanese Memorial.

The Japanese Memorial, the 'Chureito', was a cylindrical wooden pylon forty feet high, the top of which was encased in a brass cone. It stood on two tiers of earth and cement. The ashes of the Japanese forces who died at the battle in Bukit Timah were buried there.

The Japanese Memorial was officially unveiled at 11 a.m. on September 2602 (1942) and religious ceremonies were conducted according to Shinto rites.

The Memorial Cross to British soldiers was unveiled and Lieutenant Colonel McEachern addressed the gathering of British prisoners of war.

Leaders of the four main communities in Singapore witnessed the unveiling ceremony; they were Dr Lim Boon Keng (for the Chinese), S.C.Goho (for the Indians), Ibrahim bin Hj Yusof (for the Malays) and Dr C.J.Paglar (for the Eurasians).

A small shrine was erected by the Japanese soldiers.

Immediately after the Japanese Surrender and the return of the British forces in 1945, the Japanese Memorial and the shrine were both demolished. David Nelson in his book 'The Story of Changi Singapore' writes: 'it is a pity the relieving troops (British) felt obliged to destroy a memorial 'torri' erected to the Nipponese Army on a hillock at Bukit Timah in memory of the fallen. Friend or foe, each was serving his country.'

Today only the 135 concrete steps which led to the Japanese Memorial remain but they remind Singaporeans of a nightmare of three and a half years of Japanese Occupation.