Singapore Site Seeing Tour - Civilian War Memorial

The four chopsticks of Singapore, each representing one of the major ethnic groups in Singapore. That is what I thought when I first step foot here.During the Japanese Occupation, many ethnic chinese were massacred in Siglap, Changi and Bukit Timah. The remains were unearthed and set to be put into the memorial in February 1962.

On March 13, 1963, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew set aside the this plot of land in Beach Road for the memorial.
On April 23, 1966, construction of the memorial began. The memorial was completed in January 1967, at a total construction cost of about S$500,000

On February 15, 1967, the Civilian War Memorial was officially unveiled by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who laid a wreath at the memorial. Every year on February 15(Total defense Day in Singapore, representing the 1942 surrender of Singapore to the Japanese), a memorial service is held at the Civilian War Memorial to remember the victims of the war.

The urn which holds the ashes of those who perished in the war.

Before I left there were children asking me how to read these. I was trying to read from the left to right, standard way of reading which made no sense. It was after awhile that a girl actually came up and correct me that it should from the right to the left. That is the original way of reading chinese.
How embarrassing.