Kranji War Cemetery

The Kanji War Cemetery and Kranji Memorial, located in Kranji (Singapore), commemorates Allied soldiers who perished during the Japanese invasion and occupation of Singapore, 1942-1945, and in other parts of South East Asia during World War II.

Related Topics:
Kranji - Singapore - Japanese invasion - 1942 - 1945 - World War II

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Before 1939 the Kranji area was a military camp and at the time of the Japanese invasion of Malaya, it was the site of a large ammunition magazine. On 8 February 1942, the Japanese invaded Singapore. After the fall of the island, the Japanese established a prisoner of war camp at Kranji and a hospital nearby at Woodlands. After the end of the war, the small cemetery started by the prisoners at Kranji was developed into a permanent war cemetery. There are 4,458 Second World War casualties buried or commemorated here, over 850 of these are unidentified.

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On the walls of the Kranji Memorial are inscribed the names of over 24,000 Allied soldiers who have no known grave. Many of the casualties died during the battle for Malaya and Singapore and Indonesia, or who died during captivity. Many of them during the building of the Death Railway.

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Kranji is also the final resting place of the Republic's first two Presidents - Yusof Ishak and Benjamin Henry Sheares.

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