The Bukit Batok Memorial, which consisted of the Syonan Chureito and British Memorial Cross, was built during the Japanese Occupation to honour dead soldiers of the Japanese and British forces. Located at Bukit Batok Hilltop (present Bukit Batok Nature Park) in Lorong Sesuai, off Bukit Timah Road, the memorial was destroyed by the end of World War II. Today, all that remains at the memorial site is a flight of steps leading to where the monuments once stood.
Purpose of the memorial
On 8 May 1942, The Syonan Times reported that the purpose of erecting the Syonan Chureito was “to perpetuate the memory of the Nippon heroes who laid down their lives at the battle fronts of Malaya and Sumatra; also to enable the Nippon-zin and the newly attached nationals of different races in the southern Co-Prosperity Sphere to respect the ideal of the founding of the Dai-Nippon Empire.” The same newspaper article also mentioned that the purpose of building the British Memorial Cross was “to commemorate the spirit of the enemy troops who died at the battlefront and those civilians who were victims of the war”.
