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Remembering those who died in Occupation
THE last time Madam Chung Kwai Kuen saw her father was when she was four years old.
It was the Japanese Occupation and he had boarded a truck to buy food, recalled Madam Chung, 74.
'The Japanese told everyone who wanted to buy rice and other essentials to board a lorry which would take them to the distribution area,' she said. He never came back.
Yesterday, she was among 1,200 people who gathered for a service at the War Memorial Park to honour the civilians who died during the Occupation from 1942 to 1945.
Organised annually by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry since the memorial was built on Beach Road in 1967, the event was attended by Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen, ambassadors, students, religious leaders and members of the public.
The event also marked the fifth time that retired engineer Yoshiyuki Onogi, 70, had attended since 2003. The spokesman for Tokyo-based Malay Peninsula Peace Cycle, a peace activist group, said his group of 30 volunteers from Japan had also cycled to war sites in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.
Of people's reactions to what they did, he said: 'They could hate us, they could throw stones at us but they did not. People warmly welcomed us and understood our intentions.'
DARYL CHIN

THE last time Madam Chung Kwai Kuen saw her father was when she was four years old.
It was the Japanese Occupation and he had boarded a truck to buy food, recalled Madam Chung, 74.
'The Japanese told everyone who wanted to buy rice and other essentials to board a lorry which would take them to the distribution area,' she said. He never came back.
Yesterday, she was among 1,200 people who gathered for a service at the War Memorial Park to honour the civilians who died during the Occupation from 1942 to 1945.
Organised annually by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry since the memorial was built on Beach Road in 1967, the event was attended by Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen, ambassadors, students, religious leaders and members of the public.
The event also marked the fifth time that retired engineer Yoshiyuki Onogi, 70, had attended since 2003. The spokesman for Tokyo-based Malay Peninsula Peace Cycle, a peace activist group, said his group of 30 volunteers from Japan had also cycled to war sites in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.
Of people's reactions to what they did, he said: 'They could hate us, they could throw stones at us but they did not. People warmly welcomed us and understood our intentions.'
DARYL CHIN