Will You Be An ‘Upstander’? : Stories of Resistance and Moral Courage
This blog entry is a modified version of a speech given by our guest writer Cheah Wui Ling at a WWII talk organised by the Singapore National Heritage Board in March 2017 at the Singapore Art Museum. Together with my co-researcher, Pei Yi, I have been working on the Singapore War Crimes Trials Outreach Project for several years now. Yet, the stories that these trials tell continue to shock, amaze, and inspire me. From 1946-1948, the British organised 131 war crimes trials in Singapore. Singapore served as a hub for British war crimes investigations, and trials subsequently held in Singapore dealt with crimes committed throughout the region, as far as the Nicobar and Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. These trials contain many stories of the sufferings experienced by locals and Allies at during the Japanese occupation of Singapore. Ordinary men, women and children suffered greatly. However, many were not only victims but survivors and resisters. The trials tell stories...