Punggol beach

Along with my family we reached the beach on Saturday evening, looking forward to dine in a seafood restaurant situated nearby, but there was no restaurant, only a police post, a small weekend crowd enjoying family time, the sea breeze, the sand and an ice-cream seller.

The restaurant is no longer there. But something else is, permanently, a nearby WWII memorial plaque, with this reminder:

On 28 February 1942, some 300-400 Chinese civilians were killed along the Punggol Foreshore by hojo kempei (auxiliary military police) firing squads. They were among tens of thousands who lost their lives during the Japanese Sook Ching operation to purge suspected anti-Japanese civilians within Singapore’s Chinese Population between 18 February to 4 March 1942.
The victims who perished along the foreshore were among 1,000 Chinese mates rounded up following a house-to-house search of the Chinese community living along Upper Serangoon Road by Japanese Soldiers.

What was known as the Punggol Beach Massacre happened along this beach, which is listed as one of Singapore’s historial sites by the local National Heritage Board.

My grandparents, mother and her siblings used to stay in Punggol (until the 70s) but none of her family members were harmed during the war.

We found the restaurant on another street not too far away.

Punggol is special to me not because of the food but because it was the hometown of my maternal side of the family and that one of the roads was named after my grandfather.