It was the Rotary International Meeting held in Asia that year. Since Sharon was Rotary Governor for her district, she was invited to attend. I came along as her spouse. It was our first trip to the Far East and what a memorable trip it was.
Singapore, with its skyscrapers, teeming masses on every street, and
modern amenities, proved to be the perfect first step in a broad sweep over the
South China Sea. Back then, when the sense of adventure was still strong and
body willing, Sharon and I were venturing near and far from crowded food
markets to high-end shopping centers to cultural attractions found nowhere else
in the world.
I found it interesting that around that time, President Obama decided to use Singapore as his meeting place with the dictator from North Korea. Singapore is a fascinating country in that it chose, a long time ago, to follows its own path into the Twenty-First century.
Some of its strict laws have been criticized by Westerners as barbaric and cruel by our standards. But their adherence to conformity hasn’t diminished their success in the marketplace; regionally or worldwide. I found Singapore to be at once, modern and ancient, congested and clean. It felt extremely safe for a large metropolitan area.
After Singapore, we traveled to Bali. Unfortunately, I couldn’t escape the music of ‘South Pacific’ playing in my head the whole time we were there. Author Michener with his best-seller ‘Tales of the South Pacific’ didn’t help bring clarity to what I was experiencing.
On one hand, Bali is no different than a hundred thousand other island
scattered throughout the Pacific basin. It’s people, culture, weather,
infrastructure, amenities may vary from shoreline to shoreline but the
atmosphere is still the same. It’s an island in the South Pacific with all the
attributes those images can conjure up.
My one memorable experience on the island happened at the exclusive resort we stayed at. At that time, I was deep into producing cable television programs for several clients. I thought footage of exotic places like Bali would add credence and credibility to my programs.
So, with video camera in hand, I was strolling the shoreline, taking in
the sights. Folks walking on the beach, sea birds fighting for space in the
surf, kids playing in the sand, and ‘topless women’ lying on couches taking in
the sun. I stopped my panning of the scene, looked out of the viewfinder into
the eyes of several men about the leap out of their chairs for taping their
half-naked girlfriends or wives.
A quick retreat was the only answer and, thank heavens, no one came
after me. I had foolishly forgotten that a large percentage of tourists at the
resort were French and German. Both groups espoused and embraced naturalism
(nudism) as a natural way of relaxing on the beach. My bad, I could have been
assaulted just for the sake of some great footage of birds, beaches, and
breasts.
Then it was on to Hong Kong. Before the Chinese government cracked down on dissidents and systematically began to remove all vestiges of hundreds of years of British rule, Hong Kong was a wide open, cosmopolitan cornucopia of ethnic brands, sights and sounds. It was just as old Hollywood movies had portrayed it. The ancient Hong Kong all wrapped up into bright colors, banners, and costumes.
From the towering heights above the city, to the oceanfront board walk, to the ferries funneling folks back and forth between shorelines, Hong Kong was every cliché that’s been attached to it. It was at once, large, teeming with people but still offered quiet, (semi-secluded) corners from which to watch the world of people swirl by.
Yet, of all the sights and sounds of Asia, it was the quiet solitude of an ancient battlefield that held the most poignant memories for me. It was the realization of a fantasy I’d harbored since reading several novels back in high school. Two books by one of my favorite English authors, Alistair MacLean, began this life-long interest with World War Two; especially the early stages of Japanese conquest of the Far East.
Alistair MacLean’s first novel was entitled ‘H.M.S. Ulysses.’ It was based on the infamous Murmansk run. A dangerous convoy trip from America and England to send supplies to Russia. One of the most lethal convoys was the Murmansk Run across the North Atlantic and from Iceland to the Russian ports of Murmansk, Archangel, and Kola Inlet. It involved more hazards than in any other kind of naval duty. And, prior to the spring of 1943, when an effective Allied antisubmarine offensive got underway, ships and men making the so-called “Murmansk Run” had only a one in three chance of returning alive.
The icy waters of the North Atlantic and hunter-killer U-boats meant
certain death to any crewman unlucky enough to have his ship torpedoed during
the trip. Hence the great song by Woody Guthrie ‘The Rubin James.’
The second novel which tied directly to the fall of Singapore was entitled: ‘South by Java Head.’ Winston Churchill had called Singapore the “Gibraltar of the East.” An impregnable fortress at the heart of the British empire in the Far East.
Using the battlefield guide, I was able to retrace some of the more famous battle scenes and locations during the fall of Singapore. It was a surrealistic mental imagination-fueled return to the sights and sounds of those famous battles.
When the island fortress fell to Japanese forces on February 15th 1941, it marked the beginning of the end for the British Empire’s extended colonies. The ‘jewel in the crown of the British Empire’, India, gained independence in 1947. Other British holdings followed: Burma in 1948, Malaya in 1957 and Singapore soon after. And it all began with the fall of Singapore.
I’ve already written a 30-page treatment for my own novel about the fall of Singapore. It’s entitled: ‘Siloso’, named after the last British fortress on the Island to fall to the invading Japanese soldiers. Right now, it patiently waits behind other treatments for plays, screenplays and novels each shuffling around in my brain, trying to grab my full attention and a place at the head of my ‘to do’ list. I’d like to believe that sometime soon I’ll be able to return to Singapore and begin retelling another exciting chapter in the history of that famous country.
