Today is Total Defence Day and each year on February 15, the Important Message signal of the Public Warning System is sounded at 6.20pm to commemorate the day. But what is the significance of the day?
If you somehow missed it from your years of being in a public school in Singapore, February 15 is the day Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942 – and 6.20pm marks the exact time when the British surrendered to the Japanese Imperial Forces at the Ford Factory in Bukit Timah.
Ford Factory became a Japanese-run facility during the Japanese Occupation from 1942 to 1945. Nissan had taken over the entire plant to assemble trucks and other motor vehicles for the military based in Singapore, Malaya and other occupied territories in the Asia-Pacific region.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the fall of Singapore. Singapore has come a long way since then, and the country has rebuilt itself in more ways than one. When it comes to the concept of Total Defence, six pillars are identified: military, civil, economic, social, digital and psychological defence. Though it's no National Day Parade with its bells and whistles, Total Defence Day is celebrated in some educational institutions. On this day, some schools serve porridge or boiled sweet potatoes for lunch so students have a small (really small) taste of how life was in the previous generations. The Public Warning System sounding also serves to give due significance and remembrance to this historical moment.
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Former Ford Factory in Bukit Timah
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