Wednesday, March 31, 2010

War Memorial Park

Site #3: War Memorial Park:






The reason I’m bringing you to the War Memorial Park is to show you what our country did to commemorate the brave civilians who died in the Second World War.
This park is a prominent and well-known feature of the Civic District because of the civilian War Memorial fondly referred to as "The Chopsticks". The 61 metres tall memorial comprises four columns, which represent the four races, joined at the base signifying the unity of all races and is dedicated to the civilians of all races who were victims of World War II. The 4 different languages on the plaques are English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil.

Today, the park is characterised by open lawn areas with Gnetum gnemon (Melinjau) trees lining the walkway leading up to the memorial from the four corners of the park. Around the memorial is a pond.

In 1963, the then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew set aside the present piece of land for the building of a memorial. Upon its completion in 1967, the memorial was officially unveiled by the then Prime Minister Lee, who laid a wreath on behalf of the Government and the people of Singapore. On 15 February every year, memorial services opened to the public are held at the park.

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