Alexandra Hospital Massacre
Main Entrance to the Alexandra Hospital
Please note: This blog details an event that occurred a long time ago during the Fall of Singapore. It is not written to vilify any race or nation but to provide reflection on the horrors of war from which we may be able to learn. Some may find this blog confronting.
The Kranji Memorial contains nearly 4,500 graves in the war cemetery and over 24,000 names on the walls of the Singapore Memorial for which there are no known graves. Each grave, each name has a story. All have died in the service of their country.
On Panel 125 of the Singapore Memorial is the name GH MacDougal, a lance-sergeant in the 2/20th Battalion AIF. A man who was a hero to the end. This is the story of one of the greatest (if not the greatest) atrocity that occurred during the Fall of Singapore.
The Japanese invaded Singapore on the 8th February 1942. By late on the 13th February, just two days before the surrender by the allied forces, their 18th Division had fought its way down along the western side of Singapore and then east along Kent Ridge which overlooked the city and Singapore Harbour. Close to Kent Ridge is the Alexandra Hospital, completed in 1938, it was to serve as the main military hospital for the allied forces on Singapore. The hospital was well-marked with red crosses on the roofs, lawns and hanging from the windows.
Alexandra Hospital with a red cross on one of the roofs
After nearly a week of intense fighting, the hospital was overcrowded. Instead of the 550 bed capacity it was designed for, about 900 patients were being treated. It was very crowded. Patients were lying on stretchers in wards designed for only 24 beds but now with more than 70. The wide corridors were converted into make-shift wards.
On the morning of the 14th February, nearby oil tanks had become an enemy target and in turn, the enemy were the target of allied artillery. The hospital found itself in the middle of this bombardment as shells flew above. But as time went on, more and more shells fell on the hospital grounds.
Early in the afternoon, enemy soldiers were spotted in the grounds of the hospital. A British medical officer approached one of them pointing to his red cross armband and saying “hospital”. The soldier took no notice and fired his rifle at the officer luckily missing him. The officer made a hasty retreat.
A little later, ignoring the neutrality of the hospital, a group of Indian soldiers fired on the enemy soldiers from the hospital rooftop and then fled. Incensed, the enemy soldiers stormed into the hospital, but the Indians had gone.
Alexandra Hospital (click to enlarge)
The first attack was on the hospital’s laboratory where scared hospital staff made a run for it. The enemy soldiers opened fire on them killing two and wounding another. Another group of soldiers entered the makeshift Intake Room, in the reception area of the hospital, where they had seen the Indians come from earlier. This area had about one hundred wounded soldiers being treated. The enemy soldiers began to beat the patients lying there. A doctor who was in charge of Intake Room, held up a white sheet in surrender but was immediately bayoneted by one of the enemy soldiers. More enemy soldiers entered the Intake Room and began shooting and bayonetting the patients. Some patients tried to escape through the main entrance but were shot down. Others tried to escape along the corridors but ran into a group of enemy soldiers and were either shot or bayonetted. These soldiers then moved into two of the wards killing several patients there.
Sergeant MacDougal who only had one good arm, tried to disarm an enemy soldier but was killed.
A third group of enemy soldiers went upstairs onto the veranda outside the operating theatre where an operation had just concluded. The soldiers started to shoot and the operating team (doctors and medics) ran into the operating theatre where they stopped and raised their hands above their head. They were ordered to leave and as they did, they were bayonetted. The patient who had just been operated on, was also bayonetted. From here, the enemy soldiers ran through the surgical wards torturing the patients by beating their injuries and then went out into the corridor where they started randomly shooting and bayonetting the patients there.
This slaughter lasted for about half an hour and left about fifty patients and staff dead and many bleeding from the wounds that had just been inflicted.
The march route of the 200 staff and patients. Alexandra Hospital is in the bottom right hand corner. “B” is the location of the building with the three small rooms. The black dots are the oil tanks. (click to enlarge)
It was now later in the afternoon and the enemy soldiers on the ground floor, had rounded up about 200 mostly staff but some patients. With their hands tied, they were marched a short distance to an old building containing three small rooms. A couple of the payients fell on the way and were immediately bayonetted.
The conditions in the small rooms were extremely cramped with 50 to 70 in each room. No one was able to sit let alone lie down. There was no water. Throughout the night, there was moaning and screaming as patients became delirious. Several patients died overnight.
Later in the morning of the 15th February, the day of the allied surrender, the enemy soldiers opened the doors of the rooms and told the group that they were to be relocated. Water was also promised. They were taken away in groups of two or three and at first no one suspected anything as there was a lot of noise from the shooting and shelling still going on in the area. Then, they started to recognise distant screams and their suspicions were realised when they saw some Japanese soldiers returning wiping blood from their bayonets.
A shell exploded on the corner of the building making an opening. Many tried to escape but were shot. However, five managed to hide and ultimately made it to the safety of British troops nearby.
A plaque in the gardens of the Alexandra Hospital grounds (click to enlarge)
The following day (16th February), the commander of the Japanese 18th Division, Lieutenant-General Mutaguchi, visited the hospital and apologised for the conduct of his men. There is an unconfirmed report that a lower ranking officer who instigated the massacre, was executed by the Japanese command.
The dead were buried in the soccer field at the rear of the hospital.
After the war, the War Crimes Tribunal found that there was no evidence to confirm exactly who conducted the killings at Alexandra Hospital. It went on to say “In the light of clear evidence about Indian troops firing from the hospital towards the Japanese positions, the massacre was committed in the heat of battle and therefore nobody was ultimately responsible in a way that could substantiate a charge and sentence”. The tribunal also took into account that Lieutenant-General Mutaguchi had visited the hospital and had apologised.
The Indian soldiers ignored the neutrality of the hospital possibly due to fear or panic but it led to such senseless killing!!