Old Ford Motor Factory
Upper Bukit Timah Road, Singapore
Website : http://ford-factory. spi. com.sg
On the west side of Singapore, between Bukit Batok and Bukit Timah, situated in a deserted compound is the Old Ford Motor Factory. The Ford factory has a remarkable history and a haunted reputation.
The company Ford Motor Works was making history when they decided to build a new factory at Bukit Timah to replace their old premises on Anson Road. The new spacious Art Deco factory was the first car assembly plant in Southeast Asia. But history of a less salubrious kind was also made at the Ford factory.
During World War II, fierce battles were fought around the areas of the Ford factory. High casualty was inflicted on both armies. A whole Malay regiment was fought to the last man, defense posts got wiped out overnight, bombs dropped nonstop, and many places were engulfed in fire. Of the battles fought in Bukit Panjang, Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Batok, and Bukit Timah, the Ford factory miraculously remained the one place spared from any damage.
Swiftly, the Japanese fought in a hard and bloody way to win the battle at Bukit Timah, which once was used as supply storage by the British. Hopes of defending Singapore diminished. On February 15, 1942, the head of the Allied forces, Lt. General A.E. Percival, surrendered to General Yamashita of the Japanese Forces. Ford factory was chosen as the venue for the British generals to sign the surrender documents.
After that, the Ford factory was occupied as a Japanese military headquarter during the occupation in Singapore. No official record was known about the actual activities that occurred in the military headquarters, but rumors said that many anti-Japanese coalition forces were taken inside and executed there. Interrogation, tortures, and slaughtering of the anti-Japanese people that took place in the cells of the compound were not of a rare routine.
The factory has been abandoned for ages since the end of the war. In the last decades, some tire companies used to have their offices there but they moved out after a while. Day and night, the factory was left vacant with the building structure left almost untouched. If the stone-tape theory of ghost were true, the vengeful spirits would be absorbed by the walls of the factory, preserving the uncanny energies from the violent deaths. Wandering spirits that pass by may dwell, too, for it has been deserted for so long.
