Erected by the Imperial Japanese Navy for 小本江笠 is a solitary memorial tomb that greets the explorers who makes their way uphill from
Keppel Hill Reservoir. It is the tomb of a Japanese Civilian Naval staff whose name could be Omoto Egasa. The story of the person is not totally lost to us, as the Chinese inscriptions carved on the stone tell us the story of this person.
The other sections describes 小本江笠 as a Civilian Naval Engineer who lived to the age of 47. Born in 1895 March, he graduated in March 1920 from the Tokyo University with a shipbuilding course. In August 1920, he started working for the Mitsubishi Kobe Ship Construction Company. He was sent to Singapore (Syonan) in February 1942 to develop the shipping construction industry in Singapore, He died in July 1942, just 4 months after he arrived due to illness.
Whatever role 小本江笠 played, the fact remains that there was a huge memorial built for him on the slopes of Mount Faber overlooking Keppel Harbour and it was built at a great expense with proper foundation and brick shoring to ensure his memorial stone will last the test of time.
Name: 小本江笠 / Omoto Egasa / Komoto Ekasa
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| Solitary Japanese Memorial tombstone on the slopes of Mount Faber |
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| This memorial tombstone tells the story of 小本江笠 |
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| The start of the brick stairway |
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| Brick stairway going uphill |
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| Alexandra Brick (local sourced brick from the former Alexandra Brickworks) |
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| Brick shore to prevent soil erosion of the Japanese Tomb area |
A Stone Marker
While exploring the area, we came across a stone marker that in the past was possibly use to inform anyone in the area that the land they are on, belonged to a person described on the marker. This stone marker has the initials N.H.D. The initials are of the New Harbour Dock Company. In this case, the land belonged to a company.
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| Stone Marker with initials N.H.D. |
Related Article
Keppel Hill Reservoir(The Lost Reservoir), posted on January 22, 2015.
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| Keppel Hill Reservoir |
Reference
Picture of 小本江笠 made available with assistance from Raymond Goh. The article comes from Society of Naval Architect. Issue 248 Nov 1942 pg 601 and 602. (online)
Initials N.H.D identified with thanks to Mok Ly Yng and Charles Goh.
Hello Rojak, I am John from Taiwan. I will go to Singapore for personal travel next month, and I am very interesting in the Japanese Tomb near Mount Faber. I need your advise, is it still reachable to normal person like me, or it is closed & forbidden now? Thank you very much. :)
ReplyDeleteIt is not closed nor forbidden. All the best in making the climb and finding it !
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