Singapore's second-creepiest animatronic exhibit

Dave sez, "In Singapore's Fort Canning Park is an old WWII bunker that was repurposed a decade or two ago as a tourist attraction. They installed a number of lifelike animatronic British generals so visitors could experience what it must have been like as they deliberated surrendering to the Japanese. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they've oiled their robots in a while..."

Under ordinary circumstances, I'd award these the prize for creepiest animatronic in Singapore, but I happen to have personally seen the animatronic reenactment of the castration of the eunuch admiral Chen Ho at the 1421 exhibit, which is a tough act to beat.

the creepiest animatronics (Thanks, Dave Prager!)

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I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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thequickbrownfox

I think that is supposed to be Mounbatten on the right, they are negotiating the Japanese surrender of Singapore.
Takuan

one day, in a perfect world, all spammer scum bags wil be stretched over young bamboo shoots and left for their just desserts.
caipirina

looks like the invisible man is sitting on the desk, receiving a sexual favor from the guy in the hat …
wizardofplum

#22- QUICKBROWNFOX
Sorry, history does not agree with your speculation,Mountbatten was otherwise engaged.

Captain Louis Mountbatten’s destroyer ‘Kelly’ was sunk May 21 1941.He was not engaged in the South East Asian theatre of war until Aug.25 1943, when he was appointed Supreme Commander S.E.A.C.

The Supreme Commander at that time was Sir Archibald Wavell.He took command Jan 7 1942 and was appalled at the lack of defensive initiatives in the face of an attack on Singapore from the north.Arthur’Rabbit’Percival capitulated Feb 15 1942.

Mind you Mountbatten was responsible for the fiasco ‘Operation Jubilee’ known to Canadians as Dieppe. Almost 50% of the losses, dead and captured, were Canadian.They were very leery of the Brits after that and with just cause.
thequickbrownfox

Operation Tiderace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tiderace

SeishirÅ Itagaki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itagaki_Seishiro

“He was then reassigned to the Japanese Seventh Area Army in Singapore and Malaya in April 1945. He surrendered Japanese forces in Southeast Asia to British General Louis Montbatten in Singapore on 12 September 1945.”
wizardofplum

#26 QUICKBROWNFOX.-
Oops! of course you are correct. Why on earth would Singapore memorialize a humiliation ? Must have been a case of mead over matter on my part.I think I’ll go get a cuppa and regroup.
Jason Rizos

Nice John Cleese robut.
unruly katy

Oh lord. I am particularly wishing I could unsee the mouth-breather on the right.
DemiGuru

Are they reenacting the seconds after they drank the vial of poison?
Anonymous

That would be the creaking of the British Empire then
wizardofplum

Those creaking, shuddering robots represent exactly the quality of the generalship in Malaya at that time. They are an accurate representation of G.O.C Arthur”Rabbit” Percival and C.I.C Far East, Sir Robert “Pooh-Pooh” Brooke-Popham whose dithering and lamentable preparation,doomed Singapore from day one.

It is significant to note that the Japanese troops, outnumbered on landing by almost 2:1, referred to their leader as “Tiger” Yamashita.The only effective resistance to the invasion was by a very belligerent and determined Aussie 8th division.

My uncle George , 19 yrs old at the time, languished for over 3 yrs. in Kobe. He left Blighty with the Green Howards, a virile golden boy. He returned a broken,toothless, gibbering old man. Do not oil those robots they are proof that Truth is the daughter of Time.
Anonymous

For sheer numbers, Cory, I’d like to nominate a museum I saw in York, England, in 1988. They showed various arcane methods of execution by torture with simple jerky movements.

The hungry rat in the bottomless cage on the victim’s belly may have been the worst, but they had at least 30 horrific examples.
Anonymous

That is probably an accurate depiction of how they looked and sounded when they realized how much trouble they were in!
Anonymous

This event was a pretty bad show for the Brits… on the up side, it is a useful prop for the current S’porean administration in stoking the bitter fires of nationalism.

After all, Lord forbid S’poreans should be too admiring of the UK, with its system of actual democracy instead of the sham ‘just enough to prevent insurrection’ democracy Singapore has at the moment.

Their PM wastes no time is slagging off modern Britain at every opportunity, whilst celebrating the Golden Age of the British Empire… which, uh, ended for him when the Brits screwed up in the event shown here. The endless message = ye olde britain was great, modern britain sucks, too liberal, don’t listen to anyone who says we should be more like them, i.e. a representative democracy.

There is a very concious ongoing mission to purge Britishness from Singapore’s cultural identity to ensure government control over the narrative of national history. More happily, Hong Kong isn’t taking that path, though that might change if China consolidates power.
Cory Doctorow

@6: If we’re going to expand the competition to include the UK, I think I’ve got you beat for the sheer homebrew exuberance of the late lamented Robin Hood ride in Nottingham, whose script must have run to 20,000 words and whose ride system appeared to be pressboard boxes suspended from a dry-cleaning rail. The animatronics and statuary were weird, impressionistic and extremely satisfying.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/tags/robinhood
Anonymous

action starts at 0:54
Takuan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDkg32SJJ68
Stefan Jones

Those wishing to see this exhibit for themselves can find it at the bottom of the Uncanny Valley.
Alex_M

Yeah, that’s totally unrealistic.

Real British people are much stiffer.
Takuan

Southroners.
Metronicity

You know what? That’s probably pretty close to how the British brass reacted. My old man was there in ’42. In the Australian infantry. Captured by the Japanese and incarcerated in Changi, Sandakan and Kuching for the rest of the war – 3 1/2 years of imprisonment. Terrible business. I talk about it here on my site – http://www.welcometowallyworld.com/sandakan-pow-camp/

The British-led defence of Singapore was inept – too little, too late. They couldn’t conceive that the Japanese would be much of a threat. In fact Dad told me they had lectures on what an inferior soldier the Japanese were.

Singapore is viewed as a defeat, which it was. “The Fall of Singapore” is usually what it’s called. But that fall cost the Japanese plenty. Thanks in large part to the fierce Australian resistance of the Fighting Eighth. Churchill had no right to say the Australians had let him down. As we now know, it was the Brits who’d let us down. Badly.

The Diggers fought hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese in the retreat down the Malaya peninsula. Bayonet charges, reminiscent of First World War trench fighting, were common. The 8th Division lost more men killed and wounded in action here than any other Australian Division during World War II and spent more actual days involved in fierce combat.

It took the Japanese ten weeks to over-run Malaya and Singapore. It was no cake-walk for them as is commonly reported. In comparison, it took the Germans just six weeks to occupy France. The Japanese Army was at 125,000 troops. The Allies had about 10,000 British, 14,000 Malay & Chinese, 37,000 Indian and nearly 18,000 Australian troops – all up around 79,000 men.

During the A.I.F.’s five weeks of fighting in Malaya and Singapore 10% of its strength was killed in action: 1789 soldiers. After the Surrender the remaining Australian soldiers were kept in Changi Prison and dispersed to other P.O.W. work camps in Thailand and Borneo.

Of the 2,030 Australian POWs sent to Borneo after the 1942 Surrender at Singapore only 218 survived to return home. The rest were dead from starvation, beatings, torture, disease, malnutrition and out-and-out murder by the Japanese. The last of the POWs were force-marched from Sandakan and bayoneted, shot or beheaded.
nanuq

“I happen to have personally seen the animatronic reenactment of the castration of the eunuch admiral Chen Ho at the 1421 exhibit”

I’ll bet that’s a crowd pleaser.
Stefan Jones

#15: Souvenir plaster admiral balls available for a small extra fee!
DemiGuru

Called Chen No Hung thereafter
geech

Dollywood has got some humdingers too. Animatronic Shape-Note Singers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1MCaHTf2YI
Anonymous

Qeng Ho was a eunuch? That’d disappoint Ravna Bergsndot.
Anonymous

Actually, I think they got it quite right.
Anonymous

Now all we need is an animatronic version of the historic Japanese torture scene from The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. Would there be a robotic skeleton underneath or a human skeleton? Which would better project the message of the source material?C
Anonymous

obviously more tronic than anim

i think leaning forward barely qualifies..i have a kettle that can do that better