THE fort lay lost in the jungle for some 57 years. Few locals dared to visit the site as it was reputed to be haunted, in fact they called it Bukit Hantu ("Ghost Hill"). Then along came Johari Shafie. This enterprising man Johari from Kedah rediscovered the site and transformed it into a living war museum.
The fortress was designed by Royal British Engineers, and built by convicts who had a death warrant; they were shipped here from overseas, from places such as Gibraltar and India.
When the Japanese invaded in August 1941 the site became a prisoner of war camp. From here the prisoners were sent to Kanchanaburi or Singapore, according to their fitness and skills. The fortress became a torture centre. The Japanese tortured many of the local Chinese people, as the latter supported the Chinese who were massacred by the Japanese during the invasion of Nanking in 1937.
The famous executioner Suzuki beheaded people without a blindfold. He would drip blood from the knife into a bottle of brandy and drink it. This was to scare the locals against the Japanese. The locals then ran away to the jungle. Some bodies were dumped, others were taken to the British or Japanese cemetery. Some men had to dig their own grave. You can see the guillotine site as well as the gallows. When the site was cleared a grave was found, and the area was burnt to settle the spirits.
The area was exorcised to remove the spirits and they returned the buildings to their original state.
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