Seventy years on from the fall of Singapore in World War Two - a memorial service to honour the dead.<br/> <br />From 1942 to 1945, Singapore was a battleground after Japan occupied the island as part of its campaign to expand its empire.<br/> <br />Caught in the crossfire were tens of thousands of Allied soldiers and civilians.<br/> <br />Most of the survivors of the attacks were arrested, detained and used for forced labour.<br/> <br />A group of Australians who were prisoners of war in Singapore returned to remember those dark days.<br/> <br />(SOUNDBITE) (English) WAR VETERAN AND FORMER POW AT CHANGI PRISON, PETER DEMOPOULOS:<br/> <br />"I just think the waste of life, when you look around the cemetery most of our boys were 18, 19, 20; it brings back memories, what a waste of life."<br/> <br />SOUNDBITE (English) WAR VETERAN AND FORMER POW AT CHANGI PRISON, GEORGE ROBERT SMITH:<br/> <br />"You've got to forget it anyway that's the thing is it, you're not going to try to think about it all the time, you'll go mad."<br/> <br />A separate civilian ceremony was also held at Singapore's Beach Road War Memorial to remember the civilians victims of the war and Japanese occupation.<br/> <br />Simon Hanna, Reuters.
