Syonan Jinja

- Buried in the dense jungle of the MacRitchie Catchment Area are the ruins of Syonan Jinja, a Japanese Shinto Shrine dating back to World War II. Built to commemorate Japanese soldiers who died fighting in the invasion of Singapore, Syonan Jinja was the location of many Japanese religious and cultural ceremonies.

A Shinto ceremony took place here every New Year's Day for the few years that the shrine existed. This was marked by the sounding of the temple bell, the arrival of devotees and the presence of a Shinto priest presiding over rituals.

Syonan Jinja was destroyed when the Japanese Occupation ended in 1945. Crumbling granite steps that once led to the shrine are visible, as well as the stone fountain. Today, remnants of the shrine are covered by jungle vegetation. As it is no longer accessible, Syonan Jinja is best seen through old photographs and drawings by the Japanese military as well as the POWs who helped build the shrine -

The above write-up is part of an article on Syonan Jinja which i found online. From what I know, the place was well-hidden and unknown for decades until a team went over to explore for the TCS discovery show 'Hey Singapore' in the late mid 90s. By right, the shrine was easily accessible via a bridge (blown up by the jap themselves) crossing over from the southern banks of MacRitchie reservoir. As the bridge is no longer around, we have to access it from nothern part of the reservoir, bashing through a v thick and dense forest.

I hv read some online postings by ppl on how tough the journey to the shrine was. Some gave up halfway. My team decided to try our luck today, as we started off from the MacRitchie Nature Trail (30min) followed by the Terentang Trail (20min), before we bashed into the densely vegetated grounds.


Mid way through our bashing, we found a concrete structure, believed to be a water tank left behind by the Jap. The tank looks v deep, and i darent go explore further.


After abt an hr of bashing (there was a not-so-obvious path actually), we finally found the entrance to the shrine! And yeah, i got pretty conceited tat we found it without much effort.


A long flight of steps leading the highest part of the hill, where the temple once stood.


Never ending steps???


A granite water trough, believed to be either part of a drinking fountain, or a holy water storage for worshippers to clean their hands.


From the entrance of the shrine, I looked over the waters to the golf course, where a bridge once stood. If only the bridge still exist, we wudn need all the bashings from the other dirn :(


Refusing to back track to the Terentang Trail, we decided to return back by finding a short-cut. But shucks, we were jus abt 5m away from the opposite bank (where the golf course and main roads were), but we could not cross over the waters for fear of uncertainty.


No choice, we have to bash thru the forested grounds again by heading northwards. Here's when the challenge came, we got lost in the super dense vegetation. There was no clear path to take, and I decided to bash (forgetting i wasnt in my SAF uniform). Suffered multiple cuts by twigs and thorns...


One of my colleagues was too tired to move on, with all the fallen trunks blocking our paths. Finally found our way out after a long 2hrs ++

We continued our journey to Bk Timah reserves and did some hiking there. And we finally returned back to the civilian world by climbing over the expressways near Beauty World. What a long walk we had today (estimated 15km & 5.5hrs).

The journey to the Shrine was quite easy (less than 1 hr of bashing), but the return route was terrible, with many fallen trunks and thick undergrowths + no clear & distinct path to take (took us more than 2 hrs). I would like to show my deepest respect for all the POWs who had been tortured and forced to build the shrine. Reading from the diary of some WWII soldiers, it was definitely an ordeal. Expecting more solid photos from my colleagues.

I am glad i have finally stepped onto the most holy ground of the japs in sg, a place which fascinated me a lot since it was shown in Hey! Singapore 10 yrs ago. But i dun think i will ever try going in again, its too tedious.