• The Former Ford Factory was the first motorcar assembly plant established by Ford Motor Company in Southeast Asia.
• The factory was occupied by the Japanese army during World War II. It was where the British surrendered unconditionally and handed Singapore over to the Japanese.
• In June 1980, the Ford Motor Factory was closed. Hong Leong Group purchased and renovated the factory in 1983, and named it Hong Leong Industries Building.
• In 1996, the Ministry of Information and the Arts and the Urban Redevelopment Authority negotiated with the Hong Leong Group to preserve the Ford Motor Factory as a National Monument.
• In 2006, the National Heritage Board renovated the Ford Motor Factory into a Singapore World War II exhibition gallery and renamed it “Memories at Old Ford Factory”.
• In 2017, the Former Ford Factory opened a new exhibition after a revamp by the National Archives of Singapore.
• The exhibition, named “Surviving the Japanese Occupation: War and its Legacies”, centres around the surrender of the British army and the Japanese Occupation – the historical events and their impact on Singapore. The National Archives of Singapore conducted a public collection drive for records and materials related to the Japanese Occuptaion. Items collected were then selected for display in the new exhibition.

The Former Ford Factory at Upper Bukit Timah Road was closed for renovations in February last year and will reopen next Wednesday (15 February) in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of the Fall of Singapore, with a new exhibition that focuses on Singapore during the Second World War. (Lianhe Zaobao, 10/2/2017)

The exhibition in 2017 was initially called “Syonan Gallery: War and Its Legacies” but was renamed “Surviving the Japanese Occupation: War and its Legacies”. This was done out of respect for those who had suffered and lost family members during the war.