 This large encampment, comprising several barracks and military administrative buildings such as Roberts Barrack and Selarang Camp, were used together with the nearby Changi Prison (previously a maximum-security incarceration complex for civilians) for housing many of the Allied prisoners-of-war (POWs) after Japan took over control of Singapore.The construction of the current airfield in Changi Air Base was initiated by the occupying Imperial Japanese military forces using those same Allied POWs imprisoned in the Changi area as forced labourers, building two roughly-paved landing strips between 1943 and 1944, intersecting in a cross-shaped layout and in approximately north-south and east-west directions (similar to what was done at Kallang Airport by Japanese occupation forces) to allow planes to land and takeoff in any possible direction all around.This Japanese-built airfield facility became a Royal Air Force station after the Japanese occupation in Singapore abruptly ended following the Japanese surrender in 1945 and was then renamed as RAF Changi in 1946 by the returning British military authorities.