Sentosa Island's dark past includes pirates, malaria, a prisoner of war camp, and mass executions during WWII.
It almost became an oil refinery before the Singaporean government decided to turn it into a tourist destination.
Since then it's become famous for its lush forest, beaches, hotels, theme parks, and golf courses.
Sentosa Island, a luxurious tourist destination just off Singapore, almost never happened.
After a dark and brutal past involving pirates, malaria, a prisoner of war camp, and mass executions, the island — formerly called Pulau Blakang Mati," or "the island behind which lies death" — almost became an Esso oil refinery.
The government had already agreed with the oil company when a few concerned individuals proposed another idea — why not turn it into a popular tourist destination like Disneyland?
Here's how it got to be the way it is today.
About a mile off Singapore, you'll find Sentosa Island, a 500-hectare island shaped like the end of a tobacco pipe.
Seen from the Bay Hotel in Singapore, a car carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un enters Sentosa island.
Wong Maye-E/AP
From above, it looks like a beach-lined Disneyland bordered by forest.
But the island has a dark history. Up until about 50 years ago, it was known as "Pulau Blakang Mati," which translates to "the island behind which lies death."
An aerial view of Sentosa Island.
Purschke/ullstein bild via Getty Images
In the 19th century, it was a regular hiding spot for pirates, and some experts believe its name refers to an area where they buried their dead.
Around this period, the island's small population was also decimated by what was thought to be malaria.
In the late 19th century, while Singapore was under British control, its forces built five coastal forts across the island, including Fort Siloso on a hilltop.
Inside Fort Siloso in 2023.
Marielle Descalsota/Insider
In 1942, they fought the Japanese from these forts.
The Japanese also killed thousands of Chinese men in mass executions on one of Sentosa's beaches, which was later converted into the Serapong golf course.
Sihwan Kim of United States in action during The Open Qualifying Series, part of the SMBC Singapore Open at Sentosa Golf Club, Serapong Course on January 23, 2022 in Singapore, Singapore.
In 1967, he wrote a paper that convinced authorities that the island needed to remain a "green lung" and that it could be converted into a tourist destination. Choe's inspiration was Disneyland.
In 1972, the island was renamed "Sentosa," which means "peace and tranquility." This was the winning entry in a public competition held to rename the island.
A view of the welcome sign on Sentosa Island.
Marielle Descalsota/Insider
The Singaporean government also formed the Sentosa Development Corporation.
It had big plans for the island, but it wasn't easy.
"It's always been a military island. When we took over, there was no money, no causeway," Choe told Channel News Asia. "So, we started by adapting a lot of the old buildings used by the British for military garrisons."
In 1983, Sentosa's development stalled after an oil vessel hit the cable cart line. The accident caused two carts to fall into the sea, killing seven people and trapping 13 others.
Cable cars traveling to and from Sentosa Island.
Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images
It was a disaster and the island experienced an immediate slump in visitors and business interest.
To get things moving again, it took tax incentives as well as unique land purchasing rules where developers could pay for part of the land and pay off the rest using their earnings once their developments were up and running.
Still, progress remained slow. As recently as 1989, the island had no proper luxury hotels, just a few youth hostels. But the island became more accessible in 1992 when the Sentosa Causeway opened.
Theme parks and attractions opened and closed, including "Volcano Land" and the water park "Fantasy Land," where two people died. Asia's largest underwater aquarium "Underwater World," which opened in 1991, lasted longer than the others, but it also closed down in 2016.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev during a tour of Underwater World on Sentosa Island in 1996.
In 1995, the island unveiled Singapore's largest Merlion, a mythological guardian for the city that is half fish and half lion. It's 121 feet high and cost $8 million to build.
The Merlion statue overlooks Sentosa in 2005.
Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images
"We built it very tall; people could take a lift up to the top, and we made its eyes like radar lights, flashing all over with smoke coming out and sound roaring out," Choe told Channel News Asia.
In 2002, the Singaporean government invested $3 billion into the island to rejuvenate it, including a $20 million investment to upgrade Palawan Beach and the refurbishment of Fort Siloso.
Sentosa Cove — one of the island's key developments — was launched in 2003. Based at the tip of the eastern edge of the island, it's where some of Singapore's richest citizens live.
The Singapore Cable Car provides an aerial link from Mount Faber on the main island of Singapore to the resort island of Sentosa across the Keppel Harbour.
Roland Neveu/LightRocket via Getty Images
The 117-hectare gated community with 2,600 homes is the only place in Singapore where a non-resident can purchase land, but it doesn't come cheap.
Houses between 7,000 and 10,000 square feet sold for up to $10 million. In 2022, one sold for $16 million.
Sales from the elite community brought in hundreds of millions of dollars.
"The idea was for the rich to park the car in the front and the yacht behind," Choe told Channel News Asia.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the island has "one foot in fantasy land and one foot in a future in which Singapore embraces, well Southern California, with a gated community of luxury homes and a yacht marina."
But it was in 2010 that Sentosa reached the peak of its evolution when Resorts World Sentosa opened, according to Time. This was the first Universal Studios theme park in Southeast Asia.
Workers put up finishing touches in the hotels at Sentosa Resorts World, on Thursday Jan. 7, 2010 in Singapore.
Wong Maye-E/AP
It was also the location for Singapore's first casino.
The resort was so large it reclaimed about seven hectares of watery coastline.
People often assume Sentosa Island is manmade. That's not true but, according to CNN, it has grown about 220 hectares since 1972.
RWS had an immediate impact. From 2010 to 2011, the number of visitors to Sentosa rose from 7.8 million to 19.1 million. And visitor numbers continued to grow every year by almost 20% until the pandemic.
Despite all of the development, Sentosa still acts as a "green lung" for Singapore. It has an estimated 55,000 trees and 45 hectares of secondary forest covering the island, according to a government agency report from 2011.
Sentosa Island and the causeway connecting it to mainland Singapore are seen with the city-state’s main skyscraper-studded island in the background.
In 2018, Sentosa made headlines when former President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the island for a historic summit where Kim Jong Un pledged to disarm his nuclear weapons.
Then-President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sentosa Island in 2018.
As for the future, the government is planning on connecting Sentosa to a nearby island called Palau Brani to create an even more impressive tourist destination over the next 20 years.
A group of kayakers paddle along a waterway off Sentosa Island in Singapore on May 9, 2023.
Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images
While the pandemic delayed its plans, Sentosa will surely become an even larger, more decadent island destination before too long.
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