Singapore Botanic garden revisit (selection)

Another achievement was the pioneering of orchid hybridisation by Professor Eric Holttum, director of the gardens from 1925 to 1949. His techniques led to Singapore being one of the world's top centres of commercial orchid growing. Today it also has the largest collection of tropical plant specimens.

During the Japanese Occupation of Singapore from 1942 to 1945, Hidezo Tanakadate, a professor of geology from Tohoku Imperial University took over control of the Singapore Botanic Gardens and the Raffles Museum. During his tenure at the beginning of the occupation, he ensured that no looting occurred in the Gardens and the museum. Both institutions continued to function as scientific institutions. Holttum and Edred John Henry Corner were interned in the Gardens and instructed to continue their horticultural work. The Gardens was also renamed as Shōnan Botanic Gardens (昭南植物園). Later that year, Dr Kwan Koriba, a retired professor of botany from the Imperial University of Tokyo, arrived as Director of the Gardens, a post he held until the end of the war.

After the war, the Gardens was handed back to the control of the British. Eventually it played an important role during the "greening Singapore" campaign and Garden City campaign during the early independence years.