70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Maryknoll Sisters Mary Paul, Anne, Ann Mary and Maria Regis are released from camp because, although American, they've established Irish descent.

The London Daily Express publishes this article on page 4: 

REMEMBER HONGKONG

Starvation threat to prisoners

Express Correspondent FRANCIS LEE

CHUNGKING, Monday.

 COMPLAINTS by the British and Americans interned at Stanley Camp, Hongkong, against their meagre food allowances led to a demand by their Japanese jailers for £5,000 to cover the cost of extra rations, according to authoritative reports reaching Chungking.

 Although protests were made that the demand was illegal, the money had to be paid out of personal bank accounts, as the Japs threatened to starve out the Camp if it was not forthcoming.

 ‘EXTRAS’

 The internees now receive infinitesimal "extras," including an ounce of fish daily, with their tiny quota of rice. The original rations provided only 900 calories daily instead of the 2,400 required.

The internees are dreading the summer, as the Japanese have not given them any mosquito nets, and malaria is inevitable. They are unable to get clothes, shoes or soap they left behind in the city.

They have no bedding beyond what was brought in when they were rounded up. They are herded in quarters in which six to eight men, women and children are given one room.

The British internees total 2,500, but most of the able-bodied men are in a military camp. The others include older people and women and children.

The internees, lacking outside news, console themselves with reports of the imminent arrival of food ships, or the release of American Red Cross wheat supplies, of which the Japs seized 2,000 tons.

Source:

Maryknoll: Cindy Yik-yi Chu, The Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong, 2004, 56