70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Another blow is pending. When the military authorities took over, here, they obviously found that this camp had not been run in the same way as those of the POW camps at Argyle Street and Sham Shui Po, where communal undertakings had been developed to a far greater extent than they had here. At these camps all the gardens had been communal and they also established a piggery or piggeries, which apparently have been a great success. (We hear they are now able to kill a pig a week, though I don’t know how many of them there are to eat it.)

It is much easier to establish such undertakings amongst service men, for the word of the senior officers is law. Amongst a civilian crowd, like those in this camp, it is not possible for the nominal heads of the camp, or internees’ representatives, to force civilians to do things against their wills, for the rights of the individual are still respected as in normal times and normal British law still prevails here, and any individual can take legal proceedings at the camp court and the legal rulings are upheld. In these circumstances this has really been a source of great weakness in running this camp ( especially concerning labour and billeting) and communal undertakings could only be launched if the internees felt inclined to comply. Generally speaking the ‘communal spirit’ has been sadly lacking in this place. Most peoples’ vision has been too limited by their own small concerns to enable them to take the wider view and fully appreciate the advantages of pooling resources.

There have been many inequalities here: some people are young and fairly healthy, others are old and unwell; some people have parcels of food sent in regularly and others have none at all; some receive money and some get none (apart from IRC allowances); some people came into camp with much of their wardrope and jewellery which they have been able to dispose of at handsome prices, and others came in with practically nothing more than the clothes they stood up in.

In distributing welfare goods an effort has been made to discriminate between the needy cases and the not so needy, but this becomes more difficult as time goes on, for many people have adopted the attitude of ‘take all you can get’ and accept stuff they could well do without. Only the other day Isa appealed to one of the other rooms in this flat to provide a new rag for the purpose of cleaning the bathroom as up till now, our room seemed to provide the necessary bits. Well, one of the occupants said she had a rag with which she would mop up the floor and this ‘rag’ turned out to be a perfectly good short sleeved vest which was issued to her when the IRC clothing was issued months ago. Many a man or a mother of a small child would have been very glad of that now.

Now, private gardening has enabled many people to increase their scanty resourses and catch up a bit with the more fortunate who receive money and parcels from friends outside. Also the enthusiasm displayed amongst private gardeners has been much greater than any enthusiasm exhibited for communal gardening. But the new administration, realising the possibilities of properly organised communal gardening have decided that all private gardens must be handed over to the community and this is to take place soon. It has come as a most bitter blow to hundreds of us here. Our gardens have come to play quite an important part in our lives in Stanley; they have given us an interest, which is vitally important and they have given those who need it the chance of augmenting their food supply, which is also vitally important. Now all that is, apparently, to go.

We are to be allowed to pick and dig up the produce that is mature, or will be in the near future, before handing over the ground. Really, life here is becoming more and more circumscribed; everything seems to be closing down on us. The Japanese Civil Administration never encouraged or gave a lead in communal enterprises,  and now we feel it is too late. If this camp had been run by the military people from the start it would have been a much better place. Properly run communal gardens, a poultry farm (primarily for invalids) and a piggery would all have been possible and probably would have been more productive than private enterprises amongst which there is undoubtedly waste and inefficiency. But it is really much too late in the day to think about that now – at least we all devoutly hope so. Nothing much can be raised from communal gardens before Xmas, and we all hope to be out of this camp by then. Of course, that is a thing that our Chairmen and representatives cannot very well tell the Japanese who, apparently, are planning for 3 more years of Stanley camp!!

Our gardening committee has done all it can to persuade the Japanese to let things remain as they are, but to no avail. Now people are saying, “If we have to give up our gardens for the community, why not pool all money and parcels too?”!

I don’t think that scheme would be very popular, for everyone hopes they may someday have a windfall of food or money and then they would hate to have to pool it. Besides, recipients of parcels may, one day, have to pay for them in hard cash, in which case it would be rather unfair on them. Some people receive 3 or 4 parcels a week regularly!

A long time ago, a year or more, R.S.W. Paterson of the PWD who is O.C. Labour in camp, found that there were so many cases, amongst the heavy labourers, of men developing heart trouble and generally cracking under the work that he began agitating and agitating for extra rations from the Japanese to compensate labourers for their extra output of energy. Numerous lists were compiled and submitted to the Japanese (I had several to prepare when I was block labour officer) but nothing ever seemed to come of it. (He did manage to obtain the ingredients for making biscuits for workers, the source of supply being, I think, the IRC). Then suddenly during April of this year, the Japanese issued a new scale of rations, making allowance for workers’ extras. Everyone was most pleased and surprised, and when the details were issued many people were most indignant as well! Before the details came out it was quite surprising how the erstwhile shirkers rushed around looking for jobs! The details, when issued, certainly caused surprise. 
The internees were divided into five categories: heavy workers; light workers; ordinary adults; children from (I think) 6 – 12 and those under 6. The issue of dry stores is as follows:

        Heavy   Light    Adult   Child   Infant
Rice    20 oz   16 oz    12 oz   10 oz     8 oz
Oil    0.8 oz  0.8 oz   0.4 oz  0.4 oz   0.4 oz
Sugar  0.4 oz  0.4 oz  0.21 oz 0.21 oz  0.21 oz

In addition there is a small issue of salt, most of which is given to the kitchen. Recently the Japanese have doubled the salt issue, so now we are issued with about a tablespoonful each once a week. This is not nearly enough for our needs and Y and I have to buy from the canteen about ½ lb per week. For a little while the Japanese gave us a free issue of Indian tea, but after a month or two they said the stocks had run out. We asked for the local China tea but they said there was none available – and we are in China which produces tons of tea! From time to time they give us an issue of curry powder too, some of which is used by the kitchen and some (a dessert-spoonful) is issued every month or so to us individually. That, in addition to the fish (or fowl) and vegetables that come in once in two, or sometimes three days, is the sum total of our rations from the Japs.

The oil, which is bean oil usually (though we have had coconut oil), is a fairly recent addition to our rations and it is a most valuable addition too. They started issuing us with oil at about the beginning of this year. The quantity varies slightly and is never quite up to the quota, but it is not far off and is maintained fairly regularly. The sugar too is usually short and we get about 1 ¾ oz every 10 days.

In the ‘Heavy Workers’ category the Japanese included: all the Colonial Secretary’s Office staff (which was the cause of most of the indignation); the Chairmen and Committee members of the various blocks; the Internal Administrative Office staff; then heavy manual labourers such as kitchen staff, woodcutters, bakers, rations squads, refuse disposal etc; also the doctors (block and hospital) and dentist, the nursing staff and one or two other categories. The ‘Light Workers’ include such people as the camp workshop people – plumbers, shoemakers, and the like. From the lists of workers in the various blocks, the Japanese assessed the total number of extra rations they would allow and a camp committee distributed these amongst the blocks where the Japanese allocations were not quite definite.

After I resigned from the office of Block Labour Officer at the end of February I had no regular job for a time. During my period of office I had put into operation a scheme whereby all male labourers in our blocks, who so desired, could have a chance of working for a short spell on the kitchen staff. In those days there were two kitchen squads of 8 men per squad and they had three consecutive days on duty and three off. The committee approved the scheme of 4 permanent men per squad and 4 ‘casuals’ who were drawn in turn from other workers’ squads for a period of 12 days (6 on and 6 off). This arrangement operated in the days before the extra Japanese rations (which materialised at the beginning of March) and allowed the ‘casual’ kitchen staff to draw double rations from the food queues (which were allowed to kitchen workers) on the days on which they worked. Other extra rations or workers biscuits were allowed to other workers (according to the nature of their work) but the cooks and bakers were the only people who drew double rations at both meals for their day’s work. This question of extra rations had always been a source of dissatisfaction and grumbling throughout the camp; everone thought everyone else was getting more than his or her fair share. 

Every able bodied man or woman, by the ruling of our Block Committee, had to do some job or other, the penalty for refusal being that the individual was issued with raw rations. The threat of this was sufficient to compel most people to work, but there was endless wrangling and disputing and discontent. I found that in asking many men to start a new job or to fill a vacancy, the first question I was asked was, “What extras do I get for it?”

I became sick to death of the poor spirit of co-operation that prevailed. The idea of setting good examples was about as effective as would be the attempt to open the strong room of a bank with a tin opener. The reaction seemed to be, “Well, if he’s fool enough to do that for nothing, the more fool he!” Often, too, I was told, “There’s old so and so, he hasn’t done a stroke of work since he came into camp and I shan’t do anything until you give him a job.”

It was generally quite useless to point out that old so and so had a medical certificate exempting him from work, he was then promptly pronounced a humbug or worse! As I have said, the inablility to enforce discipline in this camp has been one of its great drawbacks and weaknesses.

Roy Heasman, who succeded me as Labour Officer had a much easier time, for with the advent of extra rations he found he had more people willing to work than there were jobs to be filled! Nobody has a kick now, for, whereas before, extra rations meant depriving the community as a whole of some of its food, that state of affairs no longer obtains. It also means that workers biscuits which had hitherto been given to heavy male labourers are now available for deserving cases amongst women – school teachers, clinic workers, vegetable cutters etc. who at one time drew no extra rations at all and who still get no extra Japanese rations.

These biscuits, by the way, have good food value; they are 2 ½ to 3 inches square and about ¼ inch thick and contain rice flour (as a base), bean flour, bran, a little oil or lard and a little sugar, and Yvonne, for instance, who now cuts vegetables twice in six days, gets 2 biscuits on the days she works.

Well, to return to my work, I was given a spell on the casual kitchen squad – two spells in fact – and then I was asked if I would like to make up one of the squad of 8 from the Married Blocks who were to start on a new communal gardening scheme that the Japanese had just put into operation. This scheme was suggested, unofficially, by a policeman in the Indian Quarters to the Japanese, and it met with their approval. Meijima, who was then in charge of the camp, said he was concerned about our rations and this suggestion would enable him to put quite a good case to the (I presume) Military Authorities in town. (Meijima was a good chap in many ways and was one of the few officers here who seem to have kept out of the ‘squeeze’ business. Yamashita, for instance, insisted that our canteen goods be ordered from certain shops, and knowing the East a little, I know that could mean only one thing.)

This scheme was that all spare cutivatable land within or near the camp should be cultivated by a gardening squad of male internees, and the produce, while remaining the property of the Japanese, should be looked upon as supplementary or emergency rations for the camp in the event of some emergency arising which would prevent supplies of vegetables coming in from town. In return for the labour expended, extra half rations per day would be given to the men in the squads.

There were two squads of 30 per squad; one of which worked in the mornings and the other in the afternoons, from 9 – 11.30 and 1.30 – 4.00. The squads alternated between morning and afternoon shifts. It really was a good scheme; it received the blessing of the Japanese authorities and was put into operation on 21st April. 

There is a much larger percentage of men in the St Stephen’s and Indian Quarters Blocks than in these Married Quarters and American Blocks and consequently more men were drawn from the former than the latter in comprising the personnel of the squads. We signed on for a month, after which period a new batch was given the chance of enrolling for a month and so on. Actually, the percentage of spare able bodied men in our married Blocks is so small that several, who enjoyed the work, were able to go straight on for a second month. I found one month was quite enough for me! The extra food, I found, barely compensated for the extra output of energy.

But this was not my real objection. I did not like the work because it was so uninterestingly organised. The leaders of the two squads found it most convenient for themselves to put the same men on the same work day after day. Consequently, my recollection of it is that of a pretty ribby coolie who did nothing but hoe for several days in the blistering sun or the cold, cold rain; then who carted earth in a bucket with another coolie from one spot and dumped it in another; and then carted buckets of water up and down the hill to another chap who, with a perforated tin, sprinkled the potato cuttings etc. Had I been in charge I think I would have divided the area into 3 or 4 lots with so many men allocated to each lot and let these smaller squads see the whole thing through from breaking ground to planting and watering the cuttings. It would have added interest to the work and there would undoubtedly have been the added interest and stimulus of a mild kind of inter plot rivalry. As it was, most of us got very bored which made the work far more tiring than it need have been, and we spent our time ‘clock watching’ and sitting down for as long as we could! That, in my opinion, is a great argument against communal gardens (run on those lines) and why private gardening, where you plan what you are going to do and see the result of your labours, is so much more interesting. I found that time in my own garden always flew, while in the communal gardens it generally dragged.

On May 20th I finished my gardening contract and a day or two later, as a couple of men on the wood-cutting squad were ill, I was put onto wood cutting temporarily. I used to be a wood cutter a long time ago and though the work is pretty strenuous I had always rather enjoyed it; it is tolerably clean (better than building ovens with mud!) and the hours are regular and you know  just how much you must do each day. These are quite good recommendations when daylight is precious and you need to be able to plan your day. The rest of the squad seemed to find my work satisfactory (!) so Purves, who is now in charge, arranged with the Labour Officer that I should stay on the squad.

When I first started work, the Japanese were sending in enormous great logs, 2 or 3 feet in diameter and wet with sap and it nearly killed us sawing them and then splitting them. Much of the wood was Banyan which, owing to the peculiar growth of the tree, was so crossed grained that it was terribly hard to split. Until my flabby muscles grew accustomed to the sawing it used to exhaust me and I began to wonder if the wasted old frame could stand up to it. However, that was only the initial phase and after a day or two I got used to it and with the extra rations I actually felt fitter. Then, mercifully, the stocks of this larger timber ran out and the Japs have been sending in smaller stuff since, which is much easier to cope with.

Now the 8 woodcutters are divided into two squads of 4 each and we cut on alternate days. We have to cut and split 650 lbs per day, or just over ¼ ton. During this hot weather we start work at 06.30 and generally manage to finish by breakfast time (or morning roll-call) at 08.00., by which time the sun is up and beginning to get hot. I enjoy working in the morning with hardly anyone about. Except for special workers like ourselves and the cooks, no one is allowed out before roll-call.

In assessing the heavy workers’ rations for our blocks, the Japanese allowed 6 double rations for woodcutters. Our committee decided to put 8 men on the squad so we each get ¾ of a double ration each day. This means that for one week I get ½ ration of extra food for the morning meal and a double ration for the evening meal and the next week, double in the morning and ½ in the evening. I draw my extra oil and sugar at the end of 10 days. The oil and sugar Y and I divide, or rather, share equally and I give her some of my extra rice and when Y gets her two biscuits for vegetable cutting she gives me one, which is very nice. This means I actually draw 6 ozs extra rice each day, making 18 ozs of raw rice. We miss our bread very much these days. I have boiled rice for breakfast, the morning meal, the evening meal and supper; but I draw the line at boiled rice for tea too and content myself with a cup of tea and a cigarette! Y, however, manages rice for tea as well - as do most other people.

Looking back over these lean years, we are both very thankful to the Almighty for the good health that it has so far been our good fortune to enjoy. We have both lost weight: Y from 135 to her present 105 lbs and I from my peak camp weight of 151 to 132 (60 kilos – my father was 5 ‘ 10”). Y was 104 (47 kilos – 7 stone 6 lbs) and I, three months ago, 131 (our lowest yet) but we have both managed to put on a pound each since. My blood pressure is 115 (which though low is above average for camp) and Y’s 102 over 80 (about average for young women here). 

Though I weigh less now than during my first low level of 134 lbs which I reached during the first 3 or 4 months in camp, I do not feel as weak as I did then. This is probably due to the fact that my body can assimilate more rice than I could then; that during those first months I lost weight more rapidly than I have since; and I have grown used to feeling pretty puny and cannot so easily compare my present state of strength with my peace-time condition as I could in the earlier days.