70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

There have been a few, in fact, quite a number of air raids since the big one on 16th Jan., but they were on a small scale – except for one fairly big one on Sunday, 21st. (This one involved 30 B-24s of the 14th USAAF) The Lakers stated in this Sunday raid that 500 tenement houses in Wanchai were demolished, causing 5,000 casualties. Poor Chinese, I hope this is an exaggeration – it is bound to be – but there have undoubtably been heavy casualties amongst the Chinese. I hope all our friends are still safe.

The paper that described the raid of the 16th stated: HK was raided from 8.30 a.m. till almost dusk by 300 carrier based planes from an American Task Force operating in South China waters. This was Admiral Halsey’s fleet. They (the Japs) claimed 15 enemy planes – 10 shot down, one probable and four badly damaged. If these sources are true it is a small percentage and judging by reports of other aspects of the raid, they are probably exaggerated as they usually are. They admitted, “Some losses to our side”.

Wednesday’s paper stated that there were 49 British casualties in Stanley as a result of bombs dropped on the camp; 15 killed and 34 seriously injured. (Actually it was 14 killed and 4 slightly injured). This attack, it stated was perpetrated in spite of the large white crosses painted upon the roofs of all the buildings in the camp – there isn’t one solitary white cross anywhere!

Colonel Takanada came in a few days after the raid and demanded of Gimson a signed statement to the effect that this camp was bombed by American planes as a result of which 15 civilians lost their lives. Gimson resolutely declined, saying that in the first place he had not seen the plane and therefore could not be sure it was American (which, said Bickerton, made the Colonel very angry!). That, secondly, if it were an American plane it was probably aiming at legitimate objects within and near the camp, and thirdly, that the Japanese guards in camp had opened fire on the planes, which inevitably brought forth retaliatory fire. This, the Colonel angrily denied and said to have banged the table! Any way, the sergeant of the guards was produced and when he admitted to it, the Colonel had, perforce, to apologise and he assured Gimson that in future no Jap guards in the camp would be allowed to fire at planes. He also said he would endeavour to get the guns removed from the prison, but he could make no definite promise about this, as the prison was beyond his jurisdiction. Later, John Stericker (the Sec. for the Camp Internal Affairs Committee or whatever it is called) was asked for a statement but declined and then Dr Valentine was ordered to sign the death certificates of the victims in quintuplicate stating that they had died as a result of the bombing.

The Japanese are determined to get some propaganda value out of this accident: and I can imagine how it would appear: Indignant protest from British internees in Hong Kong when their camp was ruthlessly bombed by American planes, resulting in 140 deaths and many serious injuries.

I believe that Gimson has advised Stericker to write some non-commital statement for the sake of minimising unpleasantness with the Japs at this stage of things, when the whole situation is becoming crucial and delicate. He says that whatever he writes will be twisted and that, any way, everyone will know it was written under duress and no one will believe it anyhow!

I am getting a bit tired of these air raids. We all keyed ourselves up for further large scale attacks (even the invasion!) and now, as nothing much has happened for a fortnight we are feeling rather like pricked balloons. Most of us feel that we have a pretty hot and unpleasant time coming and the sooner it is over the better. I wonder what fate has in store for us: it would be rather bad luck to have endured three years of this and then get blown up in the end!