70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Reflections on the First Year

At some time on December 8, 1941 the future Stanleyites realised - along with the rest of the people of Hong Kong - that the planes in the sky were Japanese, not British pilots on an exercise, and with that realisation began a complex experience of terror, exultation, deprivation and endurance. Defeat, although with hindsight it was inevitable, seems to have come as a shock and psychic blow to almost everyone (see, for example, Staff-Sergeant Sheridan’s account of the mood in the Exchange Building late on December 25). But the survivors of the 18 days of bitter fighting were given little time to mourn– those who had merely lost everything they’d once owned were lucky – before many of them were crammed into insanitary hotel-brothels on the waterfront and left to wonder what was going to happen to them next (January 4, 1942-January 21, 1942. ((See also note at  http://gwulo.com/node/9898)).

The Japanese decided on what Gwen Dew called an 'almost unprecedented' move: the internment of an entire racially-defined civilian population. At some time between January 21 and January 30 most people in the designated category ('pure white' enemy civilians), and some who weren't, were sent off to the improvised Stanley Civilian Internment Camp on one of Hong Kong Island’s southern peninsulas. It was a relief to get out of the hotels and into beautiful surroundings, but the internees soon discovered that very little provision had been made for them and the early days were chaotic and tough, with poor rations, crowded accommodation and few facilities. For the British at least - the Americans were better organised and seem to ahve avoided the chaos at least, while some of the Dutch seem to have entered camp a little later and a little better prepared.

But soon committees were set up and structures of government, amusement and education were created, while the physical environment was improved by hard labour - debris from the fighting was cleared, latrine trenches were dug and paths were made (see, e.g. January 28, February 3, February 9, February 18/19, March 2, March 4). The rations sent in by the Japanese also improved. A report to the Americans on March 9 shows that in many ways conditions were still grim, but they were already a lot better than they had been and slowly improving.

The ‘golden age’ of the camp was probably the twelve months beginning on July 1, 1942. It would no doubt have surprised and horrified the internees to learn, as they saw in the New Year, that the worst days were still ahead of them. But I think it’s true. The repatriation of the Americans (June 29-30) made available some of the best accommodation in camp and significantly eased the crowding. Rations were as good as they were ever going to be, and, although faces were sometimes slapped, discipline wasn’t unduly harsh. This will change in 1943 when the Kempeitai ('the Japanese Gestapo') come to Stanley (see June 28, and July 7, 1943) and before the end of the year the first civilians to meet their death by violence will have been executed in view of the camp (October 29, 1943). 

The 100 or so 'Stanley stay-outs' who stayed uninterned had their own trajectory. Many of them were at the French Hospital carrying out public health work under Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke or at the Sun Wah Hotel liquidating their own banks for the benefit of the Japanese.  It’s probable that most of these people felt relatively privileged at the start, but in 1943 they were to learn to fear the Kempeitai even before their fellows in Stanley (see February 11, February 20, February 23, April 30, May 2 et. seq.). By the end of July almost all of them were in Stanley, and glad to be there.

It’s good that in Stanley Camp, in the Sun Wah Hotel and in the French Hospital everyone went to bed not knowing what the New Year had in store for them.

Note:

'Stanley stay-outs' is Tony Banham's phrase - I think it's the best available but no description is perfect. How did I arrive at the figure of roughly 100? Japanese racial policy was complex and full of exceptions, but there was one thing they were clear about: they wanted to get a certain group of civilians safely out of the way and into Stanley and they even offered rewards to anyone who would tell them where would be 'dodgers' were hiding. To be in this target group you had to be 1) an enemy national - primarily British, American or Dutch or from a British Empire country the Japanese considered 'white' - Australia, New Zealand or Canada; 2) unambiguously 'white' yourself.

With every other group there was some ambiguity - Belgian bankers in town were at first treated as enemies and then allowed to live where they chose (although under Kempeitai approval), a self-defined 'white' British subject was refused internment because he was from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Eurasians seem to have had a degree of choice as to whether or not to enter Stanley (according to Wenzell Brown someone came round the January hotels and told them to go home, but there were a fair number in the camp nevertheless), and, on the evidence available to me, black people did too - and so on.

If you were in the 'enemy white' category you could only avoid Stanley if 1) you claimed to be a neutral (Irish was the most popular choice) or 2) made a case for yourself. Successful 'cases' that I'm aware of amounted to 1) I'm a Japanese sympathiser; 2) I'm very old; 3) I'm very sick; 4) I'm a missionary or ecclesiastic; 5) I have a neutral friend who will guarantee my expenses and good behaviour (in other words will 'guarantee me out' of Stanley); 6) In addition, there were groups of workers who were allowed to stay in town because their work served the Japanese directly (bankers liquidating their banks) or indirectly (bakers baking for the hospitals so the Japanese didn't have to provide so much in the way of rations).

The biggest groups were 5), who, by definition had all been in Stanley, and 6), most of whom had relatives in Stanley or ended up there (or in prison, or dead) in 1943. My guess is that the total for all six groups was about 150 on December, 31, 1942, but I don't have documentation of even the scantiest kind for more than about 100 so I'm being cautious.

Xmas Mime & Drown concert.