70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Shows diary entries from seventy-one years ago, using today's date in Hong Kong as the starting point. To see pages from earlier dates (they go back to 1 Dec 1941), choose the date below and click the 'Apply' button.

  • 7 Feb 1942, R. E. Jones Wartime diary

    Submitted by Admin on Sat, 2011-12-31 21:35
    Book / Document: 
    R. E. Jones Wartime diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Sat, 7 Feb 1942

    Demolishing ex air-raid shelter No4. Poor tiffin. Lovely sunburny weather. Evening meal not so good. Sir Atholl sold stock bought from Cheng. Many thoughts & visions of good food. When are we to get a decent meal? Gendarmerie apparently leaving, being relieved by civil administration. No news.

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  • 7 Feb 1942, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

    Submitted by brian edgar on Fri, 2012-01-13 20:54
    Book / Document: 
    Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Sat, 7 Feb 1942

    All bodies left around Camp after the fighting are finally buried.

     

    A group of men, women and children living in Bowen Road are finally forced to enter Camp. One of them, Sally Refo, tells their story:

    Even though it had often been unpleasant outside we did not want to give up what freedom we had. We had read of concentration camps and feared them. We also knew a good deal about the lives of Hong Kong civilians in the hotels. Most of all I feared starvation for the children and that proved to be the best founded fear I had during the whole war. On February 7th sitting on the tops of trucks piled high we trembled as we went around Hong Kong precipices, giving right of way to military cars. I shall never forget our arrival. We saw unshaven, carelessly dressed men, moving slowly because they were hungry, depressed women and pale children, crying or playing around in the camp. The one cheerful thing was to meet old friends. However, the camp never again seemed so unbearable as on the first day.

    Sources:

    Bodies: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 52.

    Refo: Sally Refo's Letter can be read in full by members of the Yahoo Stanley Camp Discussion Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stanley_camp/messages

  • 07 Feb 1942, Eric MacNider's wartime diary

    Submitted by Admin on Wed, 2016-03-02 01:38
    Book / Document: 
    Eric MacNider's wartime diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Sat, 7 Feb 1942

    Death of H. (Kid) Marriot (68)


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