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 Jul 1943, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

    Date(s) of events described: 
    Wed, 7 Jul 1943

    The Kempeitai return to Stanley and there are four more arrests: senior Government official J. A. Fraser, policeman Sergeant F. Roberts, and wireless operators Douglas Waterton and James Anderson.

    Fraser is accused of organising radio usage from April 1942 onwards, Waterton, alongside the previously arrested Stanley Rees, of being an operator, listening to news broadcasts and eventually preparing to contact the BAAG. Roberts, it is believed, found a radio in a hut in early 1942 and eventually gave it to the operators.

    These charges are substantially correct - although Fraser actually started making preparations for getting a radio into Stanley while he was in the Prince's Building with other Government officials in the first months after the surrender. And there are other people involved in the operation, so this is a very nervous time indeed for a courageous group of internees. One of them will face arrest before the day is out.

    During the afternoon Waterton is made to dig a hole at the end of No 18 Block in the Indian Quarters. After two to three hours work, he unearths a grey box with a radio inside. One of the guards is sent to bring out Waterton's room-mate, 'New Moon' Moss. The Japanese know he helped bury the set, but Moss tells them he thought he was helping Waterton bury his family silver to safeguard it against theft. Amazingly, the Kempeitai believe him. 

    Sources:

    Details of charges: Captured Enemy Trial Document, Ride Papers

    All else: George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 162-3

  • 7 Jul 1943, R. E. Jones Wartime diary

    Book / Document: 
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Wed, 7 Jul 1943

    Finished job in Hosp. store.

    ((G))

    Waterton, Roberts, Taikoo Anderson & Fraser arrested. Waterton made to dig up radio?

    Swim pm.

    ((G))

    Talk with Steve pm.

    ((G))

  • 7 Jul 1943, Eric MacNider's wartime diary

    Date(s) of events described: 
    Wed, 7 Jul 1943

    Waterton (?? ((unclear, maybe shorthand?)) ) F. Roberts, J.L . Anderson, JA Fraser taken.

    Faure entered Hosp. 

  • 07 Jul 1943, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

    Date(s) of events described: 
    Wed, 7 Jul 1943

    OBJECTIVE: Bomb shipping at Whampoa docks in Canton.  This is the first raid in a sustained anti-shipping campaign by the 14th Air Force that begins in July 1943.

    TIME OVER TARGET: ~1:15 p.m.

    AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Seven B-25s from the 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group) and twenty-two P-40s from the 23rd Fighter Group

    AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: P-40s: Lt. Col. Clinton D. Vincent; Lt. Col. Samuel “Tex” Knowles

    ORDNANCE EXPENDED: Forty-two 500-pound demolition bombs (B-25s)

    RESULTS: Bombs dropped on three large vessels estimated at 6,000 to 10,000 tons each.  Results unknown, but postwar records show no Japanese ships are lost at Canton on this date.

    JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: Ki-43-IIs from the 33rd Sentai

    AIRCRAFT LOSSES: American pilots claim to shoot down at least two Ki-43s.  Japanese records show fighter pilot Sgt. Tamotsu Watanabe of the 33rd sentai is lost over Canton on this date.

    SOURCES:

    • Original mission reports and other documents in the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama
    • Japanese Army Fighter Aces, 1931-45, by Ikuhiko Hata, Yasuho Izawa, and Christopher Shores

    Information compiled by Steven K. Bailey, author of Bold Venture: The American Bombing of Japanese-Occupied Hong Kong, 1942-1945 (Potomac Books/University of Nebraska Press, 2019).

  • 07 Jul 1943, Diary of George Gerrard in Stanley Internment Camp Hong Kong

    Date(s) of events described: 
    Wed, 7 Jul 1943

    Another sensation has been caused by the further arrest today of more internees vis Waterton and J.L.Anderson (wireless), J.A.Fraser (Defence Secy) and F.Roberts (Police). Waterton was forced to dig a hole down at block 18 and from this a wireless set was recovered. The lads previously arrested are still away and it doesn't look well for them. We do hope they are not having too rough a time of it.

    Alan Taylor has been appointed camp Q'master. ((I see a "Harry Alan Taylor" on the list of internees, and guess it is him.)) With all this bother there has been a great scarcity of news, no bamboo wireless coming in at all and the newspaper giving very little away, altho' we did get part of Churchill’s' speech referring to the Autumn leaves beginning to fall and so from that we infer that big things will happen in Europe soon if they haven't begun already. Then there is activity in the South Seas and we are occupying islands there.

    14 more people have come into the camp mostly bankers and are occupying 'E' bungalow and we have been to gleam a little news from them of home and local conditions.

    The weather has improved a bit and we were able to play off one of our bowls games last night against MacCleod 'B' and we beat them on two rinks and got four points. My rink won 15-11 against Pengully.

    H. Smith is still on his honeymoon but returns back to the room again on Saturday. Restrictions are much higher now with regards to being in our blocks with lights out at 10 o'clock.

    I was on duty at the church last Sunday afternoon. I of course go to the morning service, but owing to the rations I have to leave before the sermon. D.B.B. and I go for our usual walk and on Saturday we had a seat on the hillside and J.F. brought a flask of coffee and a biscuit each. We also received a drink out of 6oz of lemonade each from the welfare and for these little luxuries we are always grateful, small tho' they may be they help to make life easier, tho' we would like more.

  • 07 Jul 1943, John Charter's wartime journal

    Date(s) of events described: 
    Wed, 7 Jul 1943

    There has been a considerable amount of commotion up the hill this afternoon. Mr Lammert said there was a tremendous amount of shouting amongst the Chinese and (presumably) the Japanese for about half an hour, which finished up with the sound of blows. Some time later, a European accompanied by about 5 Chinese with picks and shovels, and Mr Yamashita, went along to the end of the American blocks and started digging beside some rocks there, not far from the spot where I was digging this morning in the process of preparing a new rubbish dump. Evidently they think something is buried there. Y and I have just walked along to see if we could see anything, but the site, we hear, is at the end of block 18 and we could not see it from above. But we bumped into Patterson and he said that Waterton (Government Radio Officer) is digging at the end of block 18 with two plain clothes Japanese on guard. The guards are armed with revolvers. Patterson said he was walking past and was just on the point of hailing Waterton and saying, “What the Dickens are you digging at this time of the day,” when he noticed the two gentlemen in the shade and revolvers – so he just hummed a tune and tried to look unconcerned!

    Patterson says that in addition to Waterton, J. Fraser (Defence Secretary for the Colony) and a Police sergeant, Roberts, have been called up the hill. Yamashita and Nakazawa are down there now, and another car has just gone along to the end of the American blocks, though I could not see who was in it. The general conjecture is that it is a wireless set they are after. There must be fifth columnists in this camp – several of them.  It is unfortunately possible that those under arrest have been made to talk.

    When General Cohen (one time bodyguard to some important Chinese leader (Chiang Kai Shek) was taken to town for questioning in the early days of this camp, he came back with his legs bandaged up and in a state of exhaustion. He has never said a word about what happened to him, but ‘third degree’ is evidently in vogue amongst the gendarmerie.

    Poor Waterton seems to be in a very bad way. It was apparently he who was being shouted at and hit, up the hill at mid-day, for when he was made to dig, his face was cut and bleeding on one side. During the digging he swooned and Dr Ballean was called to revive him. Then he was ordered to proceed with the digging. Finally he unearthed a tin box – about 2’ x 1’ x 1’, I was told by eye witnesses – which was put in Yamashita’s car and taken up the hill. Later, I hear, he was again brought down and produced a loud speaker, also buried. The poor chap fainted again and was douched with water. He must be in a bad state. It is all very depressing and one feels terribly sorry for him and any of his associates; sorry, not to say apprehensive.

    One more man, another Anderson, has been arrested by the Japanese. We are making a collection in camp to buy and send in food to these ten men.The Japanese have expressed their willingness to let this be done. All bread must be in thin slices; all tinned foods will be opened etc. etc. – they are going to make certain no messages are sent to them.

    The Japanese have informed Gimson that three orders must be rigidly observed: (1) the curfew regulations must be strictly observed, both morning and evening (we have to be within the vicinity of our blocks by 7.45 p.m. now, in our rooms by 9.30 p.m. and lights out at 10.00 p.m. and everyone must be in their rooms for roll-call between 8 and 8.15 a.m.). (2) No one must attempt to escape from camp, and (3) No one must attempt to send messages to town other than through the legal channels. If any of these rules are infringed the whole camp is to be punished. Strangely enough, no reference is made to wireless prohibition. Things are beginning to look unpleasant.

    A notice came around today which said the instances of malnutrition in this camp during June of this year have been worse than at any time since June of last year. The C.S. had forwarded the medical report to the Japanese and asked if camp rations could be increased, if not permanently, then until such time as further IRC provisions were received. As far as I am concerned I am feeling better just now than I was a month ago.

    Recently the Japs have been sending into camp, frozen mutton which the Dairy Farm had in cold storage before the war. Fortunately the Japanese and Chinese do not fancy mutton, they prefer beef and pork, and prices recently quoted in the paper showed pork at about MY6.40 per catty (1 1/3 lbs), beef at about MY5.60 and mutton at only MY3.60. The percentage of bone sent in with the beef has been found to be much greater than the percentage of bone in the mutton (by weight), so that with mutton we get more meat than with beef. We have not had pork for ages. This is lucky, because the mutton is far more palatable for us than the tough beef which is, I think, nothing more than those big Chinese water-buffalo. 

    Incidentally, Anderson, the Quartermaster (now in prison) raised an objection some time ago because he observed the half carcass of beef sent were carefully cut so that the greater portion of the animals spine was included in the half carcass sent to camp. The Chinese contracting butcher was selling it at an all in price, flesh and bone, and was cunningly seeing to it that we got more than our fair share of the bone! The other half carcasses he presumably sold in smaller pieces at a higher price.

    Recently we have had a still better deal. Four times now, frozen liver has been sent into camp. This also comes from the Dairy Farm I understand. This is a very good form of meat for us and we get as large a portion of it as we do with mutton. In addition, the workers’ rations have recently been supplemented. Those doing manual labour of the heavier variety (digging, fetching rations etc.) get double rations at the meat meal on days which they work. Lately, all workers have been given 8 ozs of liquid cocoa made with cocoa and soya bean milk and a biscuit made from rice husks and bean residue at the morning meal on the days on which they were working. This is because lately the physical state of the manual labourers has been declining more noticeably than in any other section of the community. This, I fancy, is where my lean type of frame comes off better than those of the more fleshy gentlemen.

    Within the last two months I have actually put on one pound! I now weigh 139 ½ lbs instead of 138 ½  lbs. However, I am lower than this time last year, for after first reaching my record low level of 135 lbs I rose to 150 lbs when bread was issued regularly last year. One is warned not to overdo things, however, for fear of straining one’s heart.

    The weather has been terribly oppressive just now. It feels as though there may be a heavy thunderstorm or a typhoon coming up.

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