Thanks for this. A unique insight into survival during the occupation.

Is there a page I've missed telling us more about Mr. Hutchinson? If not, I'd be grateful to learn more.

Fascinating.

Any additional info regarding your Grandpa after the war ?

 As an amateur photographer he may have taken some equally fascinating pictures. 

Thanks if you've just added this! When I accessed the page on my Android it started with 'Abbreviations and Translations' and didn't contain the very interesting information I now find (on a laptop)  above.

I'll add my thanks to Barbara, for sharing her family's diary with us, for persevering with this site's idiosyncracies to post the pages, and for taking the time to present all the information so well.

I'd also be interested to hear what happened to the family after liberation. Did they go back to Shanghai, or ...

Regards, David

Here's a brief note:

All schools in Hong Kong closed at beginning of the occupation. In early 1942, the Culture and Education Department ran a Teachers' Training Course that aimed to instil the Japanese culture in students who upon graduation became qualified teachers. In August 1942, over 20 primary and secondary schools reopened and the governor announced that newly edited textbooks should be used to provide "a new direction for Hong Kong education" that incorporated the "merits of Chinese and Japanese culture". School opening ceremonies included saluting the Japanese flag, singing Japanese anthems and paying respects to the Japan Imperial Palace from afar.

Page 93, Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation, by Cheng Po Hung.

Yes, St Mary's is a possibility, though I don't know if it stayed open during the occupation or not.

I'm not sure about nuns, but there were foreign priests in Hong Kong during the occupation. As Italy and Japan were allies initially, Italian priests were relatively free to move around. And even the American Maryknoll Fathers were allowed out from Stanley Camp: http://gwulo.com/node/14051

Regards, David

"In early 1943, six months after the first schools had been given official permision to start up again, only 3,200 pupils were going to school compared with 110,000 before the invasion." Pg 175, The Fall of Hong Kong, by Philip Snow.

Sargot , according to the wikipedia, is called Pachyrhizus erosusz or Mexican Yam

14 April 1944  Bow Tsii  =Buns

19 April 1944  Gook      = a kind of Chinese Dumplings

Gwan Dad Not Bwan Dad when you compare with the G in Gow . 

It is another spelling for Gwan Daad.

Also 12th March 1944  1c Gwan Daad C??  .25

                   Can you figure it out?

I think Gwan Daar C refers to "君達菜", which is Swiss chard or a local variety of Swiss chard. I guess C stands for Choi (vegetables) in Cantonese. This vegetable is not quite common these days.

Hope that it helps.

My guess of "wai sung fun" would be 衛生粉.  Probably washing powder.

A little bit off-topic, but I note with interest the brief conversation above concerning schools in HK during the Japanese Occupation. Mention is made of the Diocesan Boys School.

I recently visited KG V school near Argyle Street in an official capacity, which was constructed in the early 1930’s I believe. I was very interested to note the information boards which the School authorities have placed on the Main Building and also the playing field pavilion.

The latter board mentions how the occupying Japanese forces used the pavilion as a “torture chamber” from 1942 - 45. It quotes a former military person from that period visiting the School many years later, reminiscing that many of his chums / colleagues etc. suffered within the confines of that building.

Surprising what you find in Hong Kong when you look around!

Hello Barbara.  I came across your fascinating post whilst looking at various articles on Hong Kong's history.  

I lived in Hong Kong for several years after the hand-over in 1997 and my son was born in Hong Kong. 

My mother, who grew up in London during the blitz, often spoke fondly of a friend called Jim Hutchinson from Hong Kong who she met in London after the war. I think they met at a church society for international peace in the early fifties. My mother told me that Jim's family came from Shanghai and that his grandfather was Scottish. She also mentioned that he was taught by an Irish order in Hong Kong at some point - it could conceivably have been during the war as Ireland was neutral and I have read elsewhere that non-military Irish residents were not interned during the occupation. 

My sister found a couple of pictures of Jim amongst my mother's old photographs; the attached link is of one him in Switzerland in 1952.  There seems to be quite a resemblence to your uncle James in the family picture you posted.

https://gwulo.com/atom/36369

My mother's name was Adelaide Quinlivan. 

It would be great to know whether the Jim Hucthinson my mother knew all those years ago was your uncle James. 

John

Hello Barbara,  Thank you comfirmng it is your uncle Jim in the photo!  My excitement at finding this connection is tempered by the news about JIm.  I am so sorry to hear that he just passed away from Covid-19. It must have been very difficult for the family given all the restrictions being imposed at the moment.

My mother Adelaide passed away in England in August 2015 at the age of 85. I think she and Jim must have been of similiar age.  My mother was also a devout Catholic and attended a convent school in London during the war (run by a French order). She was also evacuated to the countryside for part of the war.   I think the peace assoication Adelaide and Jim attended in London was called 'Pax Christi'.  It seems quite likley that my mother would have met Jim's cousin but I'm afraid I don't remember her mentioning the name.  

I imagine it is possible that there were Irish nuns at the Canossian school during the war.  Although it is an Italian order, it is not unusual to have various nationalities amongst the community.

John

Hello Barbara,

I have uploaded another photo of Jim in miltary uniform.  It is dated London 21-4-1952 on the back but it looks like it may have been produced in Hong Kong (there are some chinese characters embossed on the bottom right).

https://gwulo.com/atom/36383

If possible, I would like to send some flowers to Jim's funeral on the behalf of my mother.  If you are OK with this, could you possibly contact me at the following address ?   Spinnakerjohn@outlook.com.

Many thanks,

John

Hello John and Barbara,

I just came across your posts.  Canossian is an Italian order, and the nuns in Hong Kong in the 1940s were mostly Italians.  St Mary's School, as it was then called, closed down in Dec 1941 when the war broke out.  As Italy was an Axis country, the nuns were not sent to camps, nor was the school taken for other uses, so the nuns used the school as a refugee house.  Later, the nuns were asked to operate an international school for Third Nationals. The school's name was changed to St Mary's Secondary School, but it was still managed by the same nuns. 

Our archive materials show that at one point, there were some 200 students from 10 nationalities, including Portuguese, Italians, Swedes, Germans, Russians, Norwegians, Spanish etc. English and Chinese were not taught, but Japanese and French were.  We are not sure if other languages were taught as well.  Unfortunately, we do not have the nominal roll of students.

We do not know when exactly this arrangement ended, but the war diary of Mr Tom Hutchison shows that the Third National School existed at least till mid 1944.  We do know, however, that it should have discontinued by Jan/Feb 1945, since the classrooms were then used as a makeshift elderly home for 110+ elderlies + the Little Sisters of the Poor who looked after them, as their elderly home at Ngau Chi Wan had become unsafe due to the US bombing of the Kai Tak Airfield.

A Choi