WW2 question | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

WW2 question

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Submitted by choptliva on Fri, 2012-04-13 23:39

Hello,

During WW2, my mother was an agent for the Chinese government.  Her cover was as a interpreter for the Japanese Military Police in Hong Kong, and she apparently had an alias as "Molly Wong."  During the occupation, she ran supplies into POW camps and so on, and at the end of the war received a letter of commendation from the allied forces.  All under the name of Molly Wong.  Not her real name though.  I don't know what other aliases she used.

She passed away a little over 20 years ago now.  And whatever her own personal history and documents she had, they are gone.  I wish I had tried to know more about her role in WW2.  Makes research about Hong Kong harder too, since I no longer live there.

Does anyone here have any leads for me?  Maybe websites, etc that I can go to in order to try to find out more about her?  Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

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Submitted by Lawrence Tsui on Sat, 2012-04-14 01:31.

The name, Molly Wong, does not ring a bell with me with my reading so far.  I'm still frantically trying to identify Code Names & Numbers with persons.  I wonder if she worked for the BAAG instead of the Chinese Government in light of the 'Letter of Commendation' from the Allied she received. 

BAAG agents were constantly in contact with the PW Camps: exchanging messages, supplying medicines, food, etc...  One prominent female agent who did this job was code named Madanm X.  Her real name was Tang, and she did not work for the Japanese police.  

There was a unit which worked in the PW Record Office which provided very good name lists of PWs to the BAAG.  Some of the members were females.

If you could provide more information of real names & circumstances etc, perhaps through David to me, I would be happy to look into it further. 

Lawrence Tsui

Submitted by Petit Prince on Sun, 2019-03-24 06:36.
Hi, i have just seen your post. Maybe you should post this to 'emr' Ms Elizabeth Ride, daughter of Sir Ride of BAAG. She is an archivist and scholar of her Father's work. I think I saw the name 'Molly' somewhere in my own search. Good luck.

Submitted by choptliva on Sun, 2019-03-24 06:47.

Thank you so much for your reply.  I will follow up.  Thanks again!

Submitted by brian edgar on Sun, 2019-03-24 17:56.

Choptliva: we were in touch a number of years ago on a Facebook group - since then I've kept your mother in mind while researching. I've only found one possible lead - which means she was doing her job well and not attracting suspicion! When R. B. Levkovich was taken to the Kempeitai HQ at the former Supreme Court for interrogation, he noted that the interpreter was 'Miss Wong', who 'spoke Japanese fluently'. Could this have been your mother, I wonder? Unfortunately, the last page of Levkovich's summary, which might contain furher details, is under embargo until 2021 - probably because Levkovich says something critical about somebody. I've been meaning to put in a FOI request for this page and a couple of other National Archive documents, and will now do so. 

Submitted by choptliva on Sun, 2019-03-24 21:15.

Thanks so much for following this up!   I really appreciate it. 

Submitted by emride on Wed, 2019-03-27 18:53.

Good morning Brian. Although it is restricted in the AWM, the Levkovitch statement is unrestricted (10 more pages) in the NA copy of the Sir Lindsay Ride papers.  Please contact me for the location on WO343. Regards, Elizabeth.

Submitted by emride on Tue, 2019-04-09 20:25.

I have no record of Molly Wong.  If she was working for the Chinese government she would not have been BAAG.

Regards, Elizabeth