16 Aug 1945, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

The Imperial Rescript bringing an end to the war is read outside the Hong Kong Hotel by a Japanese officer, first in Japanese and then in Chinese.

In Stanley nothing's official yet, but more and more internees believe that this time the rumours are true:

On Thursday, August 16, the Camp Council met in solemn assembly....While we argued, pondered and frowned, internees kept passing the window, holding up their thumbs and grinning. Prisoners in the gaol below us were dancing and waving. Even the harbingers of gloom conceded that something must have happened.

For some confirmation comes in an unexpected form:

(W)e were flabbergasted by a messenger charging through the corridors shouting 'The war's over: all go down for your Victory roll!'

Though convinced the whole thing was a joke, we hurried downstairs to investigate. A long queue had already formed, and  areal toliet roll was being handed to each - the first ever during internment. Now we were ready to believe anything!

In Ma Tau-wai Camp the internees ask Dr. Selwyn-Clarke to take charge. He decides that the liberators should find the Union Jack flying 'in claim of status':

Arthur May produced a Union Jack which he had concealed, at considerable danger to himself, throughout the occupation. And Hilda, ((Selwyn-Clarke)) it was suggested, should have the honour of hoisting it on a long bamboo pole.

The moment the ceremony's over, the guards rush onto the scene and demand it be taken down. Selwyn-Clarke refuses to do so without a written order from the Japanese Military Governor.

Sources:

Rescript: G. B. Endacott and Alan Birch, Hong Kong Eclipse, 1978, 229

Meeting: John Stericker, A Tear For the Dragon, 1958, 208

Victory roll: Mabel Winifred Redwood, It Was Like This, 2001 184

May and flag: Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke, Footprints, 1975, 96