2 Oct 1945, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

East Asia's been swept by a tidal wave of emotion since the Japanese surrender, and it's not over yet. Today sees a reunion in circumstances that would be considered improbable in a Hollywood film.

Mrs. 'Topsy' Man served as a nurse at the temporary hospital in the University during the hostilities. Her husband, Captain C. M. M. Man, led a band of soldiers from the Middlesex which, with the help of Canadians and Indians detached from their regiments, mounted a last ditch defence of Leighton Hill on the Japanese approach to Victoria and then fought building-by-building against the advance through Wanchai. Immediately after the surrender, he persuaded his Medical Officer to issue him with a false 'casualty' certficate so he could travel in a Red Cross ambulance to say goodbye to his wife.

Mrs. Man has not seen her husband since. She's spent the war in Stanley, while he was one of the POWs sent to work in Japan. Today she's in a hotel room in Colombo with a fellow nurse, and they're about to raise a tooth glass to their lips to drink a toast to her fifth wedding anniversary, when her husband, who unknown to her had arrived on the Empress of Australia, walks through the door.

Source:

Stanley/Japan work: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030002196

Reunion: Oliver Lindsay, The Lasting Honour, 1980, 137-138