14 Feb 1944, Journal of Lt. Donald W. Kerr

((Lt Kerr has spent a third night hiding in the mountains above Kowloon…this night in a crevice among rocks))

…Two o’clock now …There’s a bay or something at the lower end of this valley and maybe a town……The shortest distance to any part of Free China must be thirty or forty miles away, and part of it is over water.  

((6:00 pm))  The valley’s quiet now, not a movement anywhere.  Just a little smoke coming from the House.  …Hey, look!  I nearly didn’t see those guys.  Lt Kerr sees four boys walking near him

“Here!  Down in here!”

I launched into fluent (?) Chinese: “Mai-gwa fieji-riin!”  Means “American Pilot,” or at least I think so.  

They spoke quickly in words that I could not understand.

…  They do sound friendly, and they’re all smiles.  And wide brown eyes.  You’d think they’d never seen an American before – well, maybe they haven’t, at least in the last few years.  

((Lt Kerr showed them his pointee-talkee book.)) …  I pointed to the phrase:

‘I am an American airman …’ 

…  Now this one:   

‘If the enemy comes, please help conceal me.’

((They) pointed to the answer,  

‘Yes.’

I went on to the next question feeling considerably relieved 

‘How many li away are the nearest Japanese?’

‘=’ ((The boys replied with the Chinese character for two.))

“Two?  Only two?  … 

‘Please tell the nearest guerrillas or Chinese troops that I am here.’

‘I am hungry.’  

…One boy has already climbed out of the hole and is headed for the house.  

‘Is there anyone here who speaks English?’

“Ho!”  They pointed in a vague direction.

‘Will he come here?’

They nodded.  

((A boy delivered food to Lt. Kerr))

…It was a feast!  Three hard-boiled eggs, still warm, and some boiled sweet potatoes.  I could hardly wait to get the skins off.  The final course was a British canteen of hot water – boiled water, that is.  …

A faint sound in the surrounding brush and then we had another visitor.  An old man dressed in dark clothes and a Western hat.  He climbed down into our niche, peered at me through his heavy spectacles, and following a mental struggle came out with some welcome English.  

“Good morning, Sir, I am happy to know you.”

“Hello!”

“You are American flying-man?”

“Yep, sure am.  My name is Kerr.”

“Good!  Now, I am Y.T.”

Lt Kerr spoke with Y.T. for ½ hour, discussing the location of the Japanese and how to hide

As soon as it became dark we left the shelter of the rocks and crept down the hillside…...We unexpectedly left the wide path where it turned into a small ravine. There was no sign of a path now – just waist high bushes and grass.  We crossed the little dry ravine and advanced a few yards up the opposite side.  There was short grass here with occasional low bushes.  Y.T., a little in the lead, felt around under one little clump and disappeared!   The boys followed, the last one staying behind to lead me in.  He pulled the shrubbery aside and pushed me towards a black opening.  On hands and knees, I poked my head in and explored around with my hand.  Nothing.  Aided by a push from behind I squirmed into the shoulder-width hole and dropped down a foot or two onto a straw floor.  I just sat and wondered for the next few minutes while the last boy came in and then carried out some business with the entrance.  Then someone turned on the flashlight.

Gosh!  I was incredulous.  I hadn’t expected much – and this was absolutely perfect…a round room with a low arched ceiling.  The floor was deep with straw and the walls were hard and somewhat glazed.  The place was about eight feet in diameter and the walls quite unbroken except for the entrance hole, a small niche near the floor and a little opening high on the opposite wall.  The entire room was underground – dug into the hillside – and had been originally built as an oven for burning wood into charcoal.  The past fires had baked the walls to rock-like hardness and thus sealed off any dampness.

Y.T. saw me curiously examining the place and so gave me a little of its history.  He said that during the early days of the war around Hong Kong several British soldiers had been hidden here, and that last year his brother had lived in it for weeks while the Japanese hunted in vain…

After some time …I was presented with a large bowl of rice and chicken.  …  One of the boys was delegated to stay with me and the others all left….  We lay down on the fresh straw and he put the musty blanket from the doorway over me.  Gee, it was wonderful to stretch out and take my shoes off!  We were soon asleep, and with a much more secure feeling than I’d had for days.

((We have notes and photos of a visit to the "charcoal cave" made in 2014.))