20 Jun 1942, John Charter's wartime journal

The Americans are still with us. About 10 days ago they were informed that owing to some hitch in the shipping arrangements the date of their departure from HK had been postponed by a week to June 23rd. Accordingly, several farewell parties miss-fired and had to be postponed including ours to Bob Kendall and B.Witham. We now hear there is a still further hitch and the date of departure has again been postponed, probably for a day or two only. Well, they’d better hurry or maybe it will be too late altogether! There was something of an outcry because every American who is being repatriated has to pay his or her fare which, I gather, is in the region of 300 pounds ((pdv £13,500)). Whether the Japanese or American Government is demanding this I do not know………surely it can hardly be the American Government? About 60 Americans have elected to remain anyway. Repatriation was optional.

With the Americans are going the Consular people (who have been virtual prisoners in the Prep School since early in March), and the Canadians. We are hoping two of the Canadians will telegraph or write letters informing our parents of our safety. We are often troubled by the thought that our families are being put to endless and unnecessary doubt and anxiety about our wellbeing or even our existence because no letters have been sent out to the outside world since hostilities began here.

Soon after we arrived we were each given one ‘field’ postcard which merely enabled us to state whether we were ill, well etc. We all filled them in and were told they would be sent by the International Red Cross with the assistance of the Japanese. This put our minds at rest, although it would take months to deliver them………they would have to go via Russia, Turkey, thence via enemy occupied territory to Switzerland and then out again from Geneva. If they really had got all that way in safety it would have been a miracle. Anyway, in May we heard the Japanese had never forwarded the cards but had destroyed them.

At the beginning of May or end of March we had been told we could each send a cable of ten words excluding name and address. It took quite a long time to think out a message, I can’t quite remember what I said but it was something like this:

“Both together, well, don’t worry, friends safe, keeping cheerful, Charter”.

By ‘friends’ I guessed Mother and Father would think of the Minhinnicks, Buckie and Gordon King. I can’t remember what Yvonne sent to Chère, something on similar lines. We never heard definitely what happened to these: they again were instigated by the Red Cross (who have done fine work here) but have had little co-operation from the Japanese. It is almost certain they shared the same fate as the cards. At all events, on 20th May we were told we could each send a letter of 155 words excluding address, and to be written in block letters or typed, in English, French or Chinese. Better and better!

Once again we sat down to cudgel the old brains! As Chère’s birthday was on 20th May and Mother’s on 21st, Yvonne and I dated our letters 20th and 21st respectively and were able to start by wishing our respective Mothers “Many happy returns” which was rather nice. I have remembered all the family birthdays as they have come along and wished them all Many happy,or ‘happier’returns. Why the number of words should be 155, I don’t really know.

We are assured that these letters (if they pass the Japanese censor) will be posted on the Asama Maru with the departing Americans. At present there is some haggling going on because the Japanese are demanding the payment of a 40 cents stamp by each internee!! Really!! It was quite difficult to write these messages: we did not want to say that living conditions were bad (as probably the letter would be destroyed) as it would only worry our families, nor did we want to give a false impression of good conditions or the Japanese might very well use some of these letters for propaganda purposes. It will be interesting later to see if they ever reached their destination.

Sometime in March the Japanese paper here said that women and children were being evacuated from Ceylon. This news followed the Japanese aerial attack on Colombo and Trincomale. I had always thought of Ceylon as one of the safest spots in the Northern hemisphere, being midway between the Western and the Eastern war. However, this piece of news began to make me worry about the safety of Mother and Father. But the source of news was very dubious being a message supposedly intercepted by Lisbon from Madras and forwarded from there to Tokyo by the Domei Agency (the Italian news agency)! No further reference has been made to it so at most I imagine it may just have been an appeal to all non essential people in Ceylon to leave if they could. As a small precaution I addressed all my messages to the Mission House in Colombo, in case Mother and Father had removed from Matale.