01 Sep 1944, John Charter's wartime journal

August has gone – the last week or so of it in a welter of much needed sunshine – and we have entered September, the fateful September. Most people seem to think that Germany will surrender before the end of this month. Please God they are right. For some time now I have had a date sticking in my mind – since my birthday in fact. The date is October 17th. What will happen on that day – if anything – I do not know. I am not psychic and I don’t know how or why this particular date intruded itself upon my consciousness except, perhaps, because it is a nice old sort of date. Any way, I must make a note of it just in case something of real importance occurs on that day and then I shall be able to point and say, “I knew it”!

We all wonder how long Japan will try to continue the struggle by herself. Some people are even of the opinion that she may pack up first to avoid the possibility of embroiling herself with Russia and thus losing territory to that old foe of hers. I think Germany will go first but Japan will sue for peace if Russia threatens her as well. It must all be over by Xmas; I couldn’t stand another Xmas as a prisoner here. 

There is another sad item of news to report. Mr Edmonston of the HK Bank, second in command after Sir Vandeleur Grayburn (who died just about a year ago) died in prison on August 29th. On the morning of the 28th Mrs Edmonston was summoned to the prison and was briefly informed that her husband was dying. She asked, what of, and was told, beri-beri. How long had he been ill? (This was the first she had heard of it) Oh, about a month. Dr Valentine came to the prison, on hearing the news, with an injection of (I think) thyami, but no doctor was allowed to see Edmonston. The Prison Authorities said their dresser could administer the injection – whether he did or not we do not know. Mrs Edmonston was allowed to see her husband, but he was in a coma and, apparently never regained consciousness before he died. I am told that he was like a wasted skeleton. After his death he was taken to our hospital where an autopsy was held. The findings were that all his organs were quite sound, that he had slight traces of beri-beri, but that he had died of ‘nutritional anaemia’ or, in plain language, starvation. For some reason the Japanese seem to want to get rid of the bankers.

It makes us very uneasy about the others still in the gaol. Cruickshank, Foy, Caniage and Leper, and Dr Selwyn-Clarke. Edmonstons’ only child, Mary, aged about 16 or 17, is also here in camp. I do not know them personally: I hear they have taken this shock with great courage. It is terribly sad that this should happen with the end so near.

Yesterday in the early afternoon, the road to the prison was closed and presently a car bearing a red flag and some Japanese officials drove into the prison. A little later, this car, accompanied by the enclosed prison van, made its way down to the execution ground below the Prep School. We hear that two persons were executed, though how this is known I cannot say. No shots were fired so the executions must have been performed by the sword. The victims must have been of some importance or the officials would not have come in especially to witness it. We have seen Europeans taking exercise in the prison grounds for some time now, though who they are we do not know. The food parcels that had been allowed in to Selwyn-Clarke and the bankers were stopped yesterday so we presume they have now received their sentences and are no longer remand prisoners. We hope to goodness that none of these or any other of the Europeans were executed. Of course, it is just possible they may have been Japanese. There are Japanese prisoners in the gaol (many of them are military men) though they seem to enjoy more freedom than the Chinese and Europeans. It is horrible waiting for news.

Well, the Community gardening has started. So far our particular plots are not affected as they are starting up here on the ex-football, ex-tennis courts field and on the St Stephens gardens. In this football field they are going to plant nothing but Lo Pak or Chinese turnip. They are quick growing and should be eatable, though not fully grown within 6 or 8 weeks. Quite a number of men who have lost their gardens through this community project have joined the gardening squads. They work for two hours in the morning – from 9 to 11 a.m. and from 2.30 to 4.30 p.m. in the afternoons. Some do only one shift per day for which they draw half a heavy workers ration; others do the double shift and earn a full double ration. The weather has turned really hot now with the sun blazing down. It must be blisteringly hot working, especially in the afternoons and I wonder if it is going to do some of the older ones any good, in spite of the extra food. When I worked on community gardening we cultivated a lot of waste ground and some old servants’ gardens on the slopes of ‘the hill’. We planted lots of sweet potatoes and quite a number of pumpkins. The latter were in an exposed position and were badly caught by the two typhoons which killed practically all of them. So the pumpkins were written off as a failure; but the sweet potatoes have gone ahead quite well and should be ready to be dug up now if required.

Before I finished my month we had started cultivating the old Indian Quarters garden. This area was left outside the camp limits when the Japanese ringed us in with barbed wire after the first 6 months or so of camp here, and when they allowed this area to be re-cultivated we had to have a Formosan guard to accompany us. Some of them are quite friendly and chatty and could speak Fukienese or Swatanese and some, Cantonese. Some, on the other hand, were very surly.

We once had quite an amusing and interesting conversation with one of them: one of our squad could speak the Swatow dialect which this guard could speak. He was most interested in our marriage customs: were we able to choose our own wives? At what age did we generally marry? How many children did we generally have? Were we allowed to kiss our wives before we were married? If we were bachelors could we kiss any girl? (Yes, if the girl holds no objection!); was it permissible to kiss another man’s wife? (Ah, that was a very difficult question to answer!)  We explained our system of a period of engagement. He envied our freedom in choosing our own wives; he said his father had selected his wife for him and that he had seen her once only before they were married and then had not even spoken to her or heard her speak. He said that nowadays, there were signs of a slight relaxation in the custom of parents setting their children’s marriages and that a very few lucky fellows were allowed to choose their own wives. The most that the majority of them were allowed to do was to express a preference for another girl if they had set their heart on one, but this carried no weight if it did not meet with Father’s approval.

This man was 24 years old and he had been wed two weeks before he was called up by the army and had not seen her since – some three years ago now. He is a pleasant lad, as most of them and, like most of them, he and his family were farmers. He said they were all shocked at the way women behave here, walking about in scant clothing and arm in arm with their husbands or friends (instead of, I suppose, walking meekly behind their husbands). He was a nice lad with a keen sense of humour. He guessed my age at 25 and I didn’t know whether to feel pleased or not.

One other amusing incident remains in my memory. Five of us were detailed one day to start hoeing a fresh plot of ground. We worked for some time, talking of this and that and I suddenly became aware of the somewhat extraordinary English that was being spoken. On looking round I found that one of my companions was a Russian, one a Polish Jew (arrived in HK shortly before the war and whose parents and relatives, from whom he had not heard since the outbreak of war, lived in Warsaw), one was a Norwegian and the fourth was Dutch! I alone represented GB! I think it is true to say that nearly every European state except Turkey, Spain, Sweden, and Germany, has its representative here. We have a couple of Hungarians, Austrians, Belgians and even a Lithuanian. Most of them have taken out British papers, or the Italian for instance would not be here. In addition there are Americans, Chinese, Indians, a Brazilian plus people from many parts of the British Empire.

But to return to gardening: another plot that is being cultivated outside the camp boundary is the old St Stephens sports field. This is really a large area and has a big squad engaged on it. Altogether there must be at least 120 men on these gardening squads.