We weren't allowed out of Dina House. We had some tinned food and pooled it. Japanese officers moved peaceably into Dina House.
Barbara Anslow's diary: View pages
Primary tabs
Japs said we must move out. Some one among us suggested we move to some offices within their knowledge in Shell House. So all we ARP folk immediately did so, only a short walk from Dina House. We swept the floor and cleaned up, and saw some of the wounded soldiers on Hong Kong Hotel verandah opposite.
Jap planes were showing off against a blue sky, dropping leaflets. Some sort of Jap. parade ((probably the Jap forces ceremonial entry into the city, some officers on horses.))
After half an hour in Shell House, some one in authority came and we were told we had to go back to Dina House, and wait until we were sent somewhere. Did so - we ladies were given a lift to Tai Koon Hotel, Des Voeux Road, next to Central Market. Men followed on foot. Separate cubicles, ladies on 2nd floor, men on fourth floor. ((More a brothel than a hotel.))
((Cubicles were all in a line, along which ran a wide verandah looking out on to Des Voeux Road; wooden and glass partitions in between. Each cubicle had a large bed which took up most of the width, then a wash basin. Another line of cubicles backed on to the front row, so you could talk through the flimsy partitions to 5 immediate neighbours. Some one said the hotel was a brothel. I couldn't bring myself to undress, fearing some kind of contamination, so slept in my day clothes.))
We all pooled whatever tinned food we had, and clubbed together and bought vegetables, there was a kitchen on our floor. Desperately cold. We were allowed out, Tony escorted me to Hong Kong Hotel where I saw Olive who was billeted there, and Sid in hosp.
Mr Himsworth reported he had seen Mum at the Queen Mary Hospital and that she was OK.
((At that time I knew nothing of Mum's horrific experiences at the Jockey Club Hospital which Jap soldiers entered and raped some of the young nurses; all this is told in detail in my Mother's memoir 'It Was Like This...'))
Ah Ding ((our family amah)) appeared at the (guarded) front door of Tai Koon and asked for me. We were allowed to talk at the door. She was very upset because our flat had been entered by the Japs who had taken mattresses and blankets, and my new red coat material (bought 7th Dec.) as a blanket. She had orders to leave our flat. She had found out that I was in Dina House by going to the ARP HQ in Happy Valley, and asking the Chinese ARP messengers who were still there.
Amah came again and brought a few of my clothes crammed into a rattan Hong Kong basket. She had ruffled her hair to make herself look like a peasant instead of an amah who was helping the defeated British. Being New Year, we were not allowed out lest celebrations be made. Hill fires (charcoal) were wonderful over at Taimoshan ((across harbour beyond Kowloon)).
((Charcoal fires were a common sight on the Kowloon hills. Without knowing much about them, I understood it was a thriving industry; they were deliberate fires to produce charcoal, which was used for cooking - I suppose on Chinese chatties, where you fed bits of fuel into the space beneath the earthenware containers. We had chatties, some makeshift, in camp and had to use twigs, grass etc. whatever you could find, to feed it. ))
Pauline's birthday (she was Tony's fiance in Australia) so Tony & I celebrated by going to Prince's Cafe and having coffee and 3 hotcakes each - wonderful!
Queen's Road was made into a kind of market. Shops weren't open, but stalls lined the road and you could buy almost anything ((if you had money)).
Amah came twice, with most of our best clothes, and Olive's trousseau finery, which I took to her in Gloucester Hotel.
Tommy Maycock and Mr Himsworth took clothes to Mum at Queen Mary Hospital.
Most of us in Tai Koon sent to Murray Parade Ground by the Japs to register intenees. The idea seemed to be to compile some sort of register under such headings as women, children, men, ages, nationality, occupation etc. We were sat out in the open at trestle tables, and chairs, and each given a different category to record on printed forms. We hadn't been there very long when we were told to stop, as the job would take too long.
A stencilled edict was passed round giving plans for internees ('internists' the Japs called us), how much food (in ounces) we would be given, what we would be allowed to do, etc. etc. It dismayed us at first.
Returned to Tai Koon, and from then on weren't allowed out.
((We ARP people seemed to be the first group to be interned in these little Chinese hotels. In due course, most of the rest of Briish civilians were sent to similar hotels.))
Watching over the verandah - our normal occupation - we saw the Food Control lot passing by on foot, among them Olive (my elder sister) prominent in her scarlet jacket the same as mind, and her fair long hair. We all waved and called, and every one seemed to be taking everything as a huge joke. They were put into the Nanking Hotel, not far away from us but on the other side of the road.
We spent alot of time during the day on the flat roof where it was sunny and much warmer than down in the cubicles and on verandah; but from 7th Jan. we weren't supposed to look over the roof.
Amah came again, she was an absolute brick. I told her where Olive was so she visited her as well. (I would get a verbal message to say Ah Ding was at the hotel door, and went downstairs hoping the guard would let us talk, and let her pass on to me whatever she had brought in her rattan basket... and hoping the guard wouldn't help himself to the things instead of letting me have them - that never happened though.)
On one visit Ah Ding brought my Collins A5 diaries, 1939, 1940 and 1941, all with a page to a day. ((So happy to get them, especially as I was able to use spaces during internment years.))
Bad cold. 300 more internees sent in to our hotel. The ARP men on 4th floor doubled up, and we ARP ladies left the 2nd floor for new arrivals and moved in with our men. While this was happening, the 300 newcomers were squashed on the staircases waiting to get in to a billet. I now shared a cubicle (and the bed) with Marjorie Cook. We got on quite well, considering.
Because of toothache, my teeth were examined in hotel by one Dr Mullett who couldn't see much wrong.
We took it in turns helping with cooking chores, peeling onions and carrots, etc. The days seemed so long, it was one long wait from meal to meal. Eric Himsworth and Tony (Cole) used to buy bread somehow, and invited me to share it with them at 4pm, plus either jam or butter - it was wonderful. ((They must have had contacts outside to get this bread, maybe one of their Chinese clerks.))
Mr Bailey suddenly presented me with a half-pound block of 'Star' chocolate which I haven't yet opened - hope it doesn't go musty. It is the Iron Ration. So kind of him, I don't know why he did.
Medical Dept (?) have started to send bread daily - one slice each with butter or jam ((this was in addition to our simple basic rations)). Also porridge.
Finished reading 'Human Being' ((a birthday present a week before Jap attack)) and passed it to Jack Fancey as he had nothing to read. ((Jack - about my age - had TB which had prevented him from going fighting with the others. His mother (also in Tai Koon) told me he might as well have gone to war with his colleagues and risk being killed, as he was obviously going to die soon.))
We are due for Stanley within the next week. Very cold.
Wrote to Mum. ((Still at Queen Mary Hospital, there were occasional opportunities of contact through some one in the Tai Koon Hotel getting permission to go to the hospital for some medical reason.))
Mum's 47th birthday. Had note from her ((via some one who'd been at Queen Mary Hospital where Mum now was with the other nurses who had been in the Jockey Club Hospital.))
Saw Amah, she said she had seen Olive in Nanking Hotel.
We have been having bread these last 3 days.
Stanley looms again, chance of family getting together. Washed hair.
Cold again but lovely porridge in morning, and much later, much bread. We are supposed to be bound for Stanley tomorrow.
Stanley postponed, thanks to D.M.S. (Dr P.S. Selwyn-Clarke). Froggish throat.
Really grand filling meal tonight - liver; then jam sauce pudding.
Arthur's birthday, therefore bread and jam from Tony.
Letter from Mum - she has been ill, but better now. ((This was probably reaction to the ordeal at the Jockey Club Hospital.))
Bad throat. Very cold.
Fire opposite us in the night - very near thing. There were just sooty sparks at first ((from the tenements on other side of the road)), but later the fire really got going. All the gongs in the neighbourhood were beating as alarms, several huge tongues of fire blew over in our direction. ((Discussions among us at what to do if the wind blew the flames across the road to our hotel.))
In morning, we were given a quarter of an hour to pack and get out of the hotel, then marched down Des Voeux Road. ((I wore most of my clothes, with blanket strapped bandolier-wise across me. Passed Nanking Hotel and saw Olive and colleagues hanging over the verandah watching.))
Then boarded top-heavy Macau steamer and set out for Stanley. It could have been lovely - such a beautiful day, ((We sat on top deck and enjoyed the trip and the freshness after being so long cooped up in hotels; not only ARP personnel, also other groups. How envious I was of ginger-haired Bridget Armstrong and brother John, aged about 10 and 8, because their mother was always handing them thin little biscuits with marmite on during the journey.))
Our boat too big to go right up to the jetty at Stanley, so we had to clamber over the side of the ferry on to the side of the junk - then jump into the body of the junk. Poor Mrs Grant who weighed over 15 stone, cried from the side of the ferry that she just couldn't make the transfer, but somehow she did. ((Mrs Kathleen Grant was the mother of one of my Govt. colleagues Rosaleen - R had married shortly before the Jap attack; she was a VAD at Bowen Road Hospital.))
From jetty a path across beach led to a steep bank, near St Stephen's Preparatory School. Dorothy Holloway, a fellow Govt. stenographer, was at the top of the bank extending a helping hand to every one as we made the last leap up to flat ground. When she saw Bonnie Penny who was just in front of me, she told her that her mother Mrs Robinson was already in Stanley. I deliberately avoided asking Dorothy if she knew if my mother was also here, so as not to be disappointed too soon if she wasn't.
Our ARP leaders thought we should try to find accommodation in the school and took us there but some one said we couldn't stay there so out we marched, and followed crowds making for group of buildings up on a plateau... when suddenly I heard a familiar voice - and there was Mum! Called out to her, and went stumbling over old tins and rubbish heaps, so wonderful to see her again.
She and I tried to tell each other all our experiences.. Mum started a dozen different stories, and I didn't hear the ends of any of them for weeks afterwards. ((She had come into camp previous day with nurses and civilian patients from Queen Mary Hospital, and had bagged a place for me in the prison officers' Married Quarters' on the plateau - 4 blocks forming a quadrangle in the middle. We were thrilled to be sent to live in these good-looking, cream-coloured buildings, having dreaded much worse after the Chinese hotels... we were all so happy to have somewhere clean and fresh to settle in that day, and so marvelous to be near the sea; it didn't seem to matter that there was practically no furniture.))
Mum's billet was only temporary as the other occupants were keeping spaces for friends and relatives expected any day... these actually arrived on the same ferry as I did, so now the room was grossly overcrowded, but as Mum and I couldn't find any spaces in any other rooms, we spent my first night there anyhow, me in a wicker chair, but in the early morning I crept into Mum's camp bed with her until it gave an ominous crack, so I got out and curled up in the chair again. I couldn't get used to the peace and quiet after the noises of the environs of the Tai Koon Hotel. There was just the sound of the sea like the rustling of tinsel. From the window I could see the superb sunrise – exactly like Billie Burke when she materialised as a fairy in The Wizard of Oz. Mum has had a bad time and has lost a lot of weight.
((The regular nurses (as distinct from members of the Auxiliary Nursing Service like Mum), were given billets on the top floor of Tweed Bay Hospital within the camp, a small emergency hospital which had been used during the battle; here the nurses' beds were jam-packed together, incredibly overcrowded.
These nurses had prewar lived in accommodation beside Queen Mary Hospital, so were able to bring in many of their own possessions. When they had packed, they told Mum and the other auxiliaries to help themselves to anything left in their flats. So Mum acquired some extra clothes.
Tweed Bay Hospital was a stone's throw from the sea, about 100 yards from the Married Quarters. The office and the kitchens and operating theatre were on the ground floor, also a men's ward. On the first floor there were women's wards and another male ward.))
Mum and I ate something from our frugal supplies then went room-hunting again around the blocks with Connie Hawkett, an ANS friend of Mum's. (Absolutely no one was in charge. ) Once we found an empty room with some furniture, but hastily withdrew when a Chinese who seemed to be an authority came in and said this room was reserved for Japanese administrators. A complete stranger in ANS uniform hailed Mum and said she'd found an empty room and would we like to share it.. would we!! - a small room in Block 3 overlooking the courtyard, on first floor. It was a feeling of indescribable security to be in a place where we could remain, some furniture - a spare camp bed (now mine), small chest of drawers & a glassfronted cabinet, a small table and a fireplace. We shared out shelves and drawers between us. There was also a large wooden doll's house – we were lucky, as most of the rooms were empty of furniture. Our room-mate was Mrs G. Kopeczky, Hungarian.
Later that day, able to collect some cooked rice.
((There was no way of knowing who had got into the camp except by wandering around and trying to find friends. The Japs were simply bringing people in as and when they found them, and by whatever transport was available. Everything was haphazard, how much luggage you were allowed to bring in with you depended on what space there was on the transport, and on the personal opinions of the Japs superintending your transfer. The main difficulty for most of us was that by the time we were captured, we weren't anywhere near our homes and had only a small suitcase or overnight bag, and didn't get the chance to go back to our homes to collect any possessions.
We Redwoods were particularly lucky because of Ah Ding's many journeys on foot from our flat to the Chinese hotels, bringing each time a few clothes in her little wicker basket. We found her after the war when we returned to Hong Kong after recuperation in UK. She had a good job with an army family living on the Peak, earning far more than we could afford to pay her. We always kept in touch though.
As more and more internees poured into the camp, the red brick 3-storeyed blocks used prewar as Indian Prison Warders' quarters were used as billets. They were in a valley just below the Married Quarters and had very small rooms with stone floors and Asian toilets (you squatted over a small drain, your feet planted in huge cemented footprints). These blocks were ranged round a grassed area which ran down to the barbed-wired rocky sea's edge. Other buildings in use as billets were up a steep inclined to St Stephen's College, a prewar boarding school; also used was the nearby Science Block and some bungalows which had been occupied by senior Prison Officers.
Two of our soldiers graves had been temporarily built at the top of the path up to St Stephens. One victim was the husband of a woman with a small child in camp. Other soldier victims were buried in the old Stanley cemetery; some of the Tweed Bay Hospital staff who had been killed were buried at the side of the hospital.
Some internees settled themselves in two of the bungalows when they had to move as the Japanese decided to use them as their Camp Headquarters.))
My kitbag arrived by sea.
I happened to be near the bungalows when the Japs evicted internees from them. An unknown young woman who was among them came over to me, distraught because she had a 6-month old baby and couldn't carry away the child and luggage. She asked me if I would take the baby Dorothy and keep her until she had found another billet. Her name was Mrs Evelyn Kilbee, I told her my Block and Room Number, and gathered up the child. Never having held a baby in my life, I felt very nervous carrying her down the hill, over shell holes and stony ground. Dorothy didn't cry or fuss at all. On the way I met my boss, Mr. B.H.Puckle, who looked surprised and said 'I didn't know you had a baby Miss Redwood!' ((Some fifty years later, Evelyn visited me with Dorothy to say thank you. Last year (2015) I met Dorothy again at the VJ Celebrations in London.))
Was given some ARP provisions ((from the kitty kept in Tai Koon Hotel)) - packet of Kellogs Cornflakes and some Oxo.
Eileen Grant was arrested at Stanley Village. ((Eileen was youngest of 3 daughters of Mrs Grant, the overweight lady who had such difficulty in jumping from ferry to junk at Stanley; I think Eileen was arrested because she had walked beyond the camp boundary, but she was soon released.))
Rice and stew .. ingredients sent by Japs, cooking arrangements by our people makeshift... waited hours and hours for it, queuing in quadrangle.. about 700 of us. There was only water to drink – unless you had private supplies.
The Salmon family arrived, and Baby Jean whom Mum is taking over for the time being while her guardian Mrs Irene Braude was organising a room with other mums with babies.
((The Salmons were a Jewish family with daughters Leah, Frieda, Hilda and Dorothy, and sons Sammy and Herbert. We had been neighbours when we Redwoods lived in Kowloon 1927/8.))
Olive arrived a couple of days ago with Food Control staff - now 5 in the room, plus for a few days Baby Jean.
Fish today - smell put me off. Kellogs is stale. Diet devastating - rice and fish, or stew. When Kellogs and Oxo run out I shall just have to eat rice ((had always hated it!)) Stew dreadful too. Luckily Mum has some tea.
Danny Wilson (Peggy's husband) was taken ill with pneumonia the day we left Tai Koon, and he and Peggy went to hospital in town so they haven't arrived yet. I met up with Uncle Sidney, we went for a walk up through the cemetry, saw Ronald Egan's grave ((he was an acquaintance in the Volunteers; hanging on the makeshift cross on his grave was his steel helmet with bullet hole through it.)) Also communal grave of the VADs and others murdered at St Stephens.
Mum and I met Mrs Hogg (who had been at Military Hospital). She said that having Sid there (patient) was all that had saved Mabel's reason during the raids.
