Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp: View pages

At about this time Lieutenant Kadowaki becomes the final Commandant of Stanley Camp:

He was comparatively tall and lean for a Japanese in a soft job...He had an odd walk, an exaggerated thrusting forward of the leg, rather than the expected waddle...(He) was a stickler for military etiquette.

Back in Britain there's mixed news for families with loved ones in Hong Kong: citing a War Office report, the Daily Mirror (page 3) says that the Japanese have been pilfering or holding back Red Cross parcels meant for internees. Nevertheless, the situation now is much better than it has been. Readers of the communist Daily Worker (page 4) also learn that a Red Cross delegate visited the camps last December and reported an improvement. The death rate, says the paper, is low.

Source:

George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 243.

Note:

Wright-Nooth claims Kadowaki came towards the end of April while Geoffrey Emerson dates his arrival to May.

Speech Day at the camp school, and Franklin Gimson is the speaker. The internees know that Germany is close to defeat, and there's a feeling of exultation at the prospect of victory and release.

Source:

Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, Kindle Edition, Location 3121

The Hong Kong News reports Germany's unconditional surrender. It cites a Domei (Tokyo) report of May 8.

Source:

Summary in the Macnider Papers, unheaded sheet

Les Fisher in Shamshuipo records some big news in his diary:

Yesterday the Japs sent in some fresh meat, the first for two years.

Meat will soon be reintroduced in Stanley (see June 16). I've never seen a convincing explanation as to why.

Source:

Les Fisher, I Will Remember, 1996, 209

Doctors Gustav and Helen Canaval are re-interned, this time in Ma Tau-wai Camp, Kowloon.

On October 6, 1943 the two doctors were transferred from Stanley to act as Medical Officers in the Rosary Hill Home that had been set up by the Red Cross to look after the impoverished dependents of British internees and POWs and other indigents. Red Cross Delegate Rudolf Zindel claims he was forced to accept them because the Japanese refused to release any 'native' British medical personnel but allowed the Canavals out of Stanley because they didn't accept their status as 'naturalised' British (he was originally Austrian, she Hungarian). Zindel states the pair caused him huge problems by their high-handed attitudes and that matters came to a head when one of the victims of their behaviour posted an anonymous letter containing threats under Mrs. Canaval's door. She demanded he provide Gendarme protection, so Zindel consulted with the Foreign Affairs Department, and agreed with their idea that adequate protection could only be provided by re-internment. This infuriated the doctors, who responded, if the Red Cross delegate is to be believed, with the detailed critique of his policies at Rosary Hill that circulated after liberation and caused the Red Cross some embarrassment with its claims of mis-management and waste.

We don't have the Canavals side of this story!

Source:

Archives of the International Red Cross, Geneva: Zindel to ICRC, in BG17 07-074, 

When, however, on a Saturday night at the end of June the first lot of meat really arrived, the camp was in a fever of excitement. 'Meat!' 'Meat!' the magic word was passed from mouth to mouth as the carcase of an old water-buffalo arrived and was dumped into the kitchens. In the dark it was chopped up and cooked at once to prevent its going more bad than it was. We hung about on the verandas long into the night smelling the vapours from the kitcehens.

Source:

William G. Sewell, Strange Harmony, 1948, 166-167

Note:

See also tomorrow's entry, and that for January 29, 1944.

Buffalo stock is used for soup. The buffalo bones are heated in the camp-made pressure cooker until they are soft and can be used as a spread on the rice bread.

Source:

William G. Sewell, Strange Harmony, 1948, 167

Note: see the previous two days' entries.

Birth of Robert Anthony Keates, son of Walter J. and Dorothy Keates.

Edward Reed escapes from arrest - he's accused of stealing 300 lbs of sugar from the godown ration store to sell on the black market - and creates a furore in camp that lasts until tomorrow.

While he's being beaten by Formosan guards - his screams can be heard throughout the camp - it begins to rain, the guards go inside and Reed siezes his chance and runs off in the direction of Bungalow C. Leon Blumenthal finds him hiding nearby and tells him to give himself up; while he goes to alert the guards, Reed runs again. The entire camp has to parade for an emergency roll call which lasts for 90 minutes. Reed is eventually found in No 10 Block, sheltering with his mother and younger brother.

Reed is taken to Japanese headquarters ('up the hill'), brutally questioned about the sugar, but manages to escape again at about midnight. The camp is searched again but it's several hours before Reed is found 'crouching in a garden close to the prison walls'. He's questioned again, this time by the Gendarmes in Stanley Village. He survives and ends up in hospital. The full truth about the sugar theft, which almost certainly involved some of the guards, is never known. Wright-Nooth sums up:

Reed was a young man of astonishing physical stamina.

Source:

George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 235

Note:

Reed or Manwaring - see http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/stanley_camp/conversations/topics/1318))