72 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries |
- 6 Jan 1942: RE Jones Diary
- 6th/7th Jan 1942. Barbara Anslow's Diary
- 6 Jan 1942, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp
- 6 Jan 1942, Harry Ching's wartime diary
| Posted: 23 Dec 2011 09:49 PM PST Book / Document: R. E. Jones Wartime diary Date of events described: Tue, 1942-01-06 Clearing up debris slowly. Nothing happened noteworthy. Reviewed our day of action for the umpteenth time. Walked around the Gaol. |
| 6th/7th Jan 1942. Barbara Anslow's Diary Posted: 28 Dec 2011 09:12 PM PST Book / Document: Barbara Anslow's diary Date of events described: Tue, 1942-01-06 - Wed, 1942-01-07 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.) |
| 6 Jan 1942, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp Posted: 10 Jan 2012 01:16 PM PST Book / Document: Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp Date of events described: Tue, 1942-01-06 Father Bernard Tohill and two others had waited around at the Murray Parade Ground yesterday but were told to go home in the late afternoon. He returns today with five others and they're eventually taken to the Nam Ping Hotel at 141 Des Voeux Road Central. They are given no food by the Japanese, but are fed by a group that had arrived on the fifth. The next day they are told they have to provide for themselves, so they set up a fund to which they contribute a dollar a day.
The police had been exempted from the sumons to the Murray Parade Ground, but today they're sent to the Luk Hoi Tung Hotel: About 250 of us were packed into its forty odd rooms (meant for two each) which opened onto narrow verandahs along each of the two floors... It was a small, dark room with plywood walls, the only ventilation being the half-size swing door that opened onto the verandah. Taking up most of the room were two small, Chinese-style double beds with wooden bed boards and straw mats over them...Two of us slept on each bed, the rest of us on the floor. I preferred the verandah despite the constant stream of visitors to the three stinking lavatories at the end of it. I found them less offensive than the rats running around the room or the cockroaches dropping from the ceiling.
Policeman Jim Shepherd has previously got a pass from the Japanese and now puts it to use: On 6/1/42 we were put into internment in the Chinese Hotels, prior to going to Stanley, and by my efforts I retained the Commissioner of Police's car for which I received permit to use, and, with my own pass, made full use of same by taking wounded from the Hong Kong Hotel Military Casualty Clearing Station (where S. I. Whelan and Sgt. Alexander performed some fine work) - to Bowen Road Hospital.
Franklin Gimson, the newly arrived Colonial Secretary, is taken away under guard after writing a strongly-phrased letter to the Japanese authorities: (Y)ou must realise that your occupation of the Colony can be but a temporary measure.... Sources: Tohill: http://www.sloba.org/Fr%20Tohill%20with%20notes.pdf Police: George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 79-80 Shepherd: Jim Shepherd, Silks, Satins, Gold Braid And Monkey Jackets, 1996, 55-56 Gimson: Phyllis Harrop, Hong Kong Incident, 1943, 105 |
| 6 Jan 1942, Harry Ching's wartime diary Posted: 05 Jan 2013 06:12 AM PST Book / Document: Harry Ching's wartime diary Date of events described: Tue, 1942-01-06 Walk to town, no transport of any sort offering. Dead body under truck at bottom of Morrison Hill still there. Near Naval Hospital a dud shell partly buried in roadway – edged away as heavy truck rushed past. Queen's Road East lined from end to end with stalls selling all sorts of things. Much loot from abandoned homes. Then a stall that was different. A wooden bed supported on stools, and on it as though asleep an old woman, dead. By Wellington Barracks and the Dockyard, great holes in the walls, drains blocked and water covering much of road. Beyond, more stalls on both sides of Queen's Road Central. Stalls had little of staples, and prices high. Sugar at 80 cents a pound, flour at $1.40. Peace-time prices a quarter of these. Whole city bedraggled, depressing. Buildings shell-marked but none seriously damaged. Large Jap flag at exclusive Hongkong Club, now naval headquarters. Harbour empty except for vessels scuttled, and waterfront deserted. Visited Morning Post, greeted by dozen old staff. Japanese producing English paper there. Managing director Toshihito Eto and editor Ogura. Ogura cordial man, seemed decent. He publishing daily column wherein Europeans seeking missing friends or reporting own survival. Told about thousand civilians reported for internment ordered into small Chinese hotels. European staff of Morning Post and Hongkong Telegraph confined in company's building, no food supplied, then moved to Tung Fong Hotel. Three internees there allowed out daily to buy food. |
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