72 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries |
- 29 Jul 1942, Barbara Anslow's diary
- 29 Jul 1942, Rev. Buuck's autobiographical notes
- 29 Jul 1942, R. E. Jones Wartime diary
- 29 Jul 1942, Ella Buuck's wartime diary
- 29 Jul 1942, "Exchange Ship" by Max Hill
- 29 Jul 1942, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp
- 29 Jul 1942, Eric MacNider's wartime diary
| 29 Jul 1942, Barbara Anslow's diary Posted: 19 Feb 2012 05:35 AM PST Book / Document: Barbara Anslow's diary Date of events described: Wed, 1942-07-29 Part-typhoon, white billows and great foam and spray breaking against the rocks. Dr Selwyn-Clarke came in, said No.9 signal is up. Miss Hill has stopped shorthand lessons for a while. |
| 29 Jul 1942, Rev. Buuck's autobiographical notes Posted: 20 Jun 2012 03:25 AM PDT Book / Document: Rev. Buuck's autobiographical notes Date of events described: Wed, 1942-07-29 After being in port for 5 days, the Gripsholm, a ship about 700 ft long with a beam of about 75 feet, got under way with its 1200 passengers and crew of about 400. |
| 29 Jul 1942, R. E. Jones Wartime diary Posted: 26 Jun 2012 02:25 AM PDT Book / Document: R. E. Jones Wartime diary Date of events described: Wed, 1942-07-29 Makings of a typhoon knocking about. A Mrs. Greenland joined up with the German class today. News is coming on in plenty now & we pray that it is true. (3,000,000 troops attack in South (Burma?) 6,000,000 troops in B. Isles. French people leave for England. (Why?) Allied fleets commenced sweeping up the Jap. navy. All Jap air-dromes in China recaptured & Japs lost 700 planes since 16th. C. Hull ((Cordell Hull again, see yesterday's diary entry)) stated that all China ports & HK would be back in Chinese hands in 2 months. Local hosps. told to be prepared to receive air-raid casualties.) |
| 29 Jul 1942, Ella Buuck's wartime diary Posted: 10 Jul 2012 02:10 AM PDT Book / Document: Ella Buuck's wartime diary Date of events described: Wed, 1942-07-29 A grand day, sunny and cold. The meals are fine and it's fun to have a nice cabin. I have been resting and reading a lot. The children are getting acquainted with the ship, too, by this time. I had the pleasure of buying a dress in the shop today. The children are having plenty candy, their friends give them money. |
| 29 Jul 1942, "Exchange Ship" by Max Hill Posted: 27 Aug 2012 09:44 PM PDT Book / Document: "Exchange Ship" by Max Hill Date of events described: Wed, 1942-07-29 The Asama was far out in the Indian Ocean, a day's voyage ahead of us, before the Gripsholm sailed on July 29 for Rio de Janeiro, almost two weeks away across the South Atlantic Ocean. The harbor and Delagoa Bay were still crowded with freighters and tankers of the United Nations, some newly arrived, and others which had been waiting for a week for us to get out of the way. The old intimacy of the Asama was gone. We had been lifted out of the hardships of our equivalent of a back-woods village at sea into a floating hotel where we could have movies, entertainments, dances, bars, magazines and newspapers only two months old, swimming pools and above all, freedom of speech. On the Asama, I think I saw every passenger at least once a day somewhere on the ship. There were few places for us to go, and not many decks. In the past the Asama had a utilitarian purpose besides serving as a passenger liner. She was honey-combed with huge vaults in which silk was stored for fast transit to the United States. These vaults were waste space on our voyage, except for a few corners piled with delicacies from looted cities for the delight of the returning Japanese. None of it, of course, had been served to us, though the Japanese on the Gripsholm had been given the same food that we had been served on our first meal aboard. A typical meal for the steerage passengers on the Asama was the breakfast we had on the first morning. And that wasn't too bad compared to the food in prison. We began with oatmeal, but something was wrong with it. Of course conservation of everything in Japan goes to an extent that we in America, even now, would consider fantastic. Literally nothing is wasted, and even before the war Japan had begun to grab what she could of whatever she needs from any source. Most of the mission property had been taken over before the war, including the million-dollar St. Luke's Hospital in Tokyo, which was built and equipped with modern apparatus by the Episcopal Church. I was taken there in June, 1942, for cholera and typhoid shots, and it was on its way toward becoming as dirty and ill-tended as the prison hospital I have described. The Japanese have no drugs and medicines for civilian use, even such things as ether and iodine and adhesive tape and bandages. The several hundred hospitals and otherwise unobtainable equipment and medical supplies were one of the richest prizes seized by the Japanese. They found new stocks of radium and drugs and X-ray equipment and microscopes and kit after kit of the finest American surgical instruments. They carted it all off for the Japanese army and left the patients to shift for themselves, and, in many cases, lie helpless on the floors because the authorities wanted the beds in which they had been confined. |
| 29 Jul 1942, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp Posted: 16 Jun 2014 02:53 AM PDT Book / Document: Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp Date of events described: Wed, 1942-07-29 The Ogden Standard Examiner, the Nashua Telegraph and a number of other American papers carry a syndicated report from Vaughn Meissling, a former internee now on his way back to the USA. Filed from Lourenco Marques, the article describes Hong Kong as a 'ghost town' stalked by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Some million Chinese have been starved to such a point that the whole town has a wraith-like appearance... famine, pestilence and destruction of physical and moral values stalk the former British crown colony. He notes that the Japanese are trying to get people to relocate to south China, and claims half a million have left of their own volition or by complusion - the million still left face a grim struggle to survive. |
| 29 Jul 1942, Eric MacNider's wartime diary Posted: 16 Jul 2014 11:55 PM PDT Book / Document: Eric MacNider's wartime diary Date of events described: Wed, 1942-07-29 Typhoon weather (No. 9 signal reported up)
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