[ { "id": 207398, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "158\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nthought fit to fight was discharged from hospital, but there must have been many of those manning the mainland defences whose legs felt weak and shaky following the fever and anaemia of the disease as they covered the hilly and terribly uneven country they were called on to defend,\n\nThe news from Europe, North Africa and the United Kingdom during 1940 and the first part of 1941 was very bad, while the stories of the German advances in Russia after June 1941 added to the general depression. In October 1941, two battalions of Canadian infantry, the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada, disembarked in Hong Kong. With these came a number of Canadian Army Medical Officers, with Major John Crawford in charge, and two Canadian Army Nursing Sisters. The sight of these strongly built young men was momentarily, and quite irrationally comforting, but this feeling was soon replaced by astonishment that anyone should have dreamed that reinforcements of this order could possibly have altered the situation. In the event the Japanese attacked before the poor Canadians, who were not even accompanied by their transport, had time to settle down and they merely added to the numbers of casualties incurred and prisoners taken by the enemy. In February 1941 it might have been agreed that there were no ships available to withdraw the troops from Hong Kong, but in October of the same year ships were found to bring in more.\n\nI have chronicled my own thoughts on the situation in Hong Kong in the years leading up to December 1941 only to give some idea of the position as it appeared to one individual and as a background to an account of the events which followed. I do not know that these thoughts were shared by many others though it would be strange if they were not. There was certainly no defeatist spirit abroad and the general feeling seemed to be one of some confidence in our ability to hold the Japanese for a time. I imagine that many shared my own feeling in 1941 that since I could not change the situation I would have to put up with it. And so, on the morning of 8 December 1941, Dr. J.W. Anderson, who had most generously shared his house with me, and I stood at Magazine Gap and had a spectacular grandstand view of the short Japanese air attack on Kai Tak airport by the end of which no British planes remained able to fly. Together he, now a Major R.A.M.C., and I moved into", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207413, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n173\n\nstaff, both doctors and R.A.M.C. and R.A.D.C. soldiers who looked after these patients. They did not shrink from an onerous and disagreeable task which I can illustrate by a record I have that during the night duty hours of 23-24 September 1942 patients' bowels opened 232 times in the dysentery division. Two nursing orderlies were on duty in that division.\n\nIt was not easy to construct a diet suitable for patients in the acute stages of dysentery because of shortages and because of our improvised kitchen. Four diets were used, ranging from a fluids only diet built up from rice water, milk when available, tea, marmite, tomato juice, cocoa, soy sauce, tinned milk foods up to a bread (which we still baked at that time), rice vegetable and fish (when available) diet as a precursor to full diet. Some of these patients became ravenously hungry as they improved and devoured rice in such quantity as to cause renewed diarrhoea.\n\nDuring the months from August to December 1942 inclusive 154 patients suffering from dysentery were admitted; some had diphtheria as well and a high proportion showed signs of deficiency disease. Of these, 14 died with dysentery as the primary cause of death.\n\nWhen the patients from St. Teresa's Hospital in Kowloon were transferred to Bowen Road on 11 August 1942 on the closure of that hospital they brought stories of an outbreak of diphtheria in prisoners in Kowloon and the Japanese required me to isolate 10 of the 24 so transferred. None of these patients developed the disease. Of the patients we admitted from North Point Camp with throat infections most were critically ill; the outbreak was explosive, 18 being admitted in August and a further 59 in September, but the Canadians then moved to Kowloon and that was the last of our diphtheria admissions though it was not the last of the outbreak in the camps. Of the diphtheria cases, 19 died up to the end of December 1942, 12 of these deaths occurring in September. In a number of cases there was extensive skin ulceration mainly affecting the scrotum and the perineum while the nose and face were also sometimes affected.\n\nThe greatest anxiety in treating the diphtheria sufferers arose from the shortage of serum. In the hospital we had 31,000 units in our own stock at the beginning of August. In September we received from the Japanese 37,500 units and in October 50,000 units. In September Lt. Alec Mackenzie, a Hong Kong man who was a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207429, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 197, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n189\n\nof men employed on duties connected with the storage, preparation, cooking and distribution of food showed losses of the same order as those displayed by men employed on other work.\n\nDistribution of food\n\nUntil our situation stabilised towards the end of 1944 on a ration strength of about 200 patients and staff, the method of distributing cooked food caused many difficulties. After our nursing sisters left, the nursing orderlies in charge of wards carried on in the traditional manner, drawing the ward entitlement of food from the kitchen and serving the appropriate portion to each patient on a full diet. An even distribution was a skill which some of these young men did not readily acquire, and there were endless complaints of maldistribution in wards. After food prepared for the meal had been issued from the kitchen, none remained there from which to make up shortages.\n\nThe first solution was to appoint in each ward a patient whose standing with his fellows was good, and he was given the duty of drawing and distributing the ward ration. This man was not required necessarily to have senior service rank. For example, one was a Dutch naval petty officer, another was a well-known member of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, some were British and some Canadians. These men eventually came to exercise power and to maintain discipline in wards, and they were of great value to medical officers in charge of wards, to the sergeant major, and to me.\n\nEven this measure, however, did not completely restore confidence, and eventually wards and messing units drew their dry rice from the store according to the numbers in their messes into their own containers, in which it was then cooked and served. This measure brought about a further improvement, but it was not until the era of reduced numbers and of stability, for the most part in health and improved rations, that the problem was really overcome.\n\nOfficers on the staff had their own mess throughout. They were nine in number in Bowen Road, reduced however to six when we moved to Kowloon. In Bowen Road, this mess had a tiny electric stove with two rings in a small adjacent annexe, which in peace time had served the orderly medical officer when he was resident on duty. The mess was under the charge of a very efficient sergeant of the Royal Scots, Robert Lockie, who had been wounded and had been", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207453, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 221, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n213\n\nservice, thirty-two women members of the Nursing Detachment of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps and two women nursing auxiliaries. By December 31 we had 341 patients, slightly over half of whom were Canadians, attended by six medical officers including myself, one dental officer, one Church of England chaplain, one quartermaster R.A.M.C., 81 other ranks including seven engineers and nine Canadian combatant soldiers who served as orderlies. In these five months we admitted 546 patients of whom 42 died, 31 of these were Canadians.\n\nUp to about 19 December 1941 we had buried our dead in Happy Valley, but when this site became unapproachable we used large bomb and shell craters close to Bowen Road immediately below the hospital to form common graves. When this site was full we prepared another cemetery by the main gate of the hospital. In August 1942 we had to prepare a new cemetery within our wired perimeter on the bank to the north of the hospital and between the hospital and Bowen Road. We had, of course, no coffins and at first we used sheets as shrouds. The mounting number of deaths compelled us to substitute well-worn blankets as shrouds and this practice continued up to the end of 1942. Our funerals were dignified affairs and I attended in every case. We usually had a few patients and staff as well and at first, remarkably enough, the Japanese were always represented by Sergeant Seino or others and they came bearing wreaths and sheaves of beautiful flowers. They did not keep up this practice very long and I think they had ceased to attend well before we had buried the last of our 42 men before the end of the year. Funeral parties were always guarded.\n\nIn August 1942 we began to give thiamine by injection regularly to staff while all in hospital received yeast drinks. Each member of the staff received two yen from the Central Hospital Fund and I was given a copy of the Japanese \"Rules for P.O.W. Camps\", and I was told that though these were not wholly applicable to a hospital, we were required to conform to the rules in a general sense. I have no idea now what these rules were, but I do know that they did not introduce any new feature into our daily life.\n\nAbout this time all in the hospital were required to complete a form showing their previous experience especially as car drivers, members of the medical profession, those experienced in manufacturing processes and mining, communications experts, agriculture etc. One splendid question was \"In what occupation you want to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207457, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 225, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n217\n\nwe had sudden night checks which would be carried out about midnight or one a.m.\n\nOne of the most disagreeable tasks in the hospital was that of the washing squad. We had to have a system of washing bed linen for those unfit to wash their own sheets. Most of the work was carried out on badly stained sheets which had come from the dysentery wards and which had to be washed in cold water. The four men under Corporal R. Thompson R.A.M.C. who did this work deserve unstinted praise, but it was not until December that I was able to buy a pair of rubber boots for the washing squad.\n\nIn the same month Seino gave me 25 grammes of nicotinic acid and all Canadians received ten yen each from home,\n\nPatients and staff decorated the wards at Christmas time and it was remarkable what a gay effect was produced by the bright colours of a few empty cigarette packets. We had a little extra for Christmas dinner carefully hoarded for many weeks beforehand. We even had a concert on Hogmanay but I was glad to reach the end of 1942.\n\n1943\n\nThirty years after the event it is possible to look back and see that 1943 was the turning point for the better in the affairs of the hospital and its inmates. It was less easy to discern this at the time.\n\nWe had known of the naval battles of the Coral Sea in May and Midway in June 1942. They were fought over four thousand miles from Hong Kong and seemed remote to us. The Japanese accounts claimed them as decisive victories, and it was not till the history of the campaigns became available long after the war that I saw these battles clearly as having imposed the first check on the Japanese advance in the Pacific. It would have been immensely encouraging to have known this at the time.\n\nIn 1943 we knew of the Russian successful defence of Stalingrad, we knew of the victory in North Africa, the invasion of Sicily and the fall of Mussolini. The placenames on the Russian front showed how that terrible campaign was going. We knew of the island battles in the Pacific; we knew of Guadalcanal; but all the Far East news published in the Hongkong News was presented to show the huge losses inflicted on the Americans by the Japanese defenders of positions which in the end remained safely in their hands. The impression conveyed was one of enormous American losses from\n\nPage 225\n\nPage 226", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207458, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 226, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "218\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nattacks on defences which were hardly dented. The areas in which fighting was taking place were still thousands of miles away from us and the newspaper constantly asked the subtle question as to whether the American losses were worth incurring.\n\nIn the hospital 1943 was a drab year for us; the number of patients dropped from 341 on 1 January to 234 on 31 December. Drafts of patients for admission from P.O.W. camps came on ten out of the twelve months and on each occasion patients were discharged. The condition of incoming patients showed a distinct improvement as the year went on though many patients and staff had an additional affliction to endure, that of intestinal worms. Suspicion fell upon a number of food items including vegetables and Chinese brown sugar as the vehicle of infection, but we never established that any one substance was the culprit.\n\nOn three separate occasions I was handed sums of military yen by the Japanese in cash, the donors being the Red Cross Societies. One such gift came from the Canadian Society and was marked for Canadian troops only and was so distributed. Apart from this all other gifts had no limitations placed upon them. On each occasion the available cash was divided and paid equally to all except commissioned officers. Each man thus received 40 yen over the year while Canadians had an extra 30 yen, and in all cases I gained a few yen for my Commanding Officer's Fund from small surpluses. The Central Hospital Fund also benefited from money contributed by officer prisoners in camp in Kowloon which was transmitted to us by the Japanese. The signatures of some patients on the receipt sheets were indecipherable scrawls, because they were quite unable to coordinate their movements.\n\nThirty patients died during the year, and by the end of October 104 of our men were buried in cemeteries in and around the hospital. In April we were given a tin of black paint by the Japanese at our request to allow us to paint the names of the dead on the very well made wooden crosses constructed by us to mark their graves. In December a Japanese interpreter appeared saying that it was his job to see to it that graves were properly prepared and marked and that plans of these existed. I was very proud of the work that our men put in, and the graves of those who had died were properly prepared, identified and maintained. Usually each grave held only one body; occasionally two shared a grave, and on one occasion three men were buried together when they had died", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207473, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 241, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n233\n\nMail for prisoners came in well by our standards in 1944, and the record was established in a Red Cross message dated January 1944 to a man from his wife in Australia which he received in May. At the other extreme one letter from a wife in Stanley Civil Internment Camp and dated 4 September 1944 addressed to her husband was delivered in Bowen Road at the end of October 1944. The husband died in our hospital on 27 October 1943 and of course his death had been reported at once to the Japanese. All in hospital were now allowed fifty words on their outgoing cards irrespective of destination once a month. In October 1944 six of our patients and staff handed in through me forty-word messages to their families on the offer that these would be broadcast by the Japanese. Replies were invited. These messages were returned to me as lacking in drama. The contents were, like all such messages devoted to personal and family affairs and could be of no possible interest to anyone except the recipient. I never heard that any messages submitted for broadcasting were received at home.\n\nSeveral times during 1944 I re-classified for Saito all our patients under certain heads; first there were those fit to return to camp; next came those with visual defects, the result of dietary deficiencies but generally physically fit; the third showed patients unfit for military service by reason of age, wounds etc. Those not included in the lists were under treatment with a reasonable prospect of restoration to fitness for camp, fitness for camp being judged in all cases as being unlikely to come to harm by such a move. The first category of patients, numbering fourteen were having no treatment and needed special accommodation only; in the second case we advised that patients could go to camp into special accommodation so long as they received eight mg thiamine by injection every second day and were seen by our ophthalmologist every two months (we had produced this list with great care some months earlier). In the third category there were 94 names including 24 Canadians, Portuguese and 1 Dutchman. A series of drafts left hospital for camps and our staff was likewise reduced by 10 R.A.M.C. and R.A.D.C. in April. Japanese policy became clear when on 19 November 1944 Saito notified me of their intention to reduce the total of patients and staff in Bowen Road to 200, and a final draft of 9 staff and 46 patients left for camp on 22 November.\n\nOur men were better adjusted to their diets, but some of those admitted from camp were showing serious signs of undernourishment.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207487, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 255, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n247\n\nrun by as entirely separate institution. After the Canadians moved from North Point we drew our patients only from Kowloon and I suppose that the prestige of adhering to the Geneva Convention outweighed in Japanese minds the administrative drawbacks of our site in Bowen Road.\n\nAs time went on the need to supply and guard a unit widely separated from the main body of prisoners must have become more onerous. Increasing shortages and difficulty in supplying electricity and water to Bowen Road were probably instrumental in finally bringing about our transfer to Kowloon.\n\n24 MARCH -- 9 SEPTEMBER 1945\n\nWe now moved into the last few months of our captivity. At first, staff and patients were accommodated in Sham Shui Po camp and from there working parties of our staff went out daily to prepare the hospital. It was on that day that I got my only view of the Heep Yunn School and I did not like what I saw, but the same day I learned that we were to have the Central British School for use. This looked and proved to be a suitable building and we began to move our gear there. A little later Saito told me that the staff would be reduced to 40 all ranks though previously he had said that there would be 40 other ranks. On 9 April 6 officers and 34 other ranks moved in to the Central British School. Besides myself there were Major G.F. Harrison, Major J.W. Anderson, Captain A. Coombs, Lieutenant (Q.M.) F.J. Campbell and the Rev. James Squires our padre. There were five Royal Engineers, M.S.M. Sims, Q.M.S. Tyas, and sappers Samways, Carvell and Climo, and there were 29 other ranks R.A.M.C. and R.A.D.C. headed by Sergeant-majors Muxlow and Bartley. On 10 April 62 patients of whom 58 had been in Bowen Road and four were newly arrived in the hospital. There were at first no non-medical workers though these had been promised. On 12 April a further 62 patients arrived, 31 of these being crippled but in fair general condition and a further 31 being what we then called old men (i.e., unfit for service by reason of age). Two army officers and some American and British merchant navy officers were included, but we had no special accommodation for officers. The Japanese ordered that all patients were to have white beds, another example of window dressing. The hospital provided for 34 beds for patients on the ground floor and 81 on the first floor which also housed the operating theatre, X-ray room and laboratory.\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207492, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 260, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "252\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nMay 1942. Each page bore many signatures and Saito now wanted a similar undertaking to be given but with only one signature on each page. The original undertaking as presented to us in Bowen Road read \"I hereby swear that I shall not make any attempt to escape whilst I am a prisoner of the Imperial Japanese Army. Dated this day 17th year of Showa”. In 1942 we had had much debate with the Japanese over the text of this declaration and eventually the staff signed the following version, “I hereby swear that I shall not make any attempt to escape, and understand that I am on parole and may not leave the hospital precincts without permission from the Commandant\". In 1945 Saito insisted upon the first version given above. I had a long argument with him saying that we had signed the alternative version in 1942 since we did not regard ourselves as prisoners, to which Saito retorted that in fact we had been and were being treated differently from other prisoners. All members of the staff signed the new undertaking, but the old date of 26 May 1942 was used in the 1945 form.\n\nOn 31 May the guard sergeant told me at 4 p.m. that a working party of 40 men was coming from Sham Shui Po and were to be accommodated in the church. We put up beds with mattresses and two pillows each, the beds being so closely placed as to touch each other and shortly afterwards 40 Canadians arrived with a sergeant in charge. Next day the working party went off early to Kowloon Hospital to heap earth round air-raid shelters, but they were not pressed too hard there.\n\nOn 1 June the parcels that came from our visitors included 250 eggs which we set aside for patients only. From the working party the hospital got a rumour that Sham Shui Po was sending a concert party the next day, a Saturday, and sure enough on 2 June a band and concert party numbering 41 came from camp by lorry and by march route. My diary records that we had music, both classical and Japanese, as well as dance music and variety acts. Tokunaga was present and the concert was good, but I was not allowed to do any more than provide the performers with sweet tea. On June 2 and subsequently we had no newspapers and Saito told me that none were being received in the camps either. Though our church was being used as a barrack room, services continued to be held and at this time we were again having to use ingenuity to avoid having to serve boiled rice only at meals. For example,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207503, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 271, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n263\n\nhad taken over the civil administration for the time being. The Admiral cheered us all up by saying that his hospital ship could take 600 patients and he had asked for another hospital ship as well. A Canadian warship, the Prince Rupert, took some Canadians and all our sisters off to supper in the ship. I worked up to 2.30 a.m. preparing lists for the use of our Military Headquarters in Sham Shui Po and also the details of our hospital patients awaiting evacuation.\n\nOn 31 August a naval doctor arrived as a liaison officer and I called on Surgeon-Captain Willoughby the P.M.O. in the hospital ship Oxfordshire. Some tough-looking marines commandeered transport and we transferred 101 patients to the hospital ship at once. At this time my diary records that we had ample food but I was dead tired and the P.M.O. very kindly asked me to stay in the Oxfordshire as he seemed to think I needed a rest. This was most considerate of him but there was still much to be done. Willoughby wanted the Q.A. sisters to sail also in the Oxfordshire with the patients, but Miss Dyson objected strongly and rightly won her point. The rest of the patients embarked in the hospital ship also and we provided case notes for all such patients. A Group-Captain R.A.F. came to the hospital to take it over for R.A.F. use, but our army sisters remained with us to their, and our, delight. A very senior R.A.F. combatant officer took some joy telling me that those of us who had wives at home were in for some nasty shocks for most of these had gone badly astray during the war. He did not say how their husbands had conducted themselves.\n\nThe Indian Hospital seemed to be well under control and Major Evans told me he had 314 patients in hospital, about 85% of whom had manifestations of pellagra, and I was able to help by supplying some drugs.\n\nThe ship's P.M.O. Willoughby advised the Admiral that the Oxfordshire should go direct to the United Kingdom to avoid having to tranship patients in Manila, and the ship thereupon accepted another 90 patients and was replaced by the New Zealand hospital ship, Monganui, of which the P.M.O. was Bennett. On 3 September I crossed the harbour and recovered all my buried records from Bowen Road, and I went from there to Shau Ki Wan where I found no trace of the possessions of any of our men who had been killed at the army medical store near there. They had been buried in craters behind the Salesian. I could not get transport", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207718, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "\"PATTERNED BANDS\" IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG\n\n91\n\n9 See John A. Brim, \"Village Alliance Temples in Hong Kong”, in Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, Arthur P. Wolf, ed., Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1974, pp. 93-104.\n\n10 J. H. Stewart Lockhart, in his \"Report on the New Territory at Hong Kong\" (H.M. Stationery Office, 1900, p.6) states that different systems existed in Tai Po, Yuen Long, and \"Ts'ün Wan and other areas\".\n\n11 In my census sample of Kwan Mun Hau Village, only 15% of the wives of household heads were born in Tsuen Wan. However, 89% of the mothers and 69% of the wives of Village Representatives interviewed by Graham E. Johnson in 1969 were born in Tsuen Wan District. (Graham E. Johnson, Natives, Migrants, and Voluntary Associations in a Colonial Chinese Setting, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Cornell University, 1970.) The reason for the discrepancy between the two samples is not clear; it may reflect differences between leaders and ordinary people, or between Kwan Mun Hau Village and Tsuen Wan in general.\n\n12 Reported by Pat and Roger Howard, Canadians teaching in China.\n\n13 Reported by Graham E. Johnson in 1976.\n\n14 This was stated by Fei Hsiao-tung in an interview with Helga E. Jacobson and Graham E. Johnson in October 1976.\n\n15 There is, for example, no mention of a backstrap loom in the very comprehensive study China at Work, by Rudolf P. Hommel (The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1969).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208009, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 48, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "32\n\nG. C. EMERSON\n\ntoilet and small shower. Most of these flats were occupied by six internees. A building which had housed single Indian warders before the war was turned into a hospital by the internees and called Tweed Bay Hospital. On a hill overlooking the prison grounds were two lovely homes, one for the Prison superintendent and one for the Prison Doctor; these were used as Japanese headquarters. Other buildings were used for housing, ration distribution centres, kitchens and other needs.\n\nDuring the final hours before surrender on Christmas Day, very heavy fighting occurred on Stanley peninsula as the Allies were pushed back towards Stanley Fort. In buildings at St. Stephen's and within the prison grounds, hand-to-hand combat had taken place. Also, at St. Stephen's, Japanese troops had gone on a rampage of killing and raping at a hospital set up there for wounded soldiers. On the site today of that atrocity is the chapel of St. Stephen's College. I had been told by a former internee that a woman who had entered camp from the Peak had brought with her the altar cross from the Peak Church.* The first time I visited St. Stephen's chapel, in 1972, through curiosity I picked up the cross on the altar and discovered it to be the very cross brought into camp in 1942 and used throughout internment.\n\nTwo other areas of note in the camp were the cemetery and Tweed Bay Beach. During internment, the cemetery became a very popular place as it was an oasis of peace and quiet in the over-crowded camp. Many internees spent hours sitting there reading, chatting quietly with friends or just thinking. On a radio programme in 1961, one woman recalled:\n\nWhen we wanted to get together, we'd always say, 'we'll meet you at the graveyard'. It sounded very funny but to us it was a wonderful spot. It was very peaceful there with the old trees and all the old graves. ... we could look out at the sea. We used to stare and stare and imagine we used to see ships coming in.\n\nAlso in the cemetery, some internees found a private spot for romantic liaisons, and here hundreds of internees gathered to watch the Americans and Canadians go out to the repatriation ships in June 1942 and September 1943.\n\nRural Building Lot No. 23. It was not rebuilt after the war.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208013, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 52, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "36 \n\nG. C. EMERSON \n\ncheques to fellow internees who had extra yen. These cheques were payable after the war and were called ‘duress cheques' as they had been written under duress. After the war the Hong Kong Government announced that people should not feel obligated to honour them. However, as those who signed the cheques had done so willingly and felt that in many cases they had saved them from starvation, almost all the cheques were honoured. As a result, a few of the internee-traders who held many of these cheques became wealthy.\n\nOne man was said to have done this:\n\n1st he traded 8 lbs. of rice for a tin of golden syrup\n\n2nd — he sold the syrup for HK$500\n\n3rd — he sold the HK$500 for ¥3000\n\n4th he sold the ¥3000 at ¥10 to £1 for a £300 cheque.\n\nThus his original 8 lbs. of rice, which before the war was worth about 1 shilling and 4 pence, was eventually turned into 300 pounds sterling!\n\nFood and the Black Market occupied much of Camp \"gossip\", and another topic frequently talked about was repatriation. For the British, repatriation never occurred, partly because in exchange for them, the Japanese asked for a group of Japanese interned in Australia who had been pearl fishermen there and hence knew the coastline very well. Fearing a possible Japanese invasion of Australia, for which these people would have been invaluable, the British government refused to allow their repatriation. The Americans and Canadians in Stanley Camp were, however, repatriated. On 29th June 1942, the first group, mostly Americans and numbering about 300, left on the Asama Maru for Lourenco Marques, Mozambique, where they met the Gripsholm bringing Japanese from America. Changing ships, the Americans reached New York on 25th August 1942. The second repatriation took place in September 1943, when approximately 140 internees, mainly Canadians, returned home.\n\nOne internee, watching the Americans march down to the jetty in Stanley Bay to board small boats which took them out to a ferry for transference to the Asama Maru, wrote:\n\nWe sat on the wall of the cemetery and with deep emotion watched them go. We had dreams of good food for them, of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208019, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 58, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "42 \n\nG. C. EMERSON \n\nJanuary 5 \n\n21 \n\n24 \n\nFebruary \n\nAssembly at Murray Parade Grounds; internment in waterfront hotels \n\nMove to Stanley \n\n1st meeting of Temporary Committee \n\n1st meeting of British Communal Council \n\nJune 29 American repatriation on \"Asama Maru\" \n\n1st meeting of First British Community Council \n\n1st Allied air raid on Hong Kong 1st Red Cross parcels, from Britain \n\nAugust \n\nNovember \n\nFebruary April/May \n\n1st meeting of Second British Community Council Arrests of bankers & Dr. Selwyn-Clarke (Director of Medical Services) \n\n1st meeting of Third-British Community Council \n\nCanadians repatriated on \"Teia Maru\" \n\nExecutions of seven internees \n\nSeptember \n\nOctober \n\nJanuary \n\nFebruary \n\nSeptember \n\n2nd Red Cross parcels, from Canada \n\nMilitary took control: Civilian Internment Camp, H.K. became military Internment Camp, H.K. \n\nBritish Community Council dissolved; District Chairmen to run Camp \n\n1944 \n\nJanuary 16 Bombing of Bungalow C-14 internees killed \n\nMarch \n\nMay \n\nAugust \n\n15 \n\n3rd Red Cross parcels (part of Nov. 1942 shipment, from Britain) \n\nNews of Germany's surrender \n\nEmperor's broadcast in Tokyo \n\n16 Japanese informed Mr. Gimson of surrender \n\n30 Rear Admiral Harcourt arrived; flag-raising ceremony in Camp", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208617, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n47\n\nrequested the use of two classrooms for quartering his men, some two hundred or more, eventually. During their stay they were well disciplined and polite, and upon leaving for the Hong Kong side, they graciously handed over to the Sisters what stores they had left.\n\nOn the 21st or so, though Hong Kong had not yet fallen, a Japanese officer appeared and requested space for housing some five or six hundred prisoners, more than half of whom were Indians, the rest English, Canadians, and Portuguese. Some were wounded, and the Sisters were soon at work attending them.\n\nReturning in our narration to Stanley, it may be well to note that in addition to our regular family, we also had with us two Salesians, one a Polish priest, Father Szeliga, and the other an Irish seminarian, Brother Bernard Tohill. As their house at Aberdeen was coming into the range of fire, they came out to the refugee camp at Stanley, bringing with them twenty or more of their orphan boys. Just below our house to the north, the British Government had constructed, as it had in many other places on the island, a refugee camp. Here three large godowns had been erected and had just been filled with stores of rice, peanut, and coconut oil for cooking purposes. A large open-air kitchen also had been constructed, containing about sixty large fireplaces with the usual Chinese wok t'au or rice caldrons, and close by, a huge pile of firewood had been built up. Simple, fabricated refugee shelters had also been planned, but they had not yet been erected. The plan seemed to be that, in case of intense bombing or bombardment of the city, the inhabitants could come out to Stanley during the day and stay at these camps, returning at night to their homes, but as a matter of fact, the camps were never put to much use. At Stanley, there were some refugees, and the Government placed Father Charles Murphy, a member of the Scarboro Mission, who had been studying Cantonese in our Language School for the past year, in charge. Some of our priests and Brothers likewise assisted in setting up some of these shelters, both at Stanley and Repulse Bay. When we learned that the Salesians were at the Camp, we invited them to eat with us, and finally put up their boys on the floor of our Mission Room at night.\n\nTo return for a moment to the early days of the war, after their arrival, the new missioners journeyed to Hong Kong in order to satisfy the requirements of the Police Department in regard to pass-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208620, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 77, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "50\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nthey were friends or foes. There were a great many Canadian soldiers at Stanley; they arrived in Hong Kong just prior to the outbreak of hostilities, and we felt sorry for them as they seemed to have had very little training or direction. Of what was happening in Hong Kong during these latter days we knew nothing, but one thing was certain: the Japanese were on the Island and were converging on Stanley.\n\nThe twenty-fourth dawned bright and early and we began another and most anxious day. As the upper chapel was now in the line of fire, we moved the portable altars out into the first and second floor corridors away from exposed windows, and thus prepared for the Birth of the King of Peace. Apart from this there was nary a bit of decoration or sign of the approaching Feast, which always means so much to us. On the Eve of Christmas, after our usual repast of rice, soya beans and vegetables, we tried to recreate in our candlelit refectory, but soon our recreation was rudely interrupted by the sharp rat-a-tat-tat of machine gun fire which seemed rather close. Outside the night was black, but it was not long before Stanley was lit up with a constant stream of tracer bullets criss-crossing each other. The Japanese were coming down the hills from the north and west and the British, comprising Regulars, Canadians, Volunteers and prison guards began defending the Stanley peninsula and the approaches to the Prison and the Fort. There was not much possibility of sleep under these conditions, but we went to our rooms and kept under cover as much as possible. Those whose rooms were on the north side of the building hastily picked up their mattresses and doubled up with their confreres on the south side, putting their mattresses on the floor, in the least exposed corner of the room while a few hardier ones tried to sleep in their beds. Needless to say there was not much sleep that night, for the battle raged incessantly throughout the night and the rat-a-tat of the machine guns and the desultory boom of the trench mortars kept up without respite. Those who ventured to look out from the south verandah on what was ordinarily a peaceful scene, now beheld nothing but the flash of mobile field guns as they belched forth their deadly missiles, the criss-crossing of tracer bullets which made one think of the aerial fireworks on a Fourth of July, only on a more grandiose scale, and over all the inky blackness. During the course of the engagement one could readily pick out a machine gun", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208625, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n55\n\nexpected at any minute, especially when we passed a level spot of ground, to be ordered to turn around and face a firing squad. Half way down our driveway a plane was heard overhead and our guards herded us over to the bank at the side of the road so as to be out of sight of the aviator. Here, while waiting for the plane to disappear, our guards noticed two watches. Mine was one and its small chain was dangling from my pocket. The guard came over, pulled out the watch, looked at it, hesitated (for it was not a wrist watch and they were more in demand) and then deciding it might do, yanked it free from its clasp and resumed his post.\n\nThe plane by this time having disappeared, the guards marshalled us in line again and off we started, wondering where we were bound for and what was going to happen to us. Some thought we were going to be taken to Repulse Bay for internment, but as we got to the foot of our hill we turned not left, but right, towards Stanley Village, but instead of continuing on we were routed up a small driveway which led to an unused road just behind the Carmelite Convent. As we passed an open space where a number of soldiers were standing, I again thought of a firing squad, but we kept marching on until turning up another bypath, we were told to halt. This dead end of the road had been cut out of the hill and we were thus pretty well protected from flying bullets, for the fighting was still going on, at least sporadically.\n\nHere we noticed a higher ranking officer than we had hitherto seen, and he had with him a portable radio or telephone set, probably the latter as wires were in evidence along the ground. We were ordered to sit or squat down—it was most awkward to sit and to rise with our hands tied behind our backs, but we had to do so again and again. The officer then, using a very few English words, questioned us. We tried to make him understand that we were \"church\" people, and though puzzled he finally seemed to grasp the significance of this word. After making us sit and rise repeatedly to indicate our nationality—there were in our ranks Americans, British, Canadian, Irish, Polish and Russian, for in addition to us Maryknollers, there were Bishop O'Gara, and Father Charles Murphy, Canadians; Mr. Brown previously mentioned, British (or rather Australian); Brother Bernard the Salesian, Irish; Father Szeliga, Salesian, Polish and a Russian, whom we called Michael, who also had been in the employ of the British. Incidentally, Father", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208642, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 99, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "72\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\ngot together. Father Toomey went on ahead to arrange for our quarters, and all bid good-bye to Maryknoll on the hill. Just as we are leaving, His Excellency Bishop Valtorta walks up our hill, not knowing that we were being evacuated. At the foot of the hill, we meet a truck, and are surprised to find sitting on it, Father Norris, C. P., who has been brought out from town. The truck was on its way to the refugee camp just below our house, in order to pick up a few rice caldrons and some firewood for our kitchen equipment at the camp. At any rate, we are going to have rice!\n\nWe pass the Carmelite Convent, struggling under our burdens; go through the village of Stanley, which looks deserted and desolate, and we continue on our way, after having first been stopped by a group of soldiers, to the Prison Warders' apartments. We find we are to be billeted in Blocks “E”, “F” and “G” and the British and Dutch, some of whom have already arrived, are to occupy the other Blocks as well as St. Stephen's College buildings and the Indian Quarters below. We are directed to the top or third floor of Block \"E\", and as there was no order or assignment of rooms, we took the first available space and put our belongings on the floor. We also find that we have been allotted two flats on this third floor, each consisting of three rooms, with a small bath and an equally small kitchen and pantry. In these six rooms, there will be eventually (Father Bauer, with Brothers Michael and Thaddeus still being in Queen Mary Hospital, and Father Feeney still in Kowloon) thirty-two people, we having lost His Excellency, Bishop O'Gara and Father Charles Murphy; they, being Canadians, going to the British quarters, and gaining Brothers Cornelius and Anthony, two Christian Brothers who, with Fathers Norris and Benson, were here ahead of us. We are billeted four to seven in a room and have camp cots for beds. There is little other furniture save a chair here and there, or a small table and a wardrobe or bureau in some of the rooms. We have the whole top floor of our Block, except the servants' quarters, very tiny rooms at either end. After stowing away our belongings under camp cots and in corners, we make up our cots and prepare to retire.\n\nAs we have no electricity, we sleep until daylight and then rise to begin our first day in an Internment Camp. Having brought with us a number of Mass kits, we immediately set about putting up some temporary altars. For these, we use some tables and bureaus", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208676, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "106\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nHospital. Funeral at 3:00 p.m. with Father Charles Murphy officiating.\n\nJUNE\n\n1- Father Haughey and Brother Bernard Toohill, Salesians, sign their papers and are allowed to leave Camp. The British do not yet believe that we Americans are going to be repatriated, but at the same time, they are hoping for some news about their own release. There are rumors, of course, but nothing definite as yet. The Canadians, too, are also hoping, and are even now trying to join the Americans. Swimming was supposed to start today, but no permission has yet been received. As the weather is beginning to get a little warm, the language school goes on vacation schedule of but one class a day. Strictly speaking, with all the interruptions and distractions of Camp life, we haven't made much progress on the language, but a start has been made.\n\n2- As it is now quite definite that the bulk of the Americans will be repatriated (some forty or so remaining voluntarily) a meeting was held today in which new officers were elected. Consequently, Mr. Bennett becomes Chairman of the Council; Father Meyer Vice-Chairman, Mr. Gregory, Secretary and Mr. Kiley, Treasurer. A tiger cub was reported seen around the Camp. At last, the first parcels of that $300,000.00 food loan are beginning to come in. Each internee had been instructed to make out a list of what articles he would like and individual parcels containing these items are made up in town and sent out to the Camp.\n\n3- Fathers Moore and Madison, again, slightly indisposed.\n\n4- Feast of Corpus Christi. Benediction at 6:45. Report has it now that the newspaper men among the repatriates are to receive one thousand yen from the Japanese authorities for the trip. Incidentally, it may be chronicled that shortly after taking possession of Hong Kong, the Japanese Army introduced the Military Yen, one yen being on a par with two Hong Kong dollars. Later on, this was boosted to one yen for four Hong Kong dollars, and as food prices have risen considerably, this has been a great hardship on the populace, especially those who had Hong Kong money. Then the further discount on high denomination bills made it still more difficult.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210623, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 230, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "211\n\nThe Osborn's ornate, timber caravan was high and brightly painted, and almost every time it returned to the village it appeared to have an additional occupant.\n\nIn later years the family comprised father, John Robert Senior, and mother, Harriet Susanna, four sons one of whom was killed in World War I as well as a daughter. In fact John Robert Junior, so people say, was born in that caravan in Foulden. And while people generally had not, unfortunately, much time for gypsies, they had to admit that the Osborns were pleasant, peace-loving people.\n\nBy the start of World War II the caravans had long stopped coming to Foulden, and John Osborn Junior had emigrated to Canada in 1920. However 12 days after the infamous attack on Pearl Harbour, 42 year old (some records state 41) Sergeant Major Osborn, together with his Company of Winnipeg Grenadiers (which consisted of both French and English-speaking Canadians), found himself on the 436 metre high Mount Butler\n\nwith its spectacular view in the centre of Hong Kong Island, waiting to take on the might of the Imperial Japanese Army.\n\nDawn on the 19th December 1941, which was punctuated with blasts and smoke, came up cool and grey with odd wisps of mist. Shortly afterwards, the Grenadiers recaptured Mount Butler summit. However, the Japanese moved three companies against them, and, owing to superior numbers, by about 10.00 am, the Canadians were driven down the hill.\n\nThey then regrouped and attacked in the direction of Wong Nai Chung Gap, and later turned towards Stanley Gap. As the soldiers charged they came under persistent, merciless fire and their ranks were severely thinned. As a result, the Company became divided.\n\nAt that stage Osborn took over. The mainly young and tired group of 65 Grenadiers, which was all that remained after the charge, was under-trained and previously had had no experience in action, although there were some regular non-commissioned officers.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210624, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 231, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "212\n\nOsborn was, however, different. He had faced death before, as a 17-year-old seaman at the Battle of Jutland, in 1916, and, later, in the Royal Marines on the Western Front. His life had been hard, firstly in rural England, and, later, as a casual worker, during the depression years, on farms and railroads in Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada.\n\nHe joined the Canadian militia in 1933 and was promoted rapidly. Osborn was cool and tough; the kind of man you are glad to have on your side in a tight corner; a natural leader.\n\nWhilst most of the Grenadiers may have been little more than raw recruits, and lacking in experience under fire, Osborn's calmness had a steadying effect. Under his leadership, his men were determined and fought like battle-hardened, regular soldiers. Osborn was everywhere displaying courage and inspiring his company, and although it is said by some that he led a bayonet charge, it ran into a hail of fire from Japanese entrenched machine guns.\n\nThe Canadians, who by now had been reduced to about 30, clung fiercely to the bare, pitted hillside, and twice they beat off counterattacks, and always Osborn was there. However, in spite of great courage, the position became untenable, and the Grenadiers were finally forced back by superior firepower. Osborn then covered their withdrawal, at one stage single-handed, engaging the enemy and exposing himself to heavy fire.\n\nBy mid-afternoon, the dozen men that survived were exhausted and entirely surrounded, but, although the Japanese were within a few yards of the Canadians' position, they continued to fight doggedly on.\n\nAt that stage, hand-grenades began to fall among them, and, on several occasions, Osborn flung them back at the Japanese. Finally, however, a grenade fell which Osborn could not grab in time, and, after shouting a warning and pushing others away, he threw his body over it, thus saving the lives of his few remaining comrades. Osborn was killed instantly, but the six men who were with him survived.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210626, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 233, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "214\n\nMuch later in 1958, Foulden learned of the Victoria Cross and the brave deeds of one of its sons, who had been born in a caravan, and who had become legend. However nothing appears to exist in writing in the village, and his name is not on the war memorial. Few people remember him. Nevertheless Mr. B.W. Billman, who was born in 1901 and is the oldest inhabitant, was proud to tell me:\n\n\"Of course I remember him! We sat in the same class. But I did not realise, at the time, he was so 'special'. He was just a quiet, likeable, country boy...\"\n\nWarrant Officer Osborn was officially listed as \"missing\" and there is no known grave.\n\nHis name does, however, appear on the memorial at Sai Wan Bay War Cemetery in Hong Kong. Also, on November 5th, 1981, a statue of a World War I soldier, which had formerly stood in the grounds of Eucliffe Castle, at Repulse Bay, the site of a brutal massacre of British and Canadian soldiers, in World War II, by the Japanese invaders, was unveiled in \"Osborn Barracks\" in Kowloon Tong. These barracks are named after Hong Kong's only recipient of the Victoria Cross.\n\nThe statue was donated by the Eu family, and the plaque, which was unveiled by Mr. Allen Kilpatrick, past Canadian High Commissioner, reads:\n\n\"Erected here in memory of WOII John Robert Osborn VC, Winnipeg Grenadiers, and through him all those men and women, service and civilian, and of every race, colour and creed, whose secret acts of gallantry and self-sacrifice in the defence of Hong Kong, December 1941, went unnoticed and unrecorded\".\n\nOf the Canadians I spoke to in early December 1985, who had returned to the scene of the battle, probably ex-Sergeant Robert (Bob) Manchester remembers Osborn best.\n\n\"He was a determined man and an experienced soldier.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213297, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "99\n\nIn Canada, as a rough indication, the author was told that about half the Chinese buying real estate there pay attention, to a 'lesser or greater degree', to fung shui. However, they are likely to buy the house first and then, afterwards, consider 'improvements'. This applies, say, when establishing a shop. Aquariums with tropical fish are quite commonly installed for fung shui purposes,\n\nIn one case the author was assured by a Chinese-Canadian architect that a wealthy Chinese donated a large sum to a prestigious Canadian university for the erection of a materials science and chemical engineering laboratory. But this, the donor insisted, had to be designed employing sound fung shui principles. It caused some embarrassment to the university who tried to hush the matter up.\n\nA white Canadian working in a consulate and in close touch with Hong Kong Chinese emigrating to Canada told the author: 'Chinese buying property in the West do not usually ask outright about fung shui. They enquire in indirect ways or try and find out about it on their own. Vancouver is considered 'good' by the Chinese, from a fung shui point of view, as it stands at the meeting place of two large bodies of water. Strong, positive forces are abundant.\n\nHas this interest in fung shui caught on among white Canadians?' 'Not yet!' was the answer the author received from an old Chinese friend, who has now emigrated, who went to some lengths to find out.\n\nIn the Canadian press', he continued, 'the tone is usually negative. There are reports of Chinese chopping down trees to improve fung shui and the belief is frequently described as a foolish, feudal superstition. It is never described as a philosophy.'\n\nThe old friend went on: 'Of course there are \"dissident\" architects, interior designers and real estate agents who are less critical. A few do take fung shui into account from the planning stage. A Canadian community college offers fung shui as a design subject. Students are aware that the property market depends on the 'enthusiasm' of the Chinese and therefore they must consider the buyers' needs. Many luxury residences are snapped up by Asians. If the fung shui is not good such property is not bought so readily.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214759, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 174, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "138 \n\nThe Diary \n\nSunday 7/12/41. Much talk about war with Japan but no one seems to think anything will happen. We, the RAF in Hong Kong, are a very small crowd; seven officers and sixty men with five aircraft, two Walrus and three Vildebeeste. Group Captain Horry sails for Singapore on the Ullyses leaving Wing Commander Sullivan as our CO. I have the doubtful honour of being IC of our one and only flight and have three other pilots FO Gray, or Dolly, who is also signals officer, FO Baugh, or Whimpey, equipment officer, PO Crossley, or Junior, a New Zealander just arrived from Singapore and with very little flying experience. PO Thomson the Colonel, our adjutant, is a VR who came to Kai Tak with me from Singapore last June. Finally we have an Australian, PO Hennessy, just arrived from Singapore to start a fighter operations room. The joke is that everything is being prepared for the arrival of fighters but they are not expected for a month. With only five obsolete aircraft and one aerodrome our prospects are not rosy and it looks as if we might finish up in the army if war comes to Hong Kong. During the day the news gets worse and all precautions are taken, everyone being confined to camp. I take a Vildebeeste with full bomb load on a test climb during which I try to imagine where would be the best place to drop them and what would be my chances if attacked by fighters. But everything is peaceful and Hong Kong looks quite beautiful far beneath. We park the Walrus on the water and disperse the Beests but what wonderful targets they make. The 2nd Battalion Royal Scots and two battalions of Rajputs and Punjabis are in their positions in the New Territories, the island being defended by two battalions of Canadians raw recruits, and, only just arrived, the Middlesex Battalion man the coast defences. Finally the volunteers, four thousand Europeans, Chinese, Portuguese etc. Our Navy has one destroyer, ten MTB's and a few gunboats. Not a very formidable force especially as we shall be completely cut off from outside help and our food and ammunition supply is only sufficient for a hundred days. Still everyone seems cheerful. I am duty officer and wonder if I shall get any sleep. \n\nMonday 8th. I am disturbed early as the Colonial Secretary rings up to say that war with Japan is imminent. Hell there goes my sleep and I wake the other officers. Over breakfast we are told that we are at war with Japan. We dash down to flights just in time to hear an ominous roar of planes and nine bombers escorted by over thirty fighters", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214762, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "141\n\nMonday fifteenth. Contact Canadians who have positions at foot of Bennetts. They are very helpful bringing us hot tea and helping us in our digging. Am now in the army without a doubt and under the orders of Major Baillee of E Battalion Winnepeg Grenadiers with hqrs at Wanchai Gap. More heavy bombing of Aberdeen harbour, heavy casualties to Naval personnel caused by explosions of torpedoes and depth charges.\n\nTuesday. Japs attempt landing at Lye Mun but party wiped out by six inch guns. Heavy shelling by Japs of Wanchai Gap and Stanley bombed. Driving the staff car into HK I have a lucky escape as a stick of bombs meant for the Thracian in Deep Water Bay drops on the road just behind me.\n\nWednesday. Hennessy goes to Canadian hqrs on Col Sutcliff's staff. Intense bombing and shelling of island defences. One stick aimed at us misses. Another day of hard work and very little food. During the night enemy warships shell the island and shrapnel shells burst right over our heads giving us an uncomfortable time. Two cruisers and one destroyer had been seen the previous night. One six inch shell of British make struck the AIS and knocked a large hole in the wall of MTB repair shop, also completely writing off my car.\n\nThursday. Enemy succeeded in landing on island last night and forced their way into Happy Valley despite heavy casualties. Scots and Canadians fail in attempt to drive them out. Japs in large numbers assisted by fifth columnists. Landing covered by intense artillery and naval bombardment. News muddled and rumours of all kinds are rife.\n\nFriday nineteenth. News still confusing but Japs push into Wong Nei Chong Gap. My positions were designed against attack from the West not East and we have to improvise a new line. Lt Campbell takes a party of men to go to the assistance of Canadians trapped in Wong Nei Chong, their place being filled by Chinese volunteers. Major Giles RM arrives with a small party. Eventually the Chinese go, much to our relief, as they are much too jumpy. Junior now in charge of Bennetts with Giles and myself commanding a sector running from the foot of Bennetts to Mt Nicholson. Situation very tense and we spend a sleepless night. Pours with rain all night and bitterly cold. Everyone soaked through and half dead by the morning as we had no protection against", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214763, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 178, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "142\n\nthe weather. Spend half the night pouring rum into semiconscious men who are dead tired after sleepless nights with very little food. We have no reserves and everyone has had a gruelling time. A Canadian sergeant from Campbell's party returns to our pillbox at midnight in a state of mental and physical collapse and reports that all his party have been killed. A few hours later another Canadian arrives in a similar condition and with the same story. Worst night I can ever remember and never was the dawn more welcome.\n\nSunday twenty first. Naval personnel recalled by the Commodore for defence of the dockyard, leaving us seventy Canadians. We all carry a good supply of grenades as the Japs are very skilled at getting to close quarters without being spotted. The Jap soldiers wear rubber shoes and are as stealthy as cats. They carry a bag of grenades, automatic weapons and a light rifle of quarter inch calibre. They always attack at night and from all directions. Their snipers seem to be everywhere. Japs now using their mortars and artillery much more, being firmly entrenched on Shu Shun Hill. Our artillery do some excellent shooting at Shu Shun and Japs run in all directions. No one seems to know where the Japs are or how many there are. The High Command, whose daily communiques reveal nothing, seem to know less than anyone else. Chang Kai Shek's army reported attacking Japs in the rear and we are told to hang on as they will be with us in a few days.\n\nMonday, Japs break through Middle Gap and are now very close to us. Scots take a heavy toll and retake some positions but Japs always come back in strength. There is no doubt now that the Japs have a very large force on the island, well equipped and experts in this guerilla warfare. Spend the night on continuous watch. The men very jumpy as every sound has to be investigated. If only one could see them instead of this hide and seek. In several cases the Japs have crept up to pillboxes and dropped grenades down the airshaft, killing everyone inside.\n\nTuesday twenty third. Several Canadians who had been given up as lost return with amazing stories. Many wounded Indians come through our lines kitless but not broken. Heavy shelling of Bennetts. Just before dark enemy start terrific bombardment of our positions. Hundreds of shells whistle just over our heads. Major Baillee rings up constantly and seems very jumpy about our positions. At two am he", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214764, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "143\n\norders us to evacuate our positions and retire to Aberdeen. We are amazed at such an order but apparently the Japs have broken through over Mt Nicholson turning our left flank. We collect our small force and start our retirement. Heavy firing coming from Wanchai Gap where fierce fighting is going on. What a forlorn sight we make groping our way back through the hills in the dark. Finally reach Aberdeen, the Canadians going to Mount Gough and I take my men to the AIS. Atmosphere depressing and everyone falls to sleep through exhaustion. Up early, lucky for me, as a bomb lands on my bed just as I leave the room wrecking everything including my kit. AIS heavily shelled causing many fires and casualties.\n\nWed twenty fourth and Thursday Xmas day. The retirement order was a mistake and back we go to Bennetts with guns and equipment. Just as we reach the top the Japs open up on us with mortars. We have no protection and lie flat. The shells land amongst us. Man next to me hit, also several others. Piece of shrapnel glances off my helmet and am half buried in flying debris. If we stay we shall all be killed so order the men to disperse and dash for cover and miraculously we make it. During the barrage I had noticed that one of our previous posts was still manned by Canadians who obviously had not received the order to withdraw. Cpl Blueman AC, Canadian, volunteers to go with me to try and get them out. We climb on our bellies through the thickest undergrowth but are fired on several times. Finally we get within hailing distance and get them all into a pillbox. We collect all the arms and equipment which we can't carry, pile them into the pillbox, and throw a couple of grenades into the pillbox. As we start back everything goes off at once and we have to duck flying bullets. Eventually we arrive intact at the AIS.\n\nNo one seems to know where the Japs are so back we go to a new position guarding the bridge over Aberdeen reservoir. My party consists of twelve Canadians and ten RAF. Up to midnight all is quiet although every sound indicates Japs to the men. Soon after midnight heavy firing starts just across the bridge. The Japs weird war cry is plainly heard and soon a small party of Canadians retire over the bridge. They report a heavy attack by Japs who crept up on them and broke through. We open up with everything we have across the bridge. The Canadians are badly rattled, even their officer seems to have lost control of his men. The Japs start shelling us and confusion sets in and the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214765, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 180, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "144 \n\nmen start leaving their posts. A scene I never wish to see again. I am in an awkward position as I have no command over the Canadians. Just as they start moving back the road Major Baillee advances down the road waving a revolver and shouting to his men to get back to their posts. Some obey and some don't. The Major is highly excited and his voice rings out through the night calling his men all the names he can think of. The Japs must have a good idea of our positions. He calls his officers and men all the names under the sun and shouts for volunteers to cross the bridge. The Canadians refuse to budge so I, more of a desire to back the Major than of any thought of heroics, go across with him. We reach the other side safely whereupon he is violently sick and I realize he is drunk. Through overwork he worked himself into a state of complete collapse and should have been relieved of his command earlier. We retire still intact. We can hear the Japs wild animal calls and they appear to have gone another way. Most of the Canadians have disappeared and with the few left we set up a mortar which fires its first shell into a nearby tree, explodes, blowing the operator's right arm off and another man nearly loses a leg. Get the wounded into a dugout where there are some others badly wounded and try to stop their bleeding. We only have bandages and several of them are in danger of bleeding to death. Their moans are terrible and although I keep ringing up for an ambulance, none arrives. What a horrible mess and I try to restore some kind of order. After a good talking to, the men pull themselves together and \n\ngo back to their posts. Thank God the ambulance arrives at last, also Lts Campbell and Park, Campbell threatens to put the Major under arrest and Baillee threatens to put every Canadian under arrest. Comes the dawn and most of the Canadians have disappeared. \n\nWhat a Xmas day, empty stomachs, tired out, and heaven knows what is going on. At ten am a message arrives saying there is a truce until midday. This news is immediately followed by a terrific bombardment of our positions. Not my idea of a truce. More Canadians melt away leaving our line practically undefended. I gather the few remaining men together and proceed to climb Mt Gough hoping to join up \n\nwith our main forces. When we reach the top and strike the main road we run into several hundred Canadians retreating from Wanchai Gap. Wanchai Gap is the most vital sector of all and this means the end. We are told that the island surrendered at three thirty, over an hour ago. The troops have no arms and are completely worn out. A scene I will never forget with ammunition dumps going up everywhere and the \n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214771, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 186, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "150\n\nthrough. Get some soya beans which help the rice down. Junior falls down and nearly breaks his leg.\n\nSixteenth. Start Japanese lessons. Florrie arrives again and this time I'm lucky. Whimpey gets a blue mood and refuses to talk to anyone.\n\nSeventeenth. Florrie's amah arrives with more food.\n\nEighteenth. Sentries wire up streets facing camp and shoot a man and a woman for trying to sell food. Florrie turns up again but can't get her parcel through, what a girl. Two Chinese bodies washed up near fence. Everyone feeling weaker due to lack of proper food. Rumours and counter rumours so contradictory that I don't believe anything. Some real news would make such a difference.\n\nNineteenth. Now get three meals of rice a day but quantity the same. Rice by itself is awful muck, but we save our small stock of milk and sugar for our evening tea. Over hundred men arrive from Queen Mary's hospital.\n\nTwentieth. More men arrive in lorries, some unable to walk, and dressed only in pyjamas and socks. Troops give a concert including dance band. Cigarettes very scarce.\n\nTwenty first. Fight between Middlesex and Indians. Rice ration very short.\n\nTwenty second. All Indians moved out of camp. Canadians being moved tomorrow, destination unknown.\n\nTwenty third. Disturbed early by troops detailed for work at Kai Tak, a three-mile walk, wonder how they will make out on the diet.\n\nTwenty fourth. Navy are moved from the camp and we are going into Jubilee Buildings. Usual mad scramble for accommodation. Wing gets peeved with Brigadier McCleod and tells him a few things. News is that we have withdrawn in Malaya and that there's a rumpus at home about HK and Malaya, and quite rightly too as both places were very weak in defences, especially aircraft, and men have had to fight against overwhelming odds. We all hope these blunders will soon be rectified.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 } ]