[ { "id": 208701, "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": 158, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n131\n\nvestments, books, including some of Father Meyer's dictionaries and Father O'Melia's language books, a typewriter or two, an adding machine, and various odds and ends. The officer in charge was quite pleasant and when he was in the building, gave us permission to go to the attic and rummage through the mess on the floor. In the attic, everything which had been stored in the missioners' trunks and boxes, such as clothing, books and other personal articles, was all strewn about on the floor, and the place looked a sight. In the attic, we also came across the large crucifix and two wooden statues from our main chapel and these we were also allowed to take away to the Carmelite Chapel. The Japanese seemed to have a superstitious dread of such things. Once on the bus going to Stanley, we noticed a Chinese girl who evidently worked for the Japanese stationed in our house, carrying a small hand-bag. Looking carefully at it, we noticed it was made out of a silk vestment, for we could see the embroidered border and the monogram IHS.\n\nDecember came again and found us still waiting and hoping for some word about Kwangchauwan, but the Foreign Office was silent. Early in the month there was some talk about further repatriation, and we wrote to Mr. Oda again stating that if we could not go to Kwangchauwan we would like to make application for repatriation.\n\nNOVEMBER\n\nOn the first of the month the Japanese government issued orders that all shortwave radio sets must be turned in to be sealed, after which they would be returned to their owners. At that time there was no radio at Bethany, but we listened to a neighboring one, the owner of which kindly opened his door wide and turned up the radio strong. After the first we still heard the radio news but from other sources.\n\nOn the 23rd, His Excellency, Bishop Valtorta, went to see Mr. Oda at the Foreign Office on a matter of his own. A few weeks previous, one of his Chinese priests, Father Wong, in charge of the mission at Sai Kung, disappeared, and it was feared that he had been killed. Later, Father Terruzzi, the Bishop's Chancellor and right-hand man, went to Sai Kung to look over the ground and he was never seen again. Conflicting reports seeped in concerning his fate, and it seems that in some way or other he was killed and his body thrown into the sea. Of course it is not known by whom, but", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208711, "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": 168, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n141\n\nonly a handful of British representatives, among them the Colonial Secretary who went out into the city from the Internment Camp, until the British Forces arrived to take over.\n\n\"At Stanley a crowd of people were all set to loot the Maryknoll House of doors, windows, floors, sinks and so forth, but Bishop Valtorta came out as soon as the surrender became known and asked the Carmelite Sisters to send someone up to the house and remain there to protect our property. A couple of extern Sisters accordingly went up and took possession of the house. The Japanese had taken the hard wood flooring on the top floor and had carried it to the nearby valley north of the Stanley reservoir, in order to build a last stand field headquarters, which, however, they never did use. After we got to the house I gave some Stanley people work carrying the material back down again and Father Mark Tennien had the flooring relaid when he later on took over as Procurator.\n\n\"Practically all the equipment and furniture that was not fastened down had disappeared, such as sinks and kitchen stove. The hardwood chapel pews apparently could not be used for anything, and were too hard to split, so they were found piled up intact in the sacristy. All the books in our library had either been burned or carried away and the furniture moved out for use elsewhere by the Japanese.\n\n\"Upon arrival I at once wrote to Father George Daly and he sent out a full supply of china, cutlery, kitchenware and linens. Father Tennien had new furniture made after he took over.\n\n\"Shortly after internment I went to live with Bishop Valtorta, while Father Hessler remained at Stanley where he acted as chaplain to the Carmelite Sisters, and also did some work among the Japanese interned at Stanley Fort. It was while in Hong Kong with the Bishop that Father Maestrini and I got some quarters, formerly leased to the Germans, in the King's Building, for the Catholic Center and St. Nicholas Catholic Club. We had to scrounge furniture for the latter and carry it up 5 flights of stairs, as the lifts were not yet in working order. Captain O'Connell of the British Navy and Father Chatterton, Navy Chaplain, arranged all the official details and permissions for the Club. Father Chatterton even went with us to scrounge furniture and the Captain provided a lorry for transportation. They also arranged for us to get from the Navy", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208716, "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": 173, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "146\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nManila, would have made the journey more comfortable. Another early visitor was Father John Smith of Kong Moon mission, just returning from the States. Apparently his stay at home had made him careless and he had not been on the Hong Kong streets very long before he was \"taken\" by several urchins who successfully \"lifted\" his fountain pen while pretending to fight over the privilege of shining his shoes.\n\nEarly in April, Father Tennien returned to Shanghai after a visit to Hong Kong. At this time, Father Brack recovered a goodly number of articles which the Carmelite Sisters had managed to save from looters by storing them in their convent. Among these were books, vestments, an adding machine and some typewriters, together with a lot of stationery. They had also kept in their convent a large wooden crucifix and two large statues, both the beautiful handwork of Brother Albert, to be replaced in the Chapel.\n\nIn addition to the ravages caused by the Japanese on Stanley House, another enemy moved in and inflicted more damage. This enemy was white ants, and they did a rather thorough job on much of the woodwork that had remained otherwise intact.\n\nWe learned that national currency was getting to the point where one \"weighed\" it rather than \"counted\" it. A big shopping spree in Shanghai or Canton required hiring a coolie or ricksha to carry enough bundles of paper currency to pay the bills. At the same time, prices in Hong Kong were outrageous; a cheap white suit costing HK$160—over ten times the pre-war price!\n\nA Korean Dominican priest, Father Ri, stayed at Stanley while working with Japanese political prisoners now detained in the Stanley jail where the British and American internees spent the war years.\n\nIn May, Archbishop Zanin, Apostolic Delegate to China, arrived by plane from Shanghai for a conference with more than a dozen Ordinaries of South China, including our four Ordinaries.\n\nBishop Paschang arrived at Stanley for the conference, with a Van Dyke beard. Only his episcopal rank saved him from the customary Stanley practice of removing beards by force!\n\nOur jeep made five trips into Hong Kong in one day. Sometimes it must carry nine passengers with baggage, but without it, we would be lost.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209766, "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-1983", "page_number": 25, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "In fact a pair of monkeys liked the place and seemed to want to join up. They would scamper all around the house as if they owned it. However, as they were not housebroken they were a nuisance. One day a very religious monkey was found in the chapel. He ran into the sacristy and the door was slammed on him. Then the tennis net was brought up to capture him. The door was flung open, and in charged the priests with the net flying. The monkey was so frightened that he smashed right through the window and disappeared in the woods. Apparently he had decided he didn't want to be a monk after all.\n\nThere were no great incidents at the house till the war came in 1941. Incidentally, I was ordained in 1941 and arrived in Hong Kong the night before Pearl Harbor on the last of the Pan Am Flying Clippers. And today happens to be the anniversary of the starting of the war!\n\nIt was dusk on that Dec. 7th as we drove from the airfield out to Stanley, so we didn't see much of the city. Next morning when I was saying Mass in the lower chapel, there were big explosions and the altar jumping around. I thought this is probably the way they start every day in the East. Then when I came down to breakfast, the news had been received on the radio that the Japanese were attacking Hong Kong. We also got the first uncensored reports on Pearl Harbor. As the Japanese army gradually conquered Hong Kong Island, many refugees came to take shelter in the house. The Salesian Fathers had brought out a group of orphans and taken over a part of the house. Some military were also quartered in the house. With us nine new arrivals, the staff etc. there were some thirty people. The war started on Monday, so on Tuesday we as aliens had to go downtown to register. The bus went through Aberdeen, right past Mt. Davis, a big British military installation. The Japanese were bombing this all day, and so we spent practically all day jumping on and off buses, diving into the gutters along the roadside or darting into air raid shelters. We arrived in town just in time to catch the last bus home. However, after dark, the bus only went as far as Repulse Bay and we had to walk the rest of the way. With us were two Carmelite Sisters who had been to town to buy provisions for the siege. As we came down the road into Stanley", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209768, "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-1983", "page_number": 27, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "5\n\nto eat, but no cooking. Then later in the afternoon, a wounded British soldier was carried in. He was lying on the floor, and asked for absolution, as he was sure the Japanese were going to kill him. One of the priests bent over to give him absolution. This priest was wearing brown trousers. When the Japanese guard saw the brown trousers, he jumped up screaming furiously 'spies spies, all spies'. With that they proceeded to tie us by threes with our hands behind us. They marched us down the hill to a small ravine behind Carmel Convent. At the end of the ravine was a Japanese soldier with a wireless set. The Japanese then separated us by nationalities, British, Americans, then Swiss, Hungarians, Parthians, Medes and Elamites. Then they took the British around the corner and bayonetted them. I saw one Japanese soldier stick his bayonet into a British soldier who had his hands tied behind his back. The soldier fell over backwards, and the Japanese nonchalantly wiped the blood off the blade of his bayonet. Just at that moment, the Japanese at the wireless set came running up with a piece of paper to the commander who looked at it long and hard. Then they marched the rest of us all to a two-car garage where we were under guard. It seems that the British had surrendered just at that time. We were in the garage two nights and two days. Someone gave a Japanese guard a watch for a canteen of water and that is all we had.\n\nAfter about two days, we were let out, untied, and let go back up to our house. We were allowed to stay in the lower chapel. The Japanese were occupying the rest of the house. Finally they let us have the house back for a couple of weeks and then we were put into the Stanley internment camp. For the rest of the war, the house was the headquarters of the Japanese secret police and because of them, the house was not looted. They closed the chapel and sacristy and not a thing was touched there for four years. At the end of the war, the Carmelite Sisters came up from the foot of the hill and protected the property till our two priests got out of the internment camp.\n\nI would like to make a little diversion here and tell you about the Carmelite convent down at the foot of our hill. In the middle of the final battle, a Japanese officer banged on the door of the convent. The little extern nun opened the door. The officer", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 } ]