[ { "id": 207434, "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": 202, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "194\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nalways been under close surveillance as well by the gendarmerie. After his arrest in May, 1943, he was confined in the cells below the Supreme Court in conditions of the utmost squalor and was subjected to the intensive, unending, repetitive \"interrogation\" about his alleged spying activities which are lamentably so well known nowadays. One of the accusations was that in some way he was in touch with the British Embassy in Lisbon to which he was supposed to have reported information about Japanese activities. The charge was a capital one and the sentence of the trial court was death. To such a condition was he reduced that he told his captors to get on with the job and carry out the sentence. This they did not do, and he suspects that the deaths in prison of the Chief Manager of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in circumstances in which ill-treatment and starvation were suspected made even the Japanese gendarmerie reluctant to offer Selwyn-Clarke as a third victim. Sixteen months later he was tried again, also upon a capital charge but due to some dealings of oriental subtlety by some of his friends in the Colony the sentence this time was three years in prison. In December 1944 he was transferred from Stanley prison to Ma Tau Wei Internment camp near Kai Tak airport and there he says he was alright. In August 1945, when we welcomed him to our hospital in the Central British School he was still physically in poor shape and he suffered permanent disabilities. His spirit, however, if it had once been bent, had by then recovered and as soon as he could after the Japanese surrender he returned to his office in Hong Kong to reestablish medical and health control and order in the Colony.\n\nBefore closing this section which has been devoted to the problems of feeding patients and staff in the hospital I am glad to refer to the Red Cross organization in Hong Kong during the war. Mr. R. Zindel, a Swiss citizen and thus a neutral, was in charge. He made formal inspections of the hospital about every six months accompanied by the Japanese Commander of P.O.W. camps. I shall refer later to these visits, but it was quite evident to me that Mr. Zindel was confined within strict limits by the Japanese during his inspections. He must, I feel sure, have met the same difficulties in his work outside the hospital, but I record here with gratitude our indebtedness to his tenacity, skill and resource in getting to us so many of the food stores which made such a very great difference to our wellbeing. I had the pleasure of meeting him also in Hong Kong during my visit in 1964.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207465, "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": 233, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n225\n\ntheir heads. Though bits of protein may thus have been made available many found it hard to look their fish in the face.\n\nWe had two Red Cross inspections by Mr. Zindel in June and December. On both occasions staff and patients paraded and he made quite extensive rounds though no communication between him and us was allowed. In July though, he sent us a number of indoor games including chess sets, a table tennis outfit, two dart board sets, 18 packs of cards, four badminton rackets and two boxes of shuttles. These again had to be given prominent places in the recreation room where they could be seen. About half way through the year we began to have to pay for our four copies of the Hongkong News which we received usually each day, 15 sen each at first.\n\nIn June I was faced with a demand from Seino for reports on our compradore shop, on the state of health of our staff, on the boots and clothing of all in hospital, on patients classified by diseases, on our complaints and on our methods of dealing with mosquitoes, lice, bugs and flies. About the end of July staff, but not patients, were allowed to bathe in the reservoir provided they wore fandoshis while I required bathers to have a shower first. The supply of mains water was intermittent and low stocks of the drug forced us to reduce the daily dose of thiamine in August to 4 mgm by injection. All concerts, church services etc, had to be finished by 8 p.m. and applause, cheers for entertainers, community singing etc. were forbidden, again I think partly because of the nearness of the Japanese army's watchful critics, the Japanese navy, and partly because our own guards might take exception to noises of this kind. We had a good piano in our recreation room and a less tuneful instrument in what had been the Chinese boys' quarters. By September all concerts and piano playing in the recreation room except during church services were stopped.\n\nI failed again to get an extra rice ration for our staff and stocks of rice would not allow us to issue extra to them without reducing the amount available for patients; for my pains we were called upon to make returns to the Japanese showing all our food stocks.\n\nMembers of the staff had been allowed to store certain locked boxes containing personal possessions in our boiler house and on 3 September a sudden search of these was made by the Japanese, all locks being smashed to get the boxes open. Seven officers and two other ranks were involved as owners, and a pair of binoculars", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207478, "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": 246, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "238\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nwas specially poor also about this time some of our rice was wet and a stock of bran became hot but we still used every scrap of food. We did have one splendid feast in August 1944 when we received one issue of unplucked pheasants and partridges packed in Manchuria in 1941. Our cooks prepared a stew which made a memorable addition to our rice and vegetables. The game had obviously been in cold store in Hong Kong and electricity cuts must have endangered the refrigeration and so we benefited. In August the Japanese were very active in storing rice and a total of 250 sacks were stacked partly in our hospital building where the Japanese held the keys and partly in the Japanese medical quarters. This was another of the very heavy fatigues which devolved upon staff. It was usually non-nursing staff who did work of this kind, though some of the nurses joined in which clearly meant that they welcomed even heavy labour if it involved a change in their routine.\n\nThe Red Cross local bulk supplies allowed us to make our basic diet of rice and vegetables much more palatable and, just as important, they showed our people that a valiant attempt to meet their needs was being made. Our morale, depressed by the third year of our captivity was lifted.\n\nMr. Zindel visited us in August and again in December 1944. In August after the usual formal and silent round of the wards I was summoned to the Japanese office where I found Tokunaga, Saito, Zindel and an interpreter. Zindel then asked me what food stuffs we needed, making the point no doubt for the benefit of the Japanese that he had asked similar questions of the officer placed in charge by the Japanese of the other ranks camp in Sham Shui Po. I asked for food containing protein and vitamins, saying that these were our main need though we also needed sugar to replenish our falling stock. He told me that fresh meat was not available which came as no surprise to me but most helpfully offered beans, which I welcomed. I followed up this very short talk with a list addressed to Zindel through the Japanese, again limiting our requests to items which we judged might be available. At Mr. Zindel's December inspection no conversation was allowed though the visit was marked by an air raid.\n\nIn August 1943 we had no mains water for 36 hours and had to carry what we needed from the reservoir where the water level was too low for our pumps to be effective. Thereafter we had no trouble for some months though we were reproached for using", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207486, "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": 254, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "246\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nAll of Mr. Campbell's records of receipts of Japanese rations were removed by Saito on 17 February in order, he said, that they could be examined by Japanese checkers. We never got them back.\n\nOn 19 March 24 lorry loads of beds (100) and mattresses and medical equipment left the hospital. On 21 March 109 patients with four doctors and 5 nursing orderlies were transferred to huts in Sham Shui Po leaving four officers and 56 staff with 15 so-called strong patients. I left with these on 23 March for Sham Shui Po. This was the only time I had been in a P.O.W. camp and by then the prisoners, like ourselves in the hospital, had become adjusted to the conditions. The hospital equipment had gone to the Central British School in Kowloon. We had stripped Bowen Road of every single article and structure we thought might be useful to us on our new site. In this, the Japanese seemed to encourage us.\n\nTHE REASONS FOR THE RETENTION OF\n\nTHE HOSPITAL IN 1942 AND ITS REMOVAL IN 1945\n\nIn the conditions following our surrender, it is not hard to understand the Japanese decision to leave a British Military hospital, which they found as a going concern, to care for Allied sick and wounded. Such a decision enabled them to conform with the provisions of the Geneva Convention, a political decision, while at the same time using an immediately practical alternative to involving their own medical services. Our hospital must have been a showpiece to their own inspecting officers and to the Red Cross representatives, both International and Japanese, and illustrated how they were conforming with the provisions of the Convention. They clearly succeeded in creating a good impression, as shown by the spontaneous remark to me of Mr. Engelbacher (I am not certain of the name) of the International Red Cross at the inspection on 21 December 1942 by Mr. Zindel and himself. He declared that we were better off than patients in a Japanese military hospital. This might have been true, but at that time, I was oppressed by the deaths of the last few months and the condition of large numbers of our patients, and I received the information with some coldness.\n\nThe arrangement under which we continued to occupy our own hospital must have provided quite serious administrative inconveniences for the Japanese. So far as I know, we provided the only concentration of British P.O.W. on the Island, though the Stanley Internment Camp, some miles away, held civilian internees and was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207496, "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": 264, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "256\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nOn 4 August Mr. Zindel carried out a Red Cross inspection of the hospital together with Colonel Tokunaga and his staff, the whole lasting only about twenty minutes and I had no conversation with him. At this time we had been receiving small quantities of fresh meat at weekends and this had gone on for a few weeks before meat was replaced by salted fish, the first fish we had had for a long time. In early August the weather was remarkably cool, dull and showery with the wind varying from S.W. to N.E. The barbed wire was now being brought closer to the hospital and excluded the playing field. We had two dangerously ill patients on 7 August and we received a drum of diesel oil from Saito via our engineers.\n\nMr. Sims was able to repair a burned out high tension cable on our X-ray set and I noted that we put an extra lock on the linen store, a further indication that active trading was still going on. The last Red Cross supplies we had received came in on 29 June and we were running short. Our wheat stock was exhausted and we stopped cooking buns but continued to produce a so-called cake each week and bread made from rice and beans was issued every second day. The Japanese issue of cigarettes for workers which had been due on 20 July arrived on 8 August and Saito told me that wood for fuel was very difficult to get and asked me to economise. We had made two attempts without success to make a wood saw from iron bedsteads. We had now a working party wiring and installing a water supply and a lavatory in the school sports pavilion for the use of the Japanese. We were given 186 small towels, enough for one to each person in hospital and the remainder were raffled. By now the hospital was tired of the lack of news, but remained fairly cheerful except for the blight of three patients on the dangerously ill list. On 15 August one British patient died, thus making the fifth death which had occurred in the Central British School. On 16 August we had a funeral, and a young bull was sighted in the hospital compound but just escaped us. On the same day my diary contains a note to the effect that the war was over, news which reached us via the guards. It is rather remarkable that the official surrender had been made only the previous day in Tokyo. I tackled Saito directly, asking for news but he replied that he had none, though he did promise to tell me as soon as any was available. Next day I asked Saito again in the morning for news and was answered very brusquely that he did not understand my question.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207518, "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": 286, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "278\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nSaito. He acted without giving reasonable consideration to the cases of sick people put to him as needing hospital treatment, so that many for whom hospital treatment could have been life-saving were not sent in.\n\nWhen the hospital moved nearer to the camps in Kowloon in 1945 we began to see signs that it might be going to be used properly to receive the more serious cases in the camps as they occurred and so fulfil its proper function. If we had been moved near to our sources of patients at the beginning of our imprisonment we might have served our sick more extensively and would have been of greater value to the camp doctors. A move then, when we had a hospital full of seriously wounded, would have been dangerous for these men. By the time the move occurred the need was much less pressing though our availability did, I believe, do much to improve our service.\n\nI do not know what relations existed between Saito and his commander Colonel Tokunaga, but while I must, in justice, be careful in reaching judgments, I consider that as a medical man Saito failed to do much that lay within his power for our sick, particularly those in camps. In saying this I do not claim for our prisoners more than the standards of care allowed by international agreements. A coordinated plan to apply such resources as we commanded in camps and in hospital would have made a vast difference to the medical story of prisoners in Hong Kong.\n\nWhile therefore I can agree that we in the hospital fared better than many in Japanese hands I must also record my conviction that the possession and careful husbanding in the hospital of our own resources played a very large part in such successes as we achieved. Any success that attended the efforts of any of us would have been immensely diminished without the aid of Mr. Zindel and the Red Cross Society and our generous friends in Hong Kong.\n\nWithout the life-saving measures provided by the medical services in the P.O.W. camps, using makeshift resources, many patients would never have reached the hospital at all.\n\nTHE STAFF\n\nMy main purpose in writing this account is to record the history of the British Military Hospital, Hong Kong, from 1942 to 1945 and those who served on the staff or were patients there. The account fails to record some of the colourful personalities we had", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 } ]