[ { "id": 207414, "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": 182, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "174\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\npatient of ours told us that a substantial stock of serum had been stored in the Dairy Farm Storage Godown near the vehicular ferry at the beginning of hostilities. We at once asked the Japanese to get this stock for the treatment of prisoners. I never found out whether the supplies we were given came from that stock or not but Sergeant Seino told me that no serum had been found in the Dairy Farm cold store.\n\nSince serum was in such short supply Major Harrison, after anxious consultations in which I and others took part, gave transfusions of whole blood from patients who had recovered from diphtheria to four patients suffering from the disease in an acute form. Two of these recovered. Here again I want to record my personal admiration for the courage of doctors and R.A.M.C. and R.A.D.C. soldiers who nursed these diphtheria cases. Everyone knew of the shortage of serum and all knew the risks of infection. No one shirked the close contacts involved in the treatment of these patients and this to my mind was an outstanding example of cold and sustained courage in a situation where staff were at risk for at least five months. All this was done on an uninviting diet which was low in protein and vitamin content while there was nothing to provide any relief from day to day and little to provide even a diversion. The work of these men cannot be praised too highly and the story deserves to be cherished in the annals of the Corps.\n\nThe phase of the Infections had started a little before I assumed charge of the hospital and was drawing to a close by the end of 1942. During the five months 42 deaths occurred, all but five resulting from dysentery, diphtheria or deficiency diseases.\n\nBefore the infections came to an end the deficiencies had begun and already before the end of 1942 we were admitting members of the staff suffering from painful feet.\n\nTHE PERIOD OF THE DEFICIENCY DISEASES\n\nI make no attempt here to give a scientific account of these diseases. They result from sub-standard nutrition including vitamin deficiencies. When I took charge our doctors were already reporting that many patients were complaining bitterly about burning feet and that some were also showing other signs of neurological damage. Others had ulcers on the cornea, visual defects, sore tongues, ulcers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207417, "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": 185, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n177\n\nOur food came from four sources; the Japanese rations, food sent in by our friends in Hong Kong, supplies received from the Red Cross Society and food purchased with funds contributed by officers mainly those in the hospital but also those in the camps from time to time. These contributions were made from pay received from the Japanese by these officers.\n\nJapanese Rations\n\nI have prepared tables (Appendix A) to show the kinds and the amounts of foods issued to us from Japanese sources and used on behalf of patients and staff who were on a full diet. Notes given in the tables give additional information and include details of certain additional Japanese food received and how it was used. The amounts in these cases were very small and while they must be recorded, especially the milk, it was rare for any to appear in the general diet and then only as a treat when supplies allowed. Since this is not a scientific treatise, I intend the tables to present a broad picture of our food situation. The daily quantities of food therefore are shown as averaged over five months in 1942, rather under three months in Bowen Road in 1945, rather over three months in Kowloon in 1945, and over the whole years of 1943 and 1944. These averages should be read in conjunction with specimen daily menus I set out in tables at Appendix B. There were many, many days on which our diet consisted of boiled rice and vegetables.\n\nIn these tables, I make no allowances for losses resulting from poor quality, preparation, and cooking in the case of vegetables and fish. These losses were usually high, and on occasions reached a level of 30% in the case of vegetables, which were sometimes rotten when received. We were not choosy when deciding when food was fit to cook and eat. The fresh vegetables, in addition to the more usual varieties, which practically never included Western-type potatoes, though we had sweet potatoes more often, did however include such unusual varieties as chrysanthemum leaves, Chinese lily root, tara root, and so on. The fish varied greatly; on 10 October 1942, I noted that we had received \"long thin fish, shark flesh, baby sharks, and heaven knows what, most of it a little old\". Sergeant Seino, of whom I shall have more to say later, warned the quartermaster that some fish was perhaps poisonous and advised us to be careful using it. I believe Seino's intention was to be helpful, though...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207419, "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": 187, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n179\n\ngot from Sgt. Seino. He was not hurt in the least and I saw him directly afterwards fully relaxed and quite at ease. It struck me then that this sort of noisy reaction would be most satisfying to the person administering the punishment and the man who could put on this kind of act was to be envied. Incidentally I think our patient was lucky that Seino was in charge on this particular day and not Saito. In the very earliest days of these parcel deliveries some hasty speech at long range was possible between some people in hospital and our benefactors though this was soon stopped.\n\nThose who brought parcels to the hospital were of course all women. Some had amahs or servants to help them to transport their heavy burdens up the steep roads to the hospital. Even when they had help, we in the hospital understood the physical effort involved in buying, preparing, packing and carrying heavy loads and even after all the intervening years I am glad to have the chance of expressing the gratitude and admiration I still feel for what they did. They also had to exercise the greatest care never to get at cross purposes with our sometimes uneven tempered guards.\n\nAt the receiving end of this supply line I had to withstand some pointed questions. We knew that except for gifts addressed to certain known recipients, for example from wives to husbands and from relatives and friends of inmates all other parcels addressed to people by name were intended for our general use and these latter were taken straight into our hospital store. Sergeant Seino repeatedly required assurances from me that the individuals to whom these particular parcels were addressed were not receiving and using the contents themselves while those less fortunate had to go without. This meant of course that the Japanese were shutting their eyes to a method of getting additional stores into the hospital, and then and now I find this to be strange. I always gave Seino the most explicit guarantees of the facts and showed him how we stored gifts in our steward's store. The only reason for any scepticism on his part might have been that inmates with wives, relatives and close friends outside quite properly retained what they received, though I knew at the time that all who received these personal parcels shared the contents with their friends within the hospital.\n\nI made records of issues of food from our hospital store which came from our Hong Kong friends, but I now find that these records show the combined value of issues from these gifts and from pur-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207423, "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": 191, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n183\n\na more cheerful atmosphere became apparent; most people used the contents intelligently to make the basic diet more palatable while the thought that we were not forgotten did much to improve morale.\n\nSix months later, in May 1943 a second consignment of parcels arrived. Some of our patients had already received a second parcel in Sham Shui Po and those who had done so were allotted one parcel between two men from our second allocation. All others in the hospital received one parcel each, but as before a number of parcels showed shortages.\n\nOn 1 September 1944, sixteen months later we received a splendid consignment of parcels from the Canadian Red Cross, enough to issue two to each person in hospital. A few parcels remained after this distribution and I took these into the store and used the tinned foods for general messing. As usual some parcels were incomplete though the wrappings were intact, and the shortages in this case and perhaps in others must have resulted from bad packing.\n\nIt was only three days later when on 4 September 1944 we received a further 144 Canadian parcels and issued two between five men. As before a few parcels not allocated in the foregoing way were broken up, the tinned food being used for general messing while such items as prunes, chocolate, raisins, biscuits etc. were added to bulk stores of similar nature received three days earlier and used to make 133 prizes which were raffled among 315 people.\n\nNo further individual parcels were received, and therefore each member of staff and each long-term patient received a total of just under 41 parcels between 1942 and 1945, though patients admitted from Kowloon may have had a fraction more. In January 1943 the Red Cross organization in Hong Kong had started to send in bulk stores of food to us. These included tins of meat and vegetable, preserved meat, sardines, condensed milk, marmalade, jam, tomato catsup, syrup, Yershey's milk powder, shark liver oil, dripping, hen and duck eggs, barley, fresh limes, dried peas, soy beans, soy bean powder, soy sauce, peanut butter, peanut oil, Chinese and cube sugar, tea and cocoa. In January we had two intakes and further intakes were spread at irregular intervals, one in May, one each in June and July and two in October. In August 1943 Sergeant Seino told me that we could expect no further supplies but in 1944 we had two intakes in each month from March to August inclusive, one each...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207427, "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": 195, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n187\n\nhad to endure many insulting references to their competence in the early days.\n\nI have referred earlier to the poor quality of much of the vegetables, and much was soft and often rotten by the time we received them. A tuber or leaf had to be pretty obviously rotten before it was rejected for cooking, but even so the wastage was high. I have also commented earlier on the varieties of fish we received and the time that had obviously elapsed since it left the water.\n\nWe received some fresh meat from Japanese sources between April and July 1942. Between April and June 1942 we received some preserved meat and whale meat from the same sources. Thereafter meat disappeared from Japanese rations and reappeared only in May 1945.\n\nFuel for cooking caused us recurring anxieties. The hospital's stock of coal was exhausted early in 1942, though we did scrape up practically every grain of coal dust from the coal yard and made briquettes which helped for a time. Wood for fuel was, like the rations, delivered at irregular intervals and on many occasions in Bowen Road working parties of our staff went out under armed guard to fell trees on the hillside and bring in the wood. These forays seemed to be authorised by Sergeant Seino acting on his own authority, and he always seemed anxious that the operations of the working parties should not be observed by Japanese not connected with the hospital. All wood delivered had to be chopped into manageable logs, but the fresh wood from the hillside could often not be left to weather and this caused us the most serious difficulties in the kitchen. We employed men specially for chopping wood and the cooks had often to be on their jobs long before daylight to get fires started. Our meals were sometimes very late.\n\nThe Japanese did try to anticipate the shortage of flour and I think Seino was responsible for this. In August 1942 we were required to accumulate a stock of 100 bags of flour by 1 December. This showed very clearly that stocks in the Colony were running low, and we made many experiments using flour, atta, boiled rice and ground rice in varying proportions to try to get a product which would resemble bread and which would keep reasonably well. We did get more flour on 9 August 1943 quite unexpectedly and on 3 February 1944 we ate our last baking of bread in which a proportion of flour was used until 1945. When I refer here or in the food tables to bread as an article of food, the ingredients and the product\n\nPage 188 is not present, actual text is continuing from 187 to 195, 196\n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207438, "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": 206, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "198\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nthat camp. It was at this time that I first proposed that I should be allowed to visit P.O.W. camps in order to discuss the various medical problems with our doctors there and plan the best use of our hospital services for their patients. This suggestion, like so many others, provoked no apparent reaction and though I repeated it at frequent intervals I never got near a P.O.W. camp until I was moving to our new hospital in Kowloon in 1945. Major Harrison was allowed to make one visit to North Point Camp to consult with Canadian medical officers about some problems in which specialist advice was wanted. This was his only visit to a camp and none of our other doctors were ever allowed to visit either.\n\nI had another passage with Saito following an air raid on Hong Kong in October of which I shall write later, but in these critical months in 1942 my approaches to him had to be made in writing or through his N.C.O., Sergeant Seino or the interpreter and any messages from him came back by the same route.\n\nOn 23 November Saito saw all officer patients and though he did not make a physical examination he marked five for discharge. We considered that two of these would improve by a further stay in hospital, though it was not vital for them to do so. The order for discharge however stood. On 21 December we had our second Red Cross inspection, the first during the period I was in charge but Saito did not appear in the suite. A day or two later however he demanded a report on our sufferers from pellagra asking for detailed information about skin, gastro-intestinal and nervous symptoms and the details of treatment and on 16 January 1943 he came to see the patients. We demonstrated these including the eye cases. As our experience in these fields was small we asked his advice and he suggested giving 100 mgm nicotinic acid by intramuscular injection daily for 10 days. As was his usual custom he would not wait to make a detailed inspection and cut his visit short. We delayed him on the stairs long enough for him to use the English words \"B. complex\" when speaking on the causal deficiency. With this exception he had spoken Japanese throughout and whether he had got the information in discussion elsewhere, it agreed with our view that the symptoms were not to be explained by a pure vitamin B1 deficiency. In reply to my question he said that nicotinic acid and suitable diet were the important elements of treatment. He said also that yeast, easy to get before the war, was now hard to obtain. He promised to consult a colleague about", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207444, "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": 212, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "204\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nthan he need. The improvement in his attitude to us in 1945 as the war drew to a close was significant. I never felt safe with him. His management of drafts of patients coming to our hospital from P.O.W. camps showed gross negligence particularly in the early year or so and I found it scandalous that he allowed a patient with acute and easily remediable intestinal obstruction to reach death's door in 1942 before allowing him to be sent to the hospital. How far blame should be laid on Saito and how far his commander, Tokunaga, should bear responsibility I do not know. I was then, and still remain, glad that we did not have to have Saito as our master if we had been losing the war,\n\nI thought Sergeant Seino was the most intelligent of all the Japanese army administrators with whom we came in contact. It was he who was most closely concerned with our routine affairs. He retained his dignity and upheld his position, but he was a man who could be talked to though not easily swayed. He never let his army down, and he never slapped me though he did, I know administer a token slapping to one of our officer patients whom he had caught communicating on a family matter with the outside world through the medium of our parcels. I do not know what happened to him after the Japanese surrender, but so far as we were concerned he did his duty fairly and earned a degree of my respect.\n\nJapanese officers and N.C.O's nearly always wore swords and always on duty wore what used to be called field boots in the British army in the First War and between the wars when they were worn by cavalry and gunner officers and by field officers in other regiments and corps. The Japanese used to skiff (or \"skliff\" is likely an OCR error for \"scuff\" or \"skiff\") their feet along the ground thus making an important noise as they walked, well suited to the dignity of their wearers.\n\nAt first in 1942 the guards were drawn from Japanese units but later were Formosans (Taiwanese). The latter were of no great quality and were poorly clad and equipped, and some of their N.C.O's were pettily officious and often over ready to take offence. They wore ankle boots with canvas uppers and rubber soles and there was a separate compartment in the canvas for the big toe. It was often startling to meet them on a verandah in a blackout as they moved silently along with fixed bayonet and rifle at the trail. These guards interpreted their own orders in such matters as the amount of lighting allowed during blackouts and the time of our", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207445, "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": 213, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n205\n\nlights-out and a host of minor matters. They sometimes slapped patients, both officers and other ranks, for what they considered to be breaches of orders. On our side the victims could only guess at the reasons for the slapping for no interpreter was ever to hand at the time. I took up every one of these cases with Saito or Seino as soon as either appeared after the incident, and I always tried to have the matter investigated. Repeatedly I was told that a sentry represented the Imperial Army and must inflict punishment at once for any irregularity on our part. I never discovered that there was anything personal in these slappings in the sense that they might be a retaliation for what, in the British army, we used to call dumb insolence. Some tempers on our side were sorely tried but no major incident occurred. I was never approached by any Japanese officer or N.C.O. for help over medical treatment.\n\nOnly once did an opportunity occur to retaliate. Late in 1945 in the Central British School in Kowloon we had an officious guard sergeant who was nicknamed 'Slappy' because of his readiness to slap all and sundry for what he thought were offences. About the time of the Japanese surrender, but well before the guards were withdrawn, this man was waylaid by some of our sappers who had suffered themselves and who wanted to repay him on their own and their friends' behalf. I was told that they were very satisfied with the result and there were no repercussions.\n\nTRADING\n\nThe Japanese allowed us to have a shop within the hospital. We had to buy stocks from a Hong Kong Chinese compradore, a term which will be familiar to all who have been in the Far East, and we then sold the goods within the hospital. For a very long time we were not allowed to make a profit, and it was not until a year or two after our surrender that I got permission to make five per cent and use the proceeds within precisely defined limits. The shop stocked goods likely to be desired, mainly cigarettes, matches, syrup, jams, salt, eggs on occasion, tomato sauce, beans, cigarette papers, sugar, sewing cottons and needles, ginger, laces, soy bean powder, soap, razor blades etc. We placed an order one week and such goods as were available were delivered the following week.", "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": 207511, "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": 279, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n271\n\nI can recall only three occasions on which the Japanese interfered with internal discipline in the hospital and I have given a short account of two of these earlier. On the third occasion our executive sergeant-major Mr. Bartley had crossed the Japanese in some way and for the only time in my three years' experience Sergeant Seino came to me, indicated displeasure with Bartley and asked if I wanted him removed from the hospital staff and sent to P.O.W. camp. Bartley's executive ability was of great value in the hospital and I had no hesitation in saying that I did not want him removed. He stayed with us until our release.\n\nPatients and staff were fairly often slapped by guards for some real or imagined disobedience or slight. These punishments were never serious, but I was always apprehensive that the person slapped might retaliate and so cause real trouble. I took up the cudgels on behalf of our people on every occasion, but I never obtained any real satisfaction and I wondered how much authority our hospital Japanese administrators had over sentries.\n\nWithin the hospital the routine discipline affecting patients and staff was in my hands. Control in wards was in the hands of medical officers in charge, assisted most effectively by the system whereby selected patients were placed in charge of internal ward affairs. These patients were of several nationalities and were not always senior in rank. Their characters and standing with patients seemed to give them more effective authority. I have referred earlier to petty thieving.\n\nOccasionally offenders had to be dealt with formally by me in my office. Usually a reprimand sufficed though occasionally a man would be confined in a small room in an outhouse with a wire stretcher as bed. This method was used rarely and a man's food was never cut in any circumstances, while he was closely observed during the term of his punishment in order to avoid adverse effects. At the end of the war no records of misconduct were handed over to any authority by me and no man was reported to any service authority for misbehaviour of any kind.\n\nMany of the problems I had to cope with arose from the antagonisms which spring up between individuals, particularly if they are called upon to work in conditions of close proximity. There was no relief from the physical presence, the personal habits, the method of working of others in the particular team so that it was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 } ]