[ { "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": 208010, "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": 49, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "STANLEY INTERNMENT CAMP, HONG KONG 1942-1945 33\n\nTweed Bay Beach provided pleasure for many internees. During the summer months they were allowed to swim there, under guard. During the summers of 1944 and particularly 1945, however, many had to forego this pleasure as it required walking down and up a very steep flight of stairs and many simply did not have the energy due to lack of food.\n\nAlthough the Japanese had meticulously planned their capture of the Colony, apparently they had not formulated plans for dealing with the enemy civilians. Not only was it several weeks after the surrender until the internees were interned in Stanley Camp, but once they had been interned, the Japanese had little to do with them. A few necessities, namely a minimal amount of food, were provided, but the internees were left to run the Camp themselves. They soon began forming committees. The three main national groups — American, British, and Dutch — remained independent but did cooperate on such matters as welfare and medicine. At the beginning of internment, there were approximately 2400 British internees, 300 Americans, and 60 Dutch. Being such a large majority (and after repatriation in June 1942, only about twenty Americans remained), the British really ran the Camp. Five committees were elected, and each struggled with similar problems of food, housing, medical matters, etc. It is of interest to note that very few Government servants were elected to serve on these committees because there was strong anti-Government feeling in the Camp, largely due to the blame most internees put on the Government for the quick surrender of the Colony. An internee wrote:\n\nThe first impulse that ran through camp would, on a larger social stage, have been called revolutionary. On every side, by almost every mouth, the former leading men of the colony were bitterly denounced. They were held to blame for what had happened in Hong Kong. Along the camp roadways where people gathered to gossip, one heard the same angry talk of the government servants' complacency, stupidity, and shortsightedness.*\n\nThe Governor, Sir Mark Young, was not interned in Hong Kong. The next highest Government official in the Colony was the Colonial Secretary, Franklin C. Gimson, who remained in the city for the first few weeks but did go to Camp to attend meetings from time to time.\n\n* See also H. J. Lethbridge's article.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208018, "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": 57, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "STANLEY INTERNMENT CAMP, HONG KONG 1942-1945\n\nNo more of the lectures on Drama\n\nOn Beavers & Badgers & Boats,\n\nOn 'Backwards through Kent on a Llama',\n\nAnd 'How to raise pedigree goats'.\n\nNo more do we carry sea water\n\nAnd rations are things of the past.\n\nFarewell to the Indian Quarter\n\nFor internment is over at last.\n\nTytam Bay\n\nTo Hong\n\nKong\n\nStanley\n\nVillage\n\n**\n\nSt. Stephen's College\n\nJetty\n\nStanley Bay\n\nDutch\n\nIndian Quarters\n\n000\n\n000\n\n-\n\nWarders Quarters\n\nJapanese\n\nHeadquarters\n\n>Hospital\n\nCemetery\n\nStanley Prison\n\nTweed Bay\n\nBathing Beach\n\nTo Stanley Fort\n\n41\n\n1945\n\n1943\n\n1942", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208684, "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": 141, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "114 \n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS \n\n12-Sunday. Masses as usual, with Father Meyer preaching a course of sermons on the Mass. Another good tiffin with roast beef, sweet potato, spinach and NO rice for a change. Supper, rice pudding with raisins only. Either we feast or we fast these days. \n\n13—All Americans, except Maryknollers, are to report to “The Hill\" tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. The four Americans who have already signed up are still waiting for final word. \n\n14----The Americans called up were asked why they wanted to go to Hong Kong, and how they could support themselves. Were told that they would hear further from the Foreign Office. Father Murphy baptized an adult catechumen. \n\n15 Sister Henrietta Marie celebrates her feast day by giving us a piece of chocolate cake. We seem to be getting very few vegetables these days. The water spinach is wormy and getting tough and the chives—well, 'nuf said! And we are supposed to pay for all this FOOD after the war is won, for we get a monthly bill therefor. The rice, too, is beginning to get poor, being broken cargo rice and full of worms. (The Chinese would never think of eating this.) The British now have nothing but this poor rice, but we seem to have a limited supply of the good rice yet. The Camp seems very quiet these days and even our own quarters have quieted down considerably. We have much more satisfactory arrangements for Mass now, with two altars in our little chapel. The Blessed Sacrament is also reserved. Heavy rain continues. \n\n16-A wedding this morning at 8:00 in the Maryknoll Chapel, Father Murphy officiating. He also has another baptism in the afternoon. Mr. Dick Munsey, an American ex-seaman, dies in Tweed Bay Hospital, after a very short illness. Rain all day. \n\n17--Mr. Munsey buried at 10:00 a.m. He has a wife and family in Hong Kong. \n\n19-Sunday. Vacation religious classes begin. Catholic Action meeting after Benediction. Father Hessler is now chaplain to the Hospital, succeeding Father Toomey. At last swimming permission is granted. We are now allowed to go to Tweed Bay beach in groups, between 9 and 11 in the morning and from 2 to 5 in the afternoon. \n\n20-Delay on swimming. Rain continues.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208688, "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": 145, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "118\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\n14-There is a softball game almost every evening now and that gives us something to look forward to, although swimming is also a good attraction during the day. Tweed Bay Beach is a very fine sandy one, but not very large. We learn that the Holy Father has given $15,000.00 HK to victims of the war, and each internee at Stanley will receive about $5.40.\n\n—\n\n15 Feast of the Assumption. Only one Mass in the Club Chapel today. We are hoping to receive our long-looked-for permission to leave Camp today, as hitherto something important usually happened on a Feast Day, but there is as yet no news from \"The Hill.\" However, we did have quite a surprise when the Sisters gave us a dish of ice cream for supper. How they manage these things is more than we can fathom. No show tonight, but a farcical game of softball between the Police and the Ladies.\n\nThe next few days are quite uneventful, with baseball the main feature of the day. As clothing is becoming quite a problem for the internees, flour sacks are being utilized for articles of apparel. On the 17th there was another death at the Hospital. The British are also having lectures each Tuesday for those who wish to attend. Rain kept us indoors at times and it looks as if we might have a typhoon. One of the patients who had been allowed to go to St. Paul's Hospital for X-ray treatment failed to return to Camp and as a punishment no more patients will be allowed this privilege for a month, no matter how sick they may be.\n\n20-Seven months in Camp today and at last the good news has come: we get our call to sign our papers on \"The Hill\" at 9:30 a.m. These papers merely say that we shall do nothing against His Imperial Majesty's Japanese Government if we are paroled, and we gladly accede to such a request. Accordingly, promptly at the appointed time, we 13 Maryknoll priests, Brother Thaddeus and two of the remaining four Maryknoll Sisters, Sister Dorothy and Sister Henrietta Marie, sign the required papers and are informed that we may leave in a \"few\" days. Fathers Meyer and Hessler, with Sisters Eucharistia and Christella, will remain in the Camp to look after the Catholics. At present there is only one other priest left, Father Charles Murphy of Scarboro Bluff, Canada. He is seeking his release.\n\n21 — Packing up our few belongings and Dr. Talbot gives us cholera shots. Softball gives us a good evening's entertainment.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 } ]