[
    {
        "id": 215689,
        "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-2001",
        "page_number": 466,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "419\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nCharles G. Roland. Long Night's Journey into Day: Prisoners of War in Hong Kong and Japan, 1941-1945, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Canada, 421 pages.\n\n'We live not as we would but as we can.'\n\nMemoir\n\nLike most Britons of my generation, I fought in World War Two, and for me, that included over four years on active service, much of the time in and out of action. But I have always wondered how I would have faced up to being a prisoner of war. Consequently, I found this book of considerable interest.\n\nOf the many books I have read about Hong Kong and the Japanese War, I know of none where the research was more thorough or the contents of the book more detailed. With the project spanning over 20 years and numerous persons and institutions having been consulted, this is not surprising. Chapter One deals with the run-up to the Japanese attack on 8 December 1941, and Chapter Two deals with the 'Eighteen-Day War' during which the Crown Colony was overrun. As many as 10,000 women were estimated to have been raped, although this figure, arrived at by a Chinese physician, can have been little more than an educated guess. Nor would the Japanese tolerate interference in their \"right to loot.\" The remaining eight chapters of the book deal with prisoners of war and life in the camps. There are copious notes, a long bibliography, and an adequate index.\n\nGenerally, internees, for example civilians in Stanley, were treated less badly than prisoners of war, for instance other-ranks incarcerated in Shum Shui Po Camp. But whoever they were and wherever they were incarcerated, too little food plagued prisoners constantly. Pet dogs and regimental mascots that followed men into camps were eaten, although a few would rather starve than partake of culturally forbidden foods. A few persons fattened maggots to eat in order to obtain much-needed protein, while others trapped birds and snakes. By the end of the war, prisoners were on average down 20 to 30 per cent in body weight. One prisoner is reported to have gone ... his years in camp. This seems har...",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215692,
        "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-2001",
        "page_number": 469,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "422\n\ncertainly not always so. A Japanese soldier who does not fight to the death receives little respect from his fellow countrymen. Consequently, enemy troops who did not fight to the bitter end could expect, and in the eyes of the Japanese deserved, severe treatment.\n\nOne of the findings of this 20-year long study was that a surprising, almost 10 per cent of prisoners, survived the malnutrition, hazardous working conditions and frequent beatings et cetera with no accident or illness that resulted in hospitalisation or lost working days over the entire incarceration period.\n\nThere are few typographical errors in the book although the name, Sir Thomas Ho Tung, is quoted (page 64) when obviously it should be Sir Robert. I have brought this error to the attention of the author. Having said that this is a splendid book which, I repeat, has been well researched and written. It is a good read. I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.\n\nLong Night's Journey into Day may be purchased from the Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L.\n\n1\n\nDAN WATERS\n\nBard, Solomon, 'Obituary: K M A Barnett, OBE,' Journal Hong Kong Branch Royal Asiatic Society, Vol.27, 1987, p.9. I have written to the author who confirmed it was Barnett.\n\n2 Bard, Solomon, 'Mount Davis and Sham Shui Po: A Medical Officer with the Volunteers,' Dispersal and Renewal: Hong Kong University During the War Years, Eds. Clifford Mathews and Oswald Cheung, Hong Kong University Press (1998), p.199.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]