Captives of Empire

Captives of Empire

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The Japanese Internment of Allied Civilians in China and          Hong Kong, 1941-1945

On the morning of December 8th, 1941, thousands of American, British, Dutch, and other civilians of the Allied nations living in China awoke to find their countries at war with Japan.  A hemisphere away from their homelands, they were cut off, isolated, and faced an uncertain future.  The Japanese advance created an empire from the Aleutian Islands in the far north to the southern regions of New Guinea, and from western Burma to the mid Pacific Ocean.       Japan soon held some 125,000 civilian prisoners, approximately ten percent of which were in China and Hong Kong.  Their prisoners included the first American civilian to be captured on American soil since the War of 1812, and Britons in China became the single largest British contingent under enemy occupation outside of the Channel Islands.  As the rigors of life under the occupation increased, they were eventually herded into internment camps known as Civil Assembly Centres.  There, accommodation was overcrowded, frequently squalid, and with few amenities.  Poor treatment and lack of food contributed to the death rate, and internees suffered many privations, as well as occasional cruelty, torture, and execution.  Yet despite an absolute lack of many of the essentials of civilized life, the internees rose to meet the challenge of survival.  They organized kitchens and hospitals, started libraries, engaged in subtle forms of resistance, educated their children, and placed their hope in the future.  In internment, they were an example of the strength of human endeavor in the face of adversity.       Between 1941 and 1945, Japan held over 13,500 civilian men, women, and children as captives in China and Hong Kong.  Each one has a story to tell.  Captives of Empire is their story.       Captives of Empire: The Japanese Internment of Allied Civilians in China, 1941-1945 fills a major gap in the annals of World War II and that of prisoners of war.  Here for the first time is a definitive history of the internment of Allied civilians in China.  Private papers, diaries, letters, and official reports, many long hidden, were utilized to bring a complete picture of internment to light.  In preparing to write this book, Greg Leck combed through thousands of pages of documents from archives located in Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Japan.  In personal interviews he listened to scores of internees describing their experiences.  He researched, in depth, the histories of each camp, as well as the stories of many internees.  Through first hand accounts and photographs, paintings, sketches, newspapers, cartoons, entertainment programs, maps, bulletins, posters, and other illustrative materials, a portrayal of what daily life was like for internees under the Japanese emerges.  Common themes of the internees struggle are reviewed.       Together with Desmond Power, an Old China Hand and ex internee himself, information was organized and sorted to produce a database of the over 13,500 internees held in China and Hong Kong.  An overview of each camp and a nominal roll completes the picture.  The result is a revealing and immensely fascinating look at the world of the internees.      Captives of Empire gives you an inside look at the internment experience.  From the idyllic life of the expatriate, to the shock and surprise of the Japanese victories and rule, to imprisonment and eventual liberation, it covers the panoply of this little known chapter of the Pacific war.  Utilizing internees own voices, we see the food, the housing, the work, as well as the entertainments, games, escapes, births, lives, and deaths of the camp.  Profusely illustrated with maps, photographs, drawings, and scarce and rare internment camp related ephemera, this is a monograph that will serve as the definitive reference work on the subject.       Greg Leck is one of the foremost experts on Japanese internment camps in China.  The grandson of an Old China Hand who served in the Chinese Maritime Customs, and the son of a woman who was one of the last Britons to leave Shanghai, he grew up hearing stories of China and internment.  Table of Contents Foreword ix Acknowledgements xi A Note on Transliteration xii Glossary and Abbreviations xiii A Note on Currency xiv Introduction 19 1 Halcyon Days 27 2 While Storm Clouds Gather The Shanghai Volunteer Corps The Badlands Showing the Flag for Empire 37 42 44 48 3 8 December 1941             Last Boat out of China                       The SS President Harrison Crew 55 58 64 4 Under the Shadow            The Pao Chia            The BRA            Santo Tomas Transfers            Stranded in Shanghai            The Italians in China 73 76 82 87 96 98 5 Bridge House 105 6 The Best Possible Home 121 7 Housing            Pets in Camp 137 142 8 Food            The Food Queue 153 158 9 Work 177 10 Medical Care and Health             A Trip to the Dentist             Bedbugs, Mosquitoes, and Pests 187 194 201 11 The Authorities             Guards Roll Call 205 209 224 12 The Red Cross 229 13 Law and Order             The Black Market 239 248 14 Sports and Activities 255 15 School and Education 261 16 Entertainment 273 17 Repatriation             From Within the Empire             The Amazing Saga of Edgar Whitcomb 283 296 301 18 Newspaper, Mail, and Communications 307 19 Religious Life 317 20 Escapes 323 21 Resistance and Collaborators             The Lunghwa Riot 347 350 22 Humor 367 23 Children              Families Divided 375 376 24 Liberation 385 25 Last Moments of a World 407 26 Epilogue 419 27 The Camps               Ash Camp               Canton Camp               Chapei Camp               Columbia Country Club               Haiphong Road Camp               Lincoln Avenue Camp               Lunghwa Camp               Pootung Camp               Shanghai Religious Centers                Stanley Camp                         The Stanley Tiger                Weihsien and the North China                            Yangchow A Camp                Yangchow B Camp                Yangchow C Camp                 Yu Yuen Road Camp 427 428 434 438 444 448 456 460 466 474 478 480 484 498 502 506 512 28 Nominal Rolls                         Ash Camp                         Canton Camp                         Chapei Camp                         Columbia Country Club                         Haiphong Road Camp                         Lazarist Procuration                         Lincoln Avenue Camp                         Lunghwa Camp                         Peking British Embassy                         Pootung Camp                         Sacred Heart                         Senmouyeu Nuns’ Residence                         Stanley Camp                         Weihsien Camp                         Yangchow A Camp                         Yangchow B Camp                         Yangchow C Camp                         Yu Yuen Road Camp                         Zikawei 519 521 528 529 549 550 555 561 567 592 593 613 614 615 655 685 690 696 705 718 Bibliography 721 Index 731 Credits 738