23 Jan 1943, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

Submitted by brian edgar on Sun, 10/28/2012 - 20:38

The only meeting of the Council of Hong Kong University during internment takes place. It's held in the British Community Council Office and its first business is to welcome Franklin Gimson to the Council. It moved on to note deaths of University staff and students and to express sympathy for their relatives.

 

An article in the Daily Express (page 3) casts light on the anxieties of loved ones in the United Kingdom, and on the fate of Japanese people there. The story's about 15 Japanese released from internment as 'friendly aliens'. Even though they want to do war work to help the British, no-one is willing to employ them because of the degree of hostility this would arouse from other employees. One worker tells the reporter 'We don't want any Japs working here' while pointing to a 'Remember Hong Kong' notice on the wall. (See entry for March 26, 1942.) It seems, partly through a slogan launched by the Express itself, that 'Hong Kong' has become synonymous with atrocities.

Source:

Lindsay Ride, in Clifford Matthews and Oswald Cheung (eds.), Hong Kong University During The War Years: Dispersal and Renewal, 1998, 18.

 

Date(s) of events described