Andrew Salmon Personal Diary Pacific 1939-1945: View pages

On the 15th January, the Japanese ordered all patients who could walk to parade. We were then herded together and transported across the harbour in lighters and marched to Sham Shui Po Barracks, which had been converted into a POW camp. It consisted of a married quarters called Jubilee Buildings and a large number of wooden huts.

The only thing that could be said in its favour was that it was spacious, and also possessed a parade ground. The food was worse than at North Point and consisted of a small bowl of rice twice a day, without meat or vegetables, or even salt.

The rice had been swept up from warehouse floors and first had to be soaked in water to allow matchsticks, paper, and other refuse to float up to the top. This was our diet for the first four months. At the end of this period, over 80% of the camp were suffering from malnutrition and deaths were occurring at the rate of four or five a day. The strength of the camp at this time was about 5,000. The Indian troops and most of the British officers had been placed in other camps in Kowloon.

During these four months, we were on starvation rations and some of the things done to alleviate hunger were quite incredible. Within a month there was hardly a blade of grass left in the camp, and all of the many pet dogs which had been brought into the camp had been eaten - and enjoyed. Ingenuity and necessity combined, brought forth many weird and peculiar inventions to catch birds around the camp. Even snakes were a delicacy. Fortunately, the camp still had electricity laid on, and many and varied were the gadgets devised and made out of odds and ends - water heaters, fires, lights, etc. One of our greatest hardships was lack of cigarettes, and for the first few months our only chance of getting a smoke was to exchange any valuables we possessed, such as wristwatches, rings, etc. with the' Japanese guards. Cigarettes were at such a high premium that it was possible at one stage to buy a gold watch for ten, a blanket for two-, or one-day ration of food for one, and it was a common sight to see the men drying tea leaves in the sun to smoke in their pipes.

About April, the Japanese shifted all the officers (with the exception of six M.O.'s for the hospital, etc., and a Major Boon, to act as Camp Officer) to the Argyle Street internment camp. They then erected around our camp an electrified wire fence, for a few of our men had managed to escape into Chinese-held territory, in Kwangtung - although unfortunately, some of these were eventually betrayed on the way by Chinese civilians, for rewards offered, and then shot out of hand. Some, more fortunate, were helped and assisted, and after many trials and tribulations eventually reached Free China and our own people.

On Mondays and Thursdays, friends and relatives were allowed to come within a hundred yards of the camp, and great would be our eagerness to search for acquaintances among the crowds gathered. On these days, the brutality of the Japanese guards became more pronounced. They would pick out some young girl or woman, and, in front of the crowds of civilians and in full view of the camp, strip and beat her unmercifully with rifle butts. Then, in a pitiful state, she was thrown to the roadside.

We held a deep admiration for the courageous attitude of the Chinese girls, of the notorious district of Wanchai, who had proved their worth during the street fighting in Hong Kong, when they braved many dangers, to bring food and hot tea to our troops, fighting in the streets, which were under constant machine-gun fire; and had even taken wounded into their houses and rendered first aid, although they knew, that death was the penalty, imposed by the Japanese for doing so. Now, week after week, they would stand for hours, just to have a glimpse of friends in the camp and, when the guards' backs were turned, would even run close to the camp, to throw in a note or some small item of food, although some were caught and brutally executed, in full view of the prisoners. The loyalty of these women was tremendous.

The Japanese frequently conducted a lightning search of the camp, as they suspected that we had a few radio sets; and although they discovered, through informers, two or three of these sets, we were still able to get scraps of news. When conducting these searches, the guards had everyone paraded in an open space, in the centre of the camp, including even the sick, who, however, as a concession, were allowed to take a small stool on which to sit. Little did they realise that, in more than one case, these seats had small receiver sets built into them, which thus remained hidden by the sick prisoners themselves during the search.
At about this time, due to food shortages in the Colony, the Japanese decided to get rid of most of the Chinese inhabitants. For about a week, night and day, a never-ending stream of dejected humanity was to be seen winding up the mountain roads into the bare and rugged country, the New Territories, on the way to China.

It was estimated that nearly three-quarters of a million Chinese were driven out of Hong Kong and the New Territories, and the number who died on the bare slopes of the mountains must have run into hundreds of thousands. It was to us just another aspect of the Japanese idea of “a Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere”.

About May 1942, the Japanese forced all fit men in the camp to form up into working parties, which were sent to Kai Tak aerodrome to lengthen the runways, so that their fighter planes could take off and land, and also to clear the New Territories roads, which we had blocked by demolition, before evacuating the mainland. For this work, we received the sum of 5 sen a day, which is about ½d, but there was little we could buy although, in June, a few cigarettes were brought in for sale in the camp.

At this time, the food began to improve slightly. Beside rice, a small amount of yams, bamboo shoots, lily roots, and carnation leaves were sent in for vegetables, and occasionally small supplies of fish appeared, mostly whalemeat or squid; and about once a month, as a delicacy, we even received some horsemeat. But this improved diet was too late for many, who died as a result of malnutrition and dysentery. One case in point was a man who, prior to the war, was a well-known athlete, well-built and weighing about 200 pounds, this man died of starvation, and after his death his body was weighed, turning the scales at 69 pounds.

Towards mid-July, a vague rumour started circulating that some of the camps were to be shifted to Japan as labour battalions. This was soon confirmed, when about a thousand of the fittest men were inoculated and rigorously inspected. They finally sailed about the 6th of August 1942 and, as we found out later, arrived safely in Japan and were sent to work at shipyards in the Tokyo area.

At the beginning of September, we were again warned that a further draft would be leaving in the near future. Many who had come nearly to the end of their tether, with the monotony of the present camp, eagerly volunteered for the chance of new surroundings, as popular feeling held the view that any change would be for the better than the existence we were leading at present. We should certainly have not been so enthusiastic had we been able to foresee the events to come.

When the draft was formed, we were given a medical check, which included a glass tube being inserted in one's rear, as the Japanese were scared of dysentery being spread in Japan. We were also given some extra clothing.

On the 25th September 1942, after days of standing by, we were all paraded and addressed by a Lieutenant Wada through his interpreter, Niimori: "You are going to a pleasant land, where you will be well looked after. I will be in charge of you. Remember my face."