Sorry, we don't have any photos with this tag yet.
During the last year and a half of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War Two, my father, George Smirnoff, with some other Russian refugees, decided to move his family to the only safe place we could get to, the small neighbouring Portuguese colony of Macao.
Published by Frontline Books, here's their introduction to the book:
Trapped in the depths of Japanese-held territory, it was rare for Allied prisoners of war to attempt escape. There was little chance of making contact with anti-guerrilla or underground organisations and no possibility of Europeans blending in with the local Asian populations. Failure, and recapture, meant execution.
This was what Lieutenant Commander R.B. Goodwin faced when he decided to escape from the Shamsuipo PoW Camp in Kowloon, Hong Kong in July 1944 after three years of internment.
I was born in Matilda Hosp in 1939 and left HK on the last US ship before the Japanese invaded. My father spent the war in Stanley Camp.
Writing from Brockhurst on the Peak where her family is spending the summer.
From: Annie Oakes Huntington - age 10
(an American expat child whose father worked for Russell & Co.)
To Marion Richardson (in Boston)
Hong Kong July 11th 1885.
My dear Man:
I suppose you are down at Beverly and asleep while I am writing this letter. The Bay of Hong Kong is very pretty with mountains all around the Bay. We live about half up the peak so we get a lovely view. We live on Robinson Road,
This document is courtesy of Carol Wheat, M F Key's Grand-neice. She writes:
I have a copy of his booklet, HONG KONG Before, During and After the Pacific War, which is a general narrative published in the "Kapunda Herald" while he was staying with my Grandparents at their property "Kaplee" during his convalescence from his Internment. Following on from this circulation, there were requests for an account of his personal experiences of the War and Internment in Hong Kong, I also have a typed copy of this 18 page narrative, a very interesting read.
Here are some extracts of Father Biotteau’s diary. He was the procurator of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris based in Pokfulam, with a unique view on Mount Davis during the battle. His testimony is in French but still quite relevant for those who can read it and want more details about what happened.
Personal Account of the Japanese Invasion of Hong Kong by E.M. Guest.
Our home was on the Mainland, Kowloon, about 20 minutes by bus and 10/15 minutes by ferry from the Island of Hong Kong.
I have just finished reading a fascinating book called 'The Survivors' by Diana Fortescue about her parents Tim and Margery Fortescue, who with their baby Adrian were interned in Stanley Internment Camp in Hong Kong 1942-45.
The extracts from Paul's website are reproduced here with his permission. He writes:
Thanks to the Russian Revolution, a lot of Russians ended up like political shrapnel flung across the Far East. Hong Kong proved to be a great haven for many of them. Even during the Japanese Occupation, Russians were not interned because the Japanese avoided war with the Soviet Union; and all Russians, whatever their politics, were basically left alone.
Kindly provided by Elizabeth Ride from her collection.
You can read the full document, "Report of Miss M Matheson, the Manager of the Repulse Bay Hotel, upon events at the Hotel from the outbreak of hostilities on December 8th until December 24th 1941.", at: http://gwulo.com/comment/31201#comment-31201